Shiny Morning No New Dawn for Frey

The flap over James Frey's memoir-that-really-wasn't was bound to cast some clouds over his new novel Bright Shiny Morning. But lack of believability continues to be a key issue for the author with his "execrable" new book of two-dimensional characters in a city that bears little resemblance to LA, writes David L. Ulin in the Los Angeles Times.

The fake memoir A Million Little Pieces that triggered major problems for the author at least highlighted some writing skill, zings Ulin. "Whatever else his failings as a writer, Frey was once able to move his readers," Ulin writes. "It's just one of the ironies of this new book that his fictionalized memoir is a better novel than Bright Shiny Morning could ever hope to be." (More A Million Little Pieces stories.)