Product Description
Bret Easton Ellis’s debut, Less Than Zero, is one of the signal novels of the last thirty years, and he now follows those infamous teenagers into an even more desperate middle age.

Clay, a successful screenwriter, has returned from New York to Los Angeles to help cast his new movie, and he’s soon drifting through a long-familiar circle. Blair, his former girlfriend, is married to Trent, an influential manager who’s still a bisexual philanderer, and their Beverly Hills parties attract various levels of fame, fortune and power. Then there’s Clay’s childhood friend Julian, a recovering addict, and their old dealer, Rip, face-lifted beyond recognition and seemingly even more sinister than in his notorious past.

But Clay’s own demons emerge once he meets a gorgeous young actress determined to win a role in his movie. And when his life careens completely out of control, he has no choice but to plumb the darkest recesses of his character and come to terms with his proclivity for betrayal.

A genuine literary event.Amazon.com Review

Donna Tartt is the author of the novels The Secret History and The Little Friend, and is currently at work on a third novel. Read her review of Imperial Bedrooms:

Customer Reviews (113)

quit while you're ahead, easton ellis
let me put it this way: i was on vacation, eating, sleeping and surfing my days away in mexico, and barely using my brain for anything, and still this did not qualify as good as beach reading! it might be good to anyone who has never read an eastonellis book before, or perhaps anyone who is getting slowly introduced to the world of reading. let me back up, for the sake of good karma: this book was just not as interesting or entertaining as his previous works.

Zero plus 25
In Imperial Bedrooms (whose title is based on Elvis Costello's second album) Bret Easton Ellis returns to the characters that featured in his first novel, Less Than Zero. If you've read that book - and if not, you probably should - you'll figure these disaffected teenagers were never going to grow up to be pillars of LA society and sure enough, they remain deep in Ellis worlds of alcohol, drugs, nihilism, misogyny and self obsession. Where better than in the world of movie making?

This is Clay's story - he has become a successful screen writer and returns to LA to cast one of his movies where he meets the beautiful, but talentless, Rain Turner who is, unbeknown to Clay, mixed up with his old associates Julian, Blair and Rip.

You certainly don't need to have read Less Than Zero first, but it adds to the experience if you have. Perhaps the worst situation is if you have not read it but seen the movie. The movie somewhat misrepresented the book, as indeed Clay begins by noting. Perhaps as a result, Ellis has gone even darker than normal for him in this book.

What Ellis does particularly well in this short novel is to build a sense of paranoia and fear. There's always someone watching Clay, but neither he, nor the reader, knows who this is. The sense of menace is ubiquitous.

With Ellis it's a fair bet that you are always going to get shocking violence, usually linked to sex and drugs, at some point and Imperial Bedrooms doesn't fail to deliver. When it comes, it is indeed truly shocking. Perhaps because we expect Ellis to shock, he always has to ratch up the level in each new book and at least one part late on in the book - Clay's weekend break in Palm Springs - felt somewhat tacked on and not part of the story which is a shame in such a short book.

Ellis is one of those writers you either love or hate. His stream of consciousness and visits to the dark side are not to everyone's taste and you always feel you are being kept at a distance with his characters. If you are new to him, I wouldn't start here. It's no Less Than Zero or American Psycho - but for fans it's an interesting read although frustratingly short.

Characters Without Souls are Poor Subjects
I would never have heard about this book had I not read some glowing pre-publication reviews. The narrator slips in and out of a series of confusing encounters, eventually stumbling into alcoholic stupor, depravity and brutalizing women, all without so much as a cogent or compassionate thought. The main character, an unapologetic shell of a writer is wholly dependent on the author for disjointed dialogue by which he strings his days together. The book failed to offer any fresh insight about the lost souls of Hollywood who remain enslaved and dependent to power as they search for fame. Clearly, they could opt for a more humane lifestyle, but we never learn what keeps them stuck. I saw no benefit to my reading about characters without souls, going nowhere, doing no good for anyone (not even themselves).It was a collection of weakness and immorality without any hope of redemption...pretty depressing. Vividly depicting aggression and violence against women without a whisper of a counter voice was inexcusable. This was not a book I can recommend. I see nothing literary about it.

