Rating: 
Summary: A story told with the wrong voice
Review: This book unfortunately proves that there are some things multiple rewrites just can't fix. In a 1999 interview, Ellis discussed the years of work that had gone into it, and Glamorama's reception must therefore have meant for him a personal disappointment akin to that of those fans of his who were eager for a ride worthy of American Psycho.The sad thing is, this could have been a great book. It approaches excellence at times, only to leave you skimming pages at others. The plot, which doesn't become obvious for a long, long time, was a clever premise upon which to build an offbeat book. Fashion models were icons of the 90s as they've never been of any time before. Yet though we idolized them, publicized them, fantasized about them, the collectively held sentiment was that they're a bunch of idiots. Fashion models have the perfect cover, in other words, under which to engage in all sorts of devious activities. Unfortunately, we take too long to learn this because we're looking through the eyes of a model who really is an idiot, Victor Ward. As a narrator, Ward is so maddeningly dense that it's hard to figure out when he's just stupid, when he's stoned, and when he's both stupid and stoned, to the detriment of his and our understanding of his surroundings. I don't believe in the idea that readers have to like a book's narrator or identify with the main character: the success of scores of books built around an anti-hero disproves that notion. But the choice of the narrator is the author's responsibility, and by telling the story through the eyes of the least perceptive character in it, Ellis builds a barrier between this book and any reader frustrated by stupidity. Some of the other characters, in particular Bobby Hughes, the group's venal Capo, and his sneering jackal of a lieutenant, Bentley Harrolds, are well drawn, and Ellis is still a master at conveying time and scene through his selection of songs and brands. But the book's single noteworthy sex scene 3/4 of the way through and the all-too-brief cameo by Patrick Bateman are ultimately just the bittersweet reminders of unfulfilled promise. In AP and Less than Zero we learned what Ellis is capable of. I'll eagerly await his next work in hopes of finding him again.
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliantly ironic postmodern...
Review: This is the best book I have ever read. It was so out of control and engrossing I couldn't stop reading it. The confusion, heathenism, specs and stench is all too much.
Rating: 
Summary: Glamorama
Review: Victor Ward is the It Boy of the New York modelling scene. He has a steady, super-model actress, an endless procession of equally beautiful women falling at his feet, a steady 'other woman', who also happens to be the fiance of his boss, an up and coming modelling career, easy access to drugs, alcohol and money, and thousands upon thousands of shallow, vapid celebrity friends. In Victor's world - and the world in which he circles - he is a King among Kings, one of the beautiful, perfect people we see on the covers of magazines and sometimes wish we could be like.
Not all is perfect, however. It is established pretty early on that Victor is a boor. He manages to (mostly) hide this from everyone with a facade of idle stupidity and the firm belief that everything is 'just cool'. Happily for him, the social circle he is involved with is just as shallow as he is, allowing him to rise to the top of an extravagant, ultra-glamorous group of people whose main concern is the next party, the next hit, the next affair, the next 'tragic' death. Gossip is the new bible.
A trip to England is required after an unfortunate turn of events involving his girlfriend, his mistress, and his boss, so Victor troddles off, puzzled by a few random events that had begun happening while he was still in New York. From here, the hazy confusion of the novel kicks in to full force. Victor, never an intelligent man to begin with, retreats into himself, creating - or is he? - a group of camera-men and a director to follow him around, seeing his reality as a series of camera shots and takes. By doing this, he is able to reject the more horrifying aspects of his life because it is 'all just a movie', a movie that unfortunately he never knows the script too.
In Europe, events become more intense. Through Victor's faulty 'movie-vision', we are introduced to more and more models, all of whom are vicious, brutal terrorists. Scenes of increasing violence are juxtaposed with page-long sex scenes, most unnecessary. Victor's confusion grows, and everywhere he sees confetti. Towards the end of the novel, he is a blubbering, confused mess of a man; all he wants to do is return home to the shallow lifestyle he was used to. Here, in Europe, with people being killed or brutally tortured, he is unable to cope with the reality, a reality he is increasingly helping come into existence.
Ellis' satire perfectly captures the shallow, vapid lifestyle of the model world. Nothing is real, it is all ephemeral. Everyone loves each other until backs are turned. Everyone is a friend until the next drug rehab. Everyone is cool. Everyone is beautiful. Victor, a shallow, stupid, vapid blob of ego, is the culmination of such a social group. Through his very confused eyes, we watch the world he knows disintegrate around him while all he can do is seek refuge in the world cool.
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