7.2 /10 1 Votes
Cover artist Chip Kidd (designer) Language English Media type Print (Hardcover) Originally published 16 August 2005 Page count 320 Nominations World Fantasy Award—Novel | 3.6/5 Goodreads Country United States Publication date August 16, 2005 Pages 320 Publisher Alfred A. Knopf | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Genres Postmodern literature, Horror fiction Similar Bret Easton Ellis books, Horror fiction books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lunar Park is a mock memoir by American writer Bret Easton Ellis. It was released by Knopf in 2005. It was the first book written by Ellis to use past tense narrative. The title bears no relation to the public amusement location in Australia known as Luna Park.
Contents
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Plot summary
The novel begins with an inflated and parodic but reasonably accurate portrayal of Ellis's early fame. It details incidents of his rampant 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 a child. From this point the fictional Bret's life reflects the real writer's only in some descriptions of the past and possibly in his general sentiments.
Ellis and Jayne move to fictional Midland, an affluent 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. Strange incidents start happening on a Halloween night, some involving a Terby doll belonging to Ellis' fictional stepdaughter Sarah.
As the novel progresses, the haunting of Ellis's house 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. Unfolding events only very gradually reveal a much more complicated situation than a simple haunting. There is a dynamic interplay between the author's dead father, the house itself and specific negative associations buried within the author's own subconscious mind. Added to all of this is the very late-breaking and almost gratuitous insinuation that Robby, the narrator's young son, may somehow be at the epicenter of all these events. At novel's end the reader may come away with the impression that the story could either have been edited down for clarity or expanded to address one or more of the ongoing sub-plots more thoroughly.
Characters
Several of the characters are fictionalized portrayals of real people. Most notable among these is Ellis himself, but others include friend and fellow author Jay McInerney and Ellis' late father.
Development
Ellis finished writing the novel in the summer of 2004. Ellis said the book was an homage to Stephen King and the comic books he loved as a child.
Ellis told the Manchester Evening News that the Terby "is based on a Furby but also there was this bird-like doll that my older sister had and I wrote a short story about it when I was 7 or 8. She used to scare me with it, I'd go to my bedroom and get into bed and it'd be there, she'd hide it there just to scare me. Or I'd be walking up the stairs and she'd chase me with it. And I think that's what I was channelling and it fitted in to all the other things that I was haunted by.” The revelation that 'Terby' is in fact 'Y Bret' (Why, Bret?) spelt backwards is an homage to the "redrum" (murder spelt backwards) plot device in King's The Shining.
The book carries an epigraph from Hamlet 1.v.98. This connects with the theme of haunting by a father as well as the names in the book (e.g. Elsinore, Osric, Fortinbras).
Reception
The novel was nominated for a World Fantasy Award in the Best Novel category in 2004.