Like Less Than Zero, except nothing happens, and with more debauchery.
I must say to begin that I absolutely love the cover of the book, it's simple, but powerful, and I think the text layout and the picture just create such a perfect representation of who the main character is.

Unfortunately, that's probably about the only good thing I'll have to say about it. Written 25 years after the first, the characters have also aged 25 years, and most of them are doing the same things they always were and haven't changed a bit.

The main character, Clay, once an apathetic and depressed extremely privileged teen, is now a decently successful screenwriter, and has spent the last two years in New York before returning to his hometown of L.A., where the book takes place. His newest screenplay has been given the green light and when the novel opens, he and some producers are working on casting the film.

And it's pretty much downhill from there. Clay starts hanging out with/sleeping with a young actress who severely wants the lead female role in the film, and Clay knows he's being used, but continues to use her also, always promising her he can get her into the role.

Without giving too much away, it quickly turns into sort of a murder-mystery with all of Clay's old `friends' from the first novel involved. But the murder is so typical; somebody borrowed money from somebody else and slept with somebody to get money to pay the first person back and then somebody back-stabbed somebody else and there's some drugs involved and they find a dead dude without his head or hands in the desert. We've heard that one before. Even worse, the details and motives of the whole mystery are confusing and uncertain. Yes, a mystery is supposed to be kinda uncertain until the close of a book, but this one is just poorly executed.

It's very much like a soap-opera plot, except with more violence and the sex isn't just hinted at. This pretty much sums up the book: Some middle-aged wealthy people go around from party to party, drinking lots of vodka, doing drugs, sleeping with eachother, and making BS smalltalk about what movies they're involved in, and occasionally in between all of this we see the plot's little head pop up here and there as the details of the murder come out and Clay finds himself in the middle of it.

There is not much of a climax. The mystery is revealed, but all the characters are so flat and rich and self-indulgent, you end up not really caring who slept with who and why and whose money it was and who's dead. There is a really random scene towards the end where Clay picks up two teenage prostitutes and debauchery ensues. It seems to be a weak attempt to show that Clay is `spiraling down into even further self-destruction,' but I think it was more just for shock value.

I was excited to read this book when I heard it was coming out, because initially it sounded intriguing and I figured the author has had 25 years and half a dozen other novels to improve and grow. I was interested in what he would do with the characters. And ultimately, I think Ellis is a better writer than he used to be, but the question is why does he choose to write about things like this?! The book is generally just boring, even with all the attempts to be edgy.

Less Than Zero was edgy, and is actually a decent book, and I can see how it kinda propelled him into the limelight at the time as an intriguing new author with lots of potential. But his revisit to these characters was just completely pointless.

Paste Magazine gave the book a rating of 0.0 out of 10. I guess I'd say that's about where I stand too.

Is Clay and Patrick Bateman the same person?
Ok, so I still don't know what in hell was going on with Glamorama, but I felt Bret came back into form with Lunar Park. So when I read his latest installment in two sittings, I came to the realization that he is writing better than ever. This is a spooky book, a real thriller with some very shonky characters. His writing can hit you between the eyes at any moment and I have never read anything close to his descriptions of violence. The internet video sequences of the book were very disturbing. I also liked the fact that the book is under 200 pages (thank you, God). ... Read more

Product Description
"Arguably the novel of the 1990s...Glamorama shouldestablish Ellis as the most fearless and ambitious writer of hisgeneration...A must read." --The Seattle Times

Theauthor of American Psycho and Less Than Zero continuesto shock and haunt us with his incisive and brilliant dissection ofthe modern world.In his most ambitious and gripping book yet, BretEaston Ellis takes our celebrity obsessed culture and increases thevolume exponentially.

Victor Ward, a model with perfect abs whoexists in magazines and gossip columns and whose life resembles anultra-hip movie, is living with one beautiful model and having anaffair with another.And then it's time to move on to the next stage.But the future he gets is not the one he had in mind.

