I'm Reading Bret Easton Ellis
Lunar Park is a combined semi-autobiographical novelization of the life of Bret Easton Ellis and is a ghost story. It was released by Knopf on August 16, 2005. It is notable for being the first book written by Ellis to use past tense narrative.
Plot summary:
The novel begins with an inflated and parodic but reasonably accurate portrayal of Ellis' early fame. It details incidents (probably exaggerated) of his wild drug use and his publicly humiliating book tours to promote Glamorama . The novel dissolves into fiction as Ellis describes a liaison with an actress named Jayne Dennis, whom he later marries, and with whom he conceives an (initially) illegitimate child. From this point the fictional Ellis' life reflects the real Ellis' only in some descriptions of the past and possibly in his general sentiments.
Ellis and Jayne move to Midland, a (fictional) affuent suburban town outside New York City, which they no longer consider safe due to pervasive terrorist acts in a post-9/11 America. Fictional incidents include suicide bombings in Wal-Marts and a dirty bomb detonated in Florida[1][2]. Strange incidents start happening on a Halloween night, some involving Sarah's (Ellis's fictional stepdaughter) Terby doll.
As the novel progresses, the haunting of Ellis' McMansion and questions over the death of his father become increasingly prominent. With his history of drug use and alcoholism, his wife, children, and housekeeper are understandably skeptical of his claims that the house is haunted.
Jayne Dennis is a fictional character created by Ellis, but aside from the novel itself, Ellis has taken several other steps to create verisimilitude for her character. Although she does have a website[3], the site consists entirely of obviously doctored images and a fictional filmography. Ellis links to her site from his, but it is suspected he created Dennis' site himself; some authentication pages even request the user register at the official Lunar Park site. There is no profile for an actress of this name on either the Internet Movie Database or eonline.com. It is noted in a disclaimer on the stills page that the site is a work of fiction.
Jacket Blurb:
Imagine becoming a best-selling novelist, and almost immediately famous and wealthy, while still in college, and before long seeing your insufferable father reduced to a bag of ashes in a safety-deposit box, while after American Psycho your celebrity drowns in a sea of vilification, booze, and drugs. Then imagine having a second chance ten years later, as the Bret Easton Ellis of this remarkable novel is given, with a wife, children, and suburban sobriety — only to watch this new life shatter beyond recognition in a matter of days. At a fateful Halloween party he glimpses a disturbing (fictional) character driving a car identical to his late father’s, his stepdaughter’s doll violently “malfunctions”, and their house undergoes bizarre transformations both within and without. Connecting these aberrations to graver events — a series of grotesque murders that no longer seem random and the epidemic disappearance of boys his son’s age — Ellis struggles to defend his family against this escalating menace even as his wife, their therapists, and the police insist that his apprehensions are rooted instead in substance abuse and egomania. Lunar Park confounds one expectation after another, passing through comedy and mounting horror, both psychological and supernatural, toward an astonishing resolution — about love and loss, fathers and sons — in what is surely the most powerfully original and deeply moving novel of an extraordinary career.
Plot summary:
The novel begins with an inflated and parodic but reasonably accurate portrayal of Ellis' early fame. It details incidents (probably exaggerated) of his wild drug use and his publicly humiliating book tours to promote Glamorama . The novel dissolves into fiction as Ellis describes a liaison with an actress named Jayne Dennis, whom he later marries, and with whom he conceives an (initially) illegitimate child. From this point the fictional Ellis' life reflects the real Ellis' only in some descriptions of the past and possibly in his general sentiments.
Ellis and Jayne move to Midland, a (fictional) affuent suburban town outside New York City, which they no longer consider safe due to pervasive terrorist acts in a post-9/11 America. Fictional incidents include suicide bombings in Wal-Marts and a dirty bomb detonated in Florida[1][2]. Strange incidents start happening on a Halloween night, some involving Sarah's (Ellis's fictional stepdaughter) Terby doll.
As the novel progresses, the haunting of Ellis' McMansion and questions over the death of his father become increasingly prominent. With his history of drug use and alcoholism, his wife, children, and housekeeper are understandably skeptical of his claims that the house is haunted.
Jayne Dennis is a fictional character created by Ellis, but aside from the novel itself, Ellis has taken several other steps to create verisimilitude for her character. Although she does have a website[3], the site consists entirely of obviously doctored images and a fictional filmography. Ellis links to her site from his, but it is suspected he created Dennis' site himself; some authentication pages even request the user register at the official Lunar Park site. There is no profile for an actress of this name on either the Internet Movie Database or eonline.com. It is noted in a disclaimer on the stills page that the site is a work of fiction.
Jacket Blurb:
Imagine becoming a best-selling novelist, and almost immediately famous and wealthy, while still in college, and before long seeing your insufferable father reduced to a bag of ashes in a safety-deposit box, while after American Psycho your celebrity drowns in a sea of vilification, booze, and drugs. Then imagine having a second chance ten years later, as the Bret Easton Ellis of this remarkable novel is given, with a wife, children, and suburban sobriety — only to watch this new life shatter beyond recognition in a matter of days. At a fateful Halloween party he glimpses a disturbing (fictional) character driving a car identical to his late father’s, his stepdaughter’s doll violently “malfunctions”, and their house undergoes bizarre transformations both within and without. Connecting these aberrations to graver events — a series of grotesque murders that no longer seem random and the epidemic disappearance of boys his son’s age — Ellis struggles to defend his family against this escalating menace even as his wife, their therapists, and the police insist that his apprehensions are rooted instead in substance abuse and egomania. Lunar Park confounds one expectation after another, passing through comedy and mounting horror, both psychological and supernatural, toward an astonishing resolution — about love and loss, fathers and sons — in what is surely the most powerfully original and deeply moving novel of an extraordinary career.
