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Emanuel
Regular Poster
Username: Emanuel
Post Number: 48
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 11, 2004 - 10:17 am: | 
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Check out the NY Times' review of Bling by Sia Mitchell. Looks like the reviewer didn't like it too much.
HIP-HOP gossip lit makes its inevitable arrival in Erica Kennedy's gleefully trashy first novel -- and apparently the devil wears $200 Sean John sweatsuits, too. Henry Higgins transformed a coarse flower girl into, well, Audrey Hepburn; here, Lamont Jackson, the C.E.O. of Triple Large Entertainment, turns a demure, small-town, biracial singer named Mimi Castiglione into a ghetto-fabulous, Louboutin-shod ''low-budget Beyonce.'' Thanks to an army of ''improvement specialists,'' breast implants, blond hair extensions and shopping sprees with an Amex Centurion card, Mimi is finally glamorous enough to moan anonymously on generic rap and R & B songs. Fame comes quickly, but she'd rather be a bohemian neo-soul singer. Can't a diva get a little fulfillment around here?
A woman struggling to find her voice in the male-dominated music industry has been a recurring theme in black pop expression since Berry Gordy enrolled Diana Ross in Motown's charm school. A quarter-century after hip-hop's birth, female stars don't get far without a powerful male producer and label boss, plus a posse of male rappers lending them street cred. They must resemble a pinup fantasy yet be likable to women, and appeal to the white kids who buy 70 percent of rap CD's. Mimi thinks she's treated like a puppet: ''It's all, 'Go here, say this, wear that, smile, sing this song we had written for you and . . . be quiet until we need you again.' ''
''Bling'' is less a female-empowerment tale than a comedy of manners. A large cast of thuggish rappers, bratty supermodels and rapacious executives flits through this book's runway shows, graphic sex scenes, trips to the Caribbean and a bloody catfight at a nightclub. No one would be caught dead in shoes that cost less than $400; one rapper rotates his numerous prosthetic legs to match the exact shade of his suntan. Kennedy paints a glitzy milieu so image-obsessed that Mimi, who is dating Lamont, is in danger of losing her good-girl soul.
The author, a 31-year-old music journalist and a friend of the rap mogul Russell Simmons (she is godmother to his elder daughter), overloads her narrative with fly-on-the-wall detail, from Mimi's $75,000 sky blue Benz G500 truck to the diamond-studded laces on a rapper's sneakers. Far from being an oppressed ex-assistant, Kennedy doesn't have much of an ax to grind; this affectionate satire lacks the bite of other recent tell-alls.
Still, there are enough thinly veiled characters to fuel gossipmongering on summer beach blankets. Naomi Campbell is reportedly apoplectic over the character Vanessa de la Cruz, an aging, bitchy supermodel. Is P. Diddy going to be mad that Lamont's flamboyant, bewigged mama bears a striking resemblance to his own flamboyant, bewigged mama, Janice Combs? And even madder that Lamont's long-suffering ex-girlfriend, Kendra, sounds a lot like Diddy's long-suffering girlfriend, Kim Porter? What weight-obsessed label chief inspired Lamont, and does he really secretly binge on candy bars?
Though it's often funny, ''Bling'' is wildly overlong at 509 pages. Mimi doesn't hit enough lows to earn her happy ending. The implicit critique of mainstream hip-hop culture -- that all anyone cares about is money, fame and looking hot -- is old news, the complaint of rappers who don't sell records. And it's undermined by the lavish descriptions of parties and couture clothes.
But for any woman who could never get past a velvet rope, reading ''Bling'' is like stepping into a rap video with an armed bodyguard and a $5,000 Louis Vuitton Theda bag.
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Solomonjones
Regular Poster
Username: Solomonjones
Post Number: 38
Registered: 02-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 11, 2004 - 10:54 pm: |
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Actually, this is a great review, mainly because it alludes to the fact that the fictional characters in "Bling" are based on real celebrities. That's what fiction readers want. They want to know what the "real" story is -- especially if it has something to do with famous people.
The New York Times calling this book gleefully trashy? That will have readers lining up in droves. And one more thing. I guarantee that the publisher will put the last line of the review (the only line that really matters) on the next edition of the book ...
"Reading ''Bling'' is like stepping into a rap video with an armed bodyguard and a $5,000 Louis Vuitton Theda bag." - NY Times Book Review
That, my friend, is a great blurb. Can you say sequel?
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 771
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 11, 2004 - 11:36 pm: |
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This book should not be lightly dismissed. Although it sounds shallow, it may well be a definitive novel, one that makes a valuable contribution to any future sociological/ anthropological assessment of a decadent sub-culture that enjoyed immense popularity at the turn of the 21st century. It's kinda like the classic novel "Dangerous Liaisons," a book which depicted the frivolous life and times of the idle rich in France during the reign King Louis IVX. |
Njanene
Newbie Poster
Username: Njanene
Post Number: 12
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 12, 2004 - 12:25 am: |
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Didn't Miramax give Erica Kennedy $ 1,000,000 for the book and a movie deal? They were probably onto something. I agree with Solomonjones about wanting to know "what the real story is." That is what made Jackie Collins so famous, the "fictional" inside track on the lives of the rich and famous. I am going to start reading it next week. |
Whistlingwoman
Regular Poster
Username: Whistlingwoman
Post Number: 30
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 12, 2004 - 01:59 am: |
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I finished "Bling" over the weekend and I enjoyed every minute of it. In my opinion, the author accomplished what she set out to do - write a fun, gossipy, summer book. She didn't set out for Morrison/Baldwin territory but more Jacqueline Susan/Jackie Collins/Olivia Goldsmith and she held her own. I read "Bling" in conjunction with "Cosmopolitan Girls" and "Gotham Diaries" and I thought those two failed miserably. "Cosmo" was just poorly written, clunky and worst of all uninteresting. "Gotham" had more potential but I thought the seams showed on this one, the transition between chapters were rough and the "voice" wasn't consistent which may have been my problem with both books as they both had two authors.
Anyway, Erica Kennedy deserves the publicity because she brought something new, fresh and fun to the big crop of summer titles.
Also, Njanene, I could be wrong but I believe she got $750,000 for the book and $500,000 for the film rights. That is one of the reasons (besides her media connections from her years at Vibe) that she has gotten so much press.
Whistling Woman |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 377
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 12, 2004 - 09:59 am: |
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I thought of the old Motown Roman a clef, "#1 with a Bullet" when I heard of this one and I believe it will achieve healthy sales and probably get followed up with a movie. Sounds like the reviewer mostly got the point of the book--trashy Jackie Collins type fling in the world of hip hop. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 467
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 12, 2004 - 11:53 am: |
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I don't know. It seems to me there is already so much talk about the piccadillos (and crimes) of the hip-hop crowd (via "Vibe", "Right-On", police botters, etc.) that I wonder what "Bling" offers that would be of much interest/surprise. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 380
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 12, 2004 - 01:28 pm: |
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Abm:
Hey but you ain't had a good juicy book about it |
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