Amazon.com Review
Glamorama is a satirical mass-murder opus more ambitious thanBret Easton Ellis's 1990 American Psycho. It starts as aspritz-of-consciousness romp about kid-club entrepreneur Victor Ward, "theIt boy of the moment," an actor-model up for Flatliners II. Ellishas perfect pitch for glam-speak, and he gives nightlife the fizz, pace,and shimmer it lacks in drab reality. Anyone could cite the right celebnames and tunes, but like a rock-polishing machine, his prose givesliterary sheen to fame-chasing air-kissers. He's coldly funny: whenVictor's girl tries to argue him out of a breakup, she angrily snorts sixbumps of coke, stops, mutters, "Wrong vial," snorts four corrective dosesfrom whatever she has in her other fist, then objects to a rival at theparty wearing the same dress she's wearing.

You had to be there; Ellis makes you feel you are. But such satire is avery smart bomb targeting a very large barn. Models' status anxiety doesn'tmerit Ellis's Tom Wolfe-esque expertise. Glamorama gets better whenVictor gets drafted into a mysterious group of model-terrorists who bomb747s and the Ritz in Paris, wearing Kevlar-lined Armani suits. Oh, theystill behave like shallow snobs, pronouncing "cool" as if it had 12 o's.But now when somebody swills Cristal, it's apt to be poisoned, to horrificeffect, which Ellis expertly, affectlessly describes. His enfant-terribledebut, Less Than Zero, aped Joan Didion. NowEllis has grown into a lesser Don DeLillo--and that's highpraise. --Tim Appelo ... Read more

Customer Reviews (314)

Quite a ride...
Wow. This book grabbed hold and would not let go. Part one is typical decadent name dropping Ellis fare and as such was an entertaining if somewhat depressing take on the young, the beautiful, and the oh so superficial.
Part two has the main character, Victor Ward, on a ship heading to England, where he will find himself intertwined in another world of beautiful people, only in addition tobeing all he is used to, they happen to be terrorists. This makes for some very interesting reading but the view of the story shifts to one where it is told as if it were being filmed, with Victor being an actor and getting caught between two films being produced at the same time. This becomes very confusing for the reader as it is unclear if Victor has become delusional or if in fact he is an actor. The scenes are often raw and decadent and always strewn with confetti. It is always cold. His limbs are always going to sleep. Is Victor dead? Is this some dream stage? I wish I knew. One feels the narrative must be filled with metaphors, but for what?
Part three answers some suspicions then opens the door to a whole slew of new questions, particurally from where Victor actually is when reciting his story.
Yes, a very entertaing read for the most part but be forwarned there is some very disturbing stuff as well, but then again this should be expected when considering a book by Bret Easton Ellis. I loved the book but was left disappointed with how it ended.

Great. Just Great.
This is an excellent example of the stereotypical world that we live in.Specifically that of the late 1990's, and the celebrity culture that we as a society have come to exist within.

I had to read this for a college course on Modern American Fiction.
It was an excellent read, and I would like to sit and read through it agian, without having to take notes and examine the text, and read it as it was meant to be, as a novel for enjoyment, and as a comtemporary commentary on our society.

Ellis is still strange and interesting.
Really a great read. the story takes you on a rollercoaster ride of time and places... first half is ok and then..BAM!, YOUR A WITNESS TO REAL TERROR AND ESPIONAGE...AND FASHION...YES. fashion.

Did we read the same book?????
OMG, this book was awful. Can we give negative stars? I think Bret Ellis actually owes Amazon stars for selling this crap. The characters are completely unlikeable, irrelevent and vapid at best. The plot is completely, utterly ridiculous. The dialogue is confusing and nonsensical. Trees gave up their lives for these pages!!! They lived in vain if this is the result of their time on earth. I love love love stories about celebrities, Hollywood, models, etc....I love suspense and intrigue...I love to read...but this was a pile of mess. Read the dictionary. Read the comics in your local newspaper. Read the back of your cereal boxes. Read ANYTHING, but don't read this.

not even superficially profound
A terrible disappointment. Hard to understand how Ellis could write such a bad book. Making mistakes he so deftly avoided doing in the past. There are plenty of jokes, but this time they aren't funny. The 'social message', boring, is stated with the subtlety of a battering ram. Dialogues aren't merely dull, they're simply unnatural, implausible (and I never would have expected that from Ellis). It seems some people actually.. um, liked it! Well, if you're planning to buy this book, maybe you'll be lucky. I suggest reading 10-20 pages before clicking the 'buy' button and I hope Ellis' next book (or the one after) will be great.

Mmmmmm, if this book would be re-edited and issued as a long short-story, perhaps 60 pages long, it might make for a really cool book. ... Read more

Product Description
Bret Ellis, the narrator of Lunar Park, is a writer whose first novel Less Than Zero catapulted him to international stardom while he was still in college. In the years that followed he found himself adrift in a world of wealth, drugs, and fame, as well as dealing with the unexpected death of his abusive father.After a decade of decadence a chance for salvation arrives; the chance to reconnect with an actress he was once involved with, and their son. But almost immediately his new life is threatened by a freak sequence of events and a bizarre series of murders that all seem to connect to Ellis’s past. His attempts to save his new world from his own demons makes Lunar Park Ellis’s most suspenseful novel.

In this chilling tale reality, memoir, and fantasy combine to create not only a fascinating version of this most controversial writer but also a deeply moving novel about love and loss, parents and children, and ultimately forgiveness.Amazon.com Review

---

A Tale of Two Brets: An Amazon.comInterview with Bret Easton Ellis
In his novelLunar Park, Bret Easton Ellis takes first-person narrative toan extreme, inserting himself (and a host of real characters from thepublishing world) into the haunting story of a drugged-out famouswriter living in the suburbs trying to reconnect with his wife and sonand reconcile his damaged past. Ellis is at the top of his game inLunar Park, his first novel since 1999's Glamorama,delivering a disturbing and delirious novel about celebrity, writers,and fathers and sons (not to mention a cameo from notorious Elliscreation, Patrick Bateman). Amazon.com senior editor Brad ThomasParsons spoke with Ellis in a Seattle to Los Angeles phone call to talkabout the fact and fiction behind Lunar Park, New Yorkversus LA, '80s music, and the whole "American Psycho thing."

Readthe Amazon.com interview with Bret Easton Ellis

---

Less Than Zero (1985)
Published whenEllis was a junior at Bennington, LessThan Zero is the mesmerizing first-person chronicle of Clay,our laconic, zoned-out guide to a subculture of over-privilegednihilism in early '80s Los Angeles. He travels back home from CamdenCollege (a thinly veiled Bennington) for Christmas break and re-entershis circle of jaded friends--including his ex-girlfriend Blair, andhis best friend Julian, who's now hustling to support his drughabit--and a parade of Porches, late-night parties, cocaine, andcasual destruction.

Ellis on Ellis: "I don't think it'sa perfect book by any means, but it's valid. I get where it comesfrom. I get what it is. There's a lot of it that I wish was slightlymore elegantly written. Overall, I was pretty shocked. It was prettygood writing for someone who was 19."

---

The Rules of Attraction (1987)
A line-up of CamdenCollege students share the narrating duties in TheRules of Attraction, Ellis' sex-fueled, drug-baked secondnovel. There's Lauren (who's in the midst of losing her virginity asthe book opens), who longs for her boyfriend Victor, currentlytraveling through Europe; Lauren's ex, Paul, a bisexual party boy whohooks up with hard-drinking closet-case Sean (surname Bateman--that'sright, younger brother of Patrick), who also has the hots forLauren. Less than Zero's Clay makes a cameo appearance as wellas a passing glimpse of Ellis' Bennington classmate Donna Tartt'smurderous Classics majors from The SecretHistory.

