Readers' rating:
Published Aug 2005
320 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
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.
'As a novel by anyone else, Lunar Park would be hokum, but in
context, it is a fascinating look at a once controversial celebrity as a
middle-aged man.' - PW
'The sense of creeping dread is excellent, and the beasts confronted by the
Ellis character are genuinely frightening, but they don't lend any
meaningful urgency to his psychological journey. It's as if he used an ax to
kill off his ax murderer.' - Booklist.
'Even his harshest critics may now have to acknowledge that this versatile,
resourceful writer has formidable skills.' - Kirkus Reviews.
This information about Lunar Park was first featured
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