I first stumbled across this book when I was in the seventh grade and only 13 years old. It was around this time I started giving up my high school clique, junior high school girl books and decided to start reading black fiction. This was one of the first books I read and at the time it blew my mind. As a youngster, I was very much about "coloring within the lines." I only thought books were supposed to be written one way, but when I read Ellis's playful, inventive and mysterious prose it sent a shock through my system. Multiple points of view, words you have to read out loud to get the full affect of them, sexual humor ... all things foriegn to me at 13. Needless to say, after reading it I decided I was going to be an author. The book still has a powerful affect on my writing today as I truly enjoyed what I thought then was a unique and experimental style. I went on to read Ellis' "Home Repairs" but by then I'd grown disinterested in Ellis' style. While Platitudes was fresh, the same tricks used in "Home Repairs" seemed gimmicky and by then, I'd moved on to other forms of black fiction.

Now as an adult I see Platitudes is a good, but uneven book. But I give credit where credit is due. Ellis helped me develop my own style and that has to mean something.

one of the most creative and inventive black novels i've ever read. deals with a black male growing up in middle class harlem, who is also smart. trey also takes on feminists, the traditional slave narratives, pop culture, dating, the bourgeoise and anything else he can think of. definately not your average black novel. and i'm glad for that....

Great read. Mr. Ellis weaves a wonderful story about two black youths overcoming the greatest obstacle of their lives -- growing up in middle-class America.

I really liked Trey Ellis' clever, funny third book. His talent has responded well to the wider platform here and demonstrates a maturing vision. I anticipate enjoying Mr. Ellis skewer other American idiosyncracies with his absurdist wit, as he clearly enjoys that territory as demonstrated in RH,RN. It's also refreshing to see a writer so clearly have fun with form in his work, and it makes for an engaging read. I'm anxious to see what or whom this emerging talent will poke some fun at next.

Read trey's new book. It's about a self-help guru who goes a little too far for society's taste as he veers from "acceptable" behavior into the realm of megalomaniacal and quasi-mystical dillusion. In the process he drags along a bunch of gullible, souls who think all the big answers flow from his golden throat and his prodigious, erm...karma. How does the main character, Austin, an upper class African-American, go from a being relatively normal, if some what over achieving motivational speaker, to a man hunted by the feds for debunking dim middle class rubes out of their money and their wives...? It's a journey marked by wasted human lives and many empty cases of Evian water. We can see the end coming, but Trey gives us such a wickedly obnoxious blend of pretense and idiocy, that we can't help laughing all the way.

I didn't really kow where this book was going to go. It takes you in weird whirlwind, to where you don't know if the hero is hallucinating, or is actually an enlightened spirirual master. You keep asking whether this guy is a nut or is he on to something.I really liked how Ellis keeps you guessing. It's really weird how the two bes fiction books of last year came out of Ssanta Cruz, this along with Brauner's 'Love songs of the tone deaf', is a very impressive display of literary talent in one town. Buy this book, you'll love it

While this book does have a certain charm, constant ruminations of a masturbatory nature do not a reader keep. Austin is completely obsessed with sex and the character develops little beyond that. Completely trite, slapped-together, cliched ending is a vast disappointment.

This book was very funny and a fast-paced read. The only obvious problem was that the ending just...well.. there wasn't really an ending. You never find out what happens to Austin and all the serious loves of his life (Jenny, Jewel, Didi, Monica). I enjoyed about 90% of the book, but it would have been better to see Austin come full circle and find true love.

TREY ELLIS CAPTURED MY FANCY AND RETOLD MY YOUTH AND THAT OF MILLIONS OF BOYS WHO GREW UP IN THE '70's. THE PREP SCHOOL EXEPERIENCE, THE SHYNESS AROUND PUBESCENT GIRLS, THE ADULT JOB SEARCH, HE MAKES IT REAL. THE FILM "THE INKWELL" WAS DISNEY'S FEEBLE EFFORT TO TURN THIS BOOK INTO A MOVIE. I RECOMMEND THIS NOVEL TO ANYONE OF EITHER GENDER WHO HAS EVER HAD A CRUSH ON SOMEONE. B. BAYNE, AUTHOR OF "SKY KINGS".