Ellis on Ellis: "It might be myfavorite book of mine. I was writing that book while I was atcollege. Sort of like the best of times, the worst of times. There wasa lot of elation, there was a lot of despair. It was just a really funbook to write. I loved mimicking all the different voices. The streamof conscious does get a little out of hand. I kind of like that aboutthe book. It's kind of all over the place. It's casual. It'sscruffy. That's the one book of mine that I have a very, very softspot for."

---

American Psycho (1991)
Shopaholicsociopath Patrick Bateman's killer grip drags readers into a bloody,brand-name, urban nightmare as the 26-year-old Wall Street yuppieexecutes his grooming habits and eviscerates strangers with equalélan. Simon & Schuster dropped the too-hot-to-handle AmericanPsycho which was then published as a paperback original byVintage Books. Ellis received death threats while the book wasboycotted, sliced up by reviewers, and went on to become abestseller. Mary Harron's 2000 film version starred then little-knownBritish actor Christian Bale, who would later suit up as the DarkKnight in 2005's Batman Begins.

Ellis on Ellis:"It was good. It was fun. It was not nearly as pretentious as Iremember I wanted it to be when I was writing it. I found it reallyfast-moving. I found it really funny. And I liked it a lot. Theviolence was... it made my toes curl. I really freaked out. I couldn'tbelieve how violent it was. It was truly upsetting. I had to steelmyself to re-read those passages."

---

The Informers (1994)
Ellis returns toearly '80s Los Angeles ennui with TheInformers, a loosely connected collection of stories of thebored, rich, and morally depraved, written around the same time asLess than Zero. Sex, drugs, and gratuitous violence take centerstage, with characters including an aging, predatory anchorwoman, adebauched rock star tearing through Japan, and a pick-up artistvampire. While some of the vignettes echo better Ellis works,ultimately the stories don't add to much as a whole. Book critics areless than receptive to Ellis' post-American Psycho offering.

Ellis on Ellis: "Those were written while I was atBennington. I wrote a lot of short stories between 1981 or 1982 orso... The Informers more or less kind of represented probablythe best of those stories. I wrote a lot of really bad ones, but thoseare the ones that worked the best together."

---

Glamorama (1999)
Actor-model VictorWard (who first made an appearance in the Ellis oeuvre in The Rulesof Attraction) is the narrator of Glamorama,Ellis longest novel yet. Ellis offers bold-faced names and celebrityskewering in the first half of the book as Victor tries to open aManhattan club while cheating on his supermodel girlfriend anddouble-crossing his partner, but the second half takes a violent,paranoid turn as Victor is sent to England and unwittingly lured intoa sadistic ring of international terrorists (posing as supermodels)leaving a bloody trail across the globe.

Ellis on Ellis:"[T]he book wasn't necessarily about terrorism to me. It was abouta whole bunch of other stuff. It's definitely the book that I cantell--I don't know if other people can tell but I can tell as awriter--is probably the most divisive that I've written. It has anequal number of detractors as it does fans. It doesn't really holdtrue with the other books. It was the one that took the longest towrite, and the one that seemed the most important at the time. It's anunwieldy book... I like it."

---

Ellis on DVD

Less ThanZero

American Psycho

The Rules of Attraction

---

Will the Real Bret Easton Ellis Please Stand Up?
Visit the author's Web site at www.2brets.com.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (134)

Funny For All the Wrong Reasons
Really? A killer Turby? An apology for American Psycho? This autobiographical farce is impressive only in the number of way it manages to fall off target on so many levels.

If you're familiar with his earlier books, there are some nice continuity references and a few insights into how all the nonsense that is Brett's writing career started.

If you're not familiar with Ellis, this isn't a good book to start with. If you're a fan, you know what you're getting yourself in to when you start reading this garbage.....

Amazing Book
I thought this was Ellis' best book yet! Really captivating read. I would recommend it to anyone that is a fan of his work.

Personally, my FAVORITE Bret Easton Ellis novel
I have read every single book this man has had published.Less than Zero, the Informers, yes... American Psycho, Glamorama (he lost me there. totally, completely). I always forget about the rules of attraction.Meh.

