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Dead Stars (2012)

by Bruce Wagner(Favorite Author)

3.73 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0399159355 (ISBN13: 9780399159350)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Blue Rider Press

review 1: I'm looking at others' reviews and find we all seem to agree that this is a puzzling book to talk about. It's sort-of a satire - part of me thinks things are EXACTLY like this in Hollywood - but more a comment on the current culture of celebrity and what so many people are willing to do to simply be noticed and matter in the world. Characters include actors Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Steve Martin, James Franco; a young breast cancer survivor, a pregnant teen and her boyfriend, a paparazzo, and a photographer whose career never really took off. Along the way, we see the influence of folks the Kardashians and Rihanna and Eminem on youth's view of success. We see how drugs can distort and destroy you from the inside out. And, we see how being a parent is a roller... more coaster ride of emotion and hard work and is crazy-making, at best. Not that we didn't know these things - just that we may not have looked at them through this lens before. It's funny (in the early chapters), scary, poignant, and Mr. Wagner allows you to feel like a Hollywood insider for 600 pages of your life. It's madness, mentorship, friendship, manipulation, sex-drugs-rock & roll, porn, pain, longing, needing to find a place in the world - yes, all of those things. It's a book that won't be as interesting in 5 yrs, as it's a commentary on TODAY, which makes it a must read now!
review 2: There were many times I decided to give up on this book. I still don't know how I feel about it. It was a struggle to read, but I also recognize how different this book is, and the difference in it makes it one of the most interesting books I've read in a while. Even though there were plenty of times I groaned or had to google porn vocabulary, Wagner has a clear, powerful, and very distinct voice in each of his narratives, and it made it worth it for me to read just for that. less

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