Lunar Park is, by far, my favorite one.Even above American Psycho.I guess it's because I, too, have settled down a bit.Had a child, quit the coke. The soda, I mean. It really spoke to me. How it can be a little hard looking back at what you've been through and the habits that you've made and now, you must TRY. Family dynamics, drug therapy. lol, the DOG is on anti-depressants.THE DOG!

This is the funniest and most truthful I've ever seen Mr. Ellis be. After reading Glamorama, I knew he had to kick the dope habit.I mean, GEEZ! I felt like I was high.American Psycho is always going to be a classic, personally.There's nothing like it.But this novel is flippin' awesome!I laughed out loud in a couple of spots (which is VERY rare for me when it comes to a novel). So, buy it.Do WHATEVER you have to do to read it!

A very interesting mix of reality and fantasy -- gripping edge of your seat reading
This was my first introduction to Bret Easton Ellis and it won't be my last!Quick read.Definitely gets into your head and you may find yourself reading with all the lights on.A very interesting blend of truth and fantasy.Just how much of each is up for debate!

This was my first Ellis book and it touches on many of his other stories. I wish I would have read his other books prior to reading this so I wasn't as out of touch, however, most was explained and it didn't impact my enjoyment from this book at all. I only wished I had more of an insight into his mind!

Half of a Great Return/Progression
I've never been so divided by a book's first and second halves. A longtime Ellis fan who read Glamorama with one eye closed but came to appreciate it deeply long after it was finished, I can say that the same is not true of Lunar Park.

The first half is amazing. It's a great return to form for Ellis, but adds new layers of self-reference and pitch-black comedy that I found very refreshing and daring. Seriously, the first half is one of the funniest books I've ever read. He makes no bones about criticizing himself (via a hall-of-mirrors alter ego named Bret Easton Ellis) or his own reputation as a writer. It's great stuff.

And then it falls apart. I can't say he didn't take a big risk with the second-half descent into Stephen King-like internal torture, but it is neither enjoyable reading or revealing of anything at all. At least with Glamorama, I may not have ENJOYED it exactly, but I couldn't ignore its ability to reveal, re-contextualize and then distort its own world. In this book, I couldn't help feeling like the steps taken in the second half worked only to its detriment. It felt easy. Granted, great writers sometimes please (read: tease) their audience into thinking that their style is effortless, but that isn't the case here.

Not recommended. He's written far, far better books. ... Read more

Product Description
Set at a small, affluent liberal-arts college in New England at the height of the Reagan 80s, The Rules of Attraction is a startlingly funny, kaleidoscopic novel about three students with no plans for the future--or even the present--who become entangled in a curious romantic triangle.Bret Easton Ellis trains his incisive gaze on the kids at self-consciously bohemian Camden College and treats their sexual posturings and agonies with a mixture of acrid hilarity and compassion while exposing the moral vacuum at the center of their lives.

Lauren changes boyfriends every time she changes majors and still pines for Victor who split for Europe months ago and she might or might not be writing anonymous love letter to ambivalent, hard-drinking Sean, a hopeless romantic who only has eyes for Lauren, even if he ends up in bed with half the campus, and Paul, Lauren's ex, forthrightly bisexual and whose passion masks a shrewd pragmatism.They waste time getting wasted, race from Thirsty Thursday Happy Hours to Dressed To Get Screwed parties to drinks at The Edge of the World or The Graveyard.The Rules of Attraction is a poignant, hilarious take on the death of romance. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (142)

"Less than Zero" Goes to College
I held off reading this sequel to "Less than Zero" for quite a long time because, while the antics of a bunch of drugged Hollywoodsters had some entertainment value to me, I could not see the joy in perusing another trademark Ellis work about screwed-up rich kids at a WASPY Eastern liberal arts college (which I believe was supposed to be a thinly disguised portrayal of Bennington).Most any college is bound to be a Petri dish of teen angst, unsettled yearnings and weird sexual encounters (or lack of such encounters), so why bother to write yet another book about people pouring their hearts out over same?It's not glamorous or trashily mesmerizing like a book about LA.The main character, Sean Bateman, is not Clay from "Less than Zero" (who makes a cameo appearance in "Rules" as the hip mysterious kid in sunglasses from California) but Sean is written so that he and Clay are practically interchangeable in terms of thoughts and motivations.

When I did eventually (and out of sheer boredom) read "Rules", I had to give Ellis a little credit for at least introducing a bit of a plot structure."Rules" is about a love triangle, or possibly even a love hexagon.A frumpy girl named Mary pursues handsome Sean, with whom she's already created an entire fantasy romance in her mind.Through a mixup, Sean thinks Mary's love note to him comes from Lauren, an art student who's actually in love with an older guy named Victor and thinks about him all the time like Mary does Sean.Victor, oblivious to Lauren's affections, is off having rich-kid adventures in Europe such as getting mugged in the red-light district of Amsterdam, as he bops from country to country in search of his crush object, a girl named Jamie who he thinks is over there somewhere.Meanwhile, bisexual Paul, who is probably the closest thing Ellis has ever written to a developed character with a moral sense, has also fallen for Sean, though he senses it's hopeless.

Somewhere in the midst of this melee, punctuated by numerous drunk college parties and a graphic suicide in a bathtub, Sean and Lauren manage to fall genuinely, it seems, in love for a couple of chapters, but can't sustain it.This isn't surprising since they have virtually no role models to follow in developing a long-term relationship.Plus everyone in the book is the sort of jaded hopeless romantic who is so hungry for a connection that they see a pretty face and proceed to glom all of their dreams, hopes and fears onto said person without really getting to know them.It's hard to see how Sean is that much more attractive than his peers so as to have 2-3 people fall madly in love with him.It's also hard to see what's so great about Lauren that Sean is compelled to pursue her.Then again, many college-age people have developed raging crushes on another based solely on looks or the desire/ fantasy of being "in love", so Ellis's rich kids are more relatable here than they are in some of his other books. Nevertheless, the story still ends on a bum note since Sean and Lauren don't seem to learn or grow as a result of their love affair; instead they simply behave like planets that entered each other's orbits for a brief time before zinging back on their own pointless trajectories.The whole "missed connections leading to unexpected results" plotline, such as Sean mistaking Lauren, who he really hadn't paid much attention to before, as the author of a note left for him, is interesting to follow, but a lot of the book is taken up by long tedious musings, such as Lauren's story of drunkenly losing her virginity as a freshman at a college party and Sean's tale of a failed past love affair with a "hippie".You need to read the book with a sense of humor or you'll be wishing all these brats would just grow up already well before the end.

The Rules of Attraction & the postmodern condition
After seeing the film adaption of The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis, it was apparent that his novel had to be read to match the fascination that invoked me in the first place with the initial viewing of the film. And to my absolute joy, for lack of better words, the novel was just as great the film. The novel by Ellis, opens just as the flim does, making it more than clear that director and writer Roger Avary did a spot on job when it came to staying true to the text. I, myself, find the humor in that people are complaining about how "pages are missing". Um, yeah. There are no pages missing, that is simply how Ellis decided to commence the novel. I bet that same person complained that some ridiculous character "Betrand" had a whole chapter in French. The characters are eccentric and humorous, completely candid, and asbolutely absurd, all of which adds to momentum of wanting to know them more. All in all, the novel by Ellis is a great piece of work, completely appropriate for the time it was written (1987) and couldn't be anymore accurate to the typical scene of a small liberal arts college in New England(trust me, I would know having attended a small liberal arts college in New England myself). Certainly worth the buy, and if anything it is worth picking up to see the "missing pages" in the beginning and the "typo" in the end. Did I just spoil that for you? Sorry. Go and give it a read already.

Rules of Attraction
Reading this book was just like watching the movie. In fact, it made me desperate to watch the movie again.

Pointless, but that's the point!
Firstly, to all the people saying "the first 12 pages are missing, I got ripped off" don't understand that this is intentional and that the book is suppose to begin mid-sentance. So don't worry if you buy this book and it starts off like that, it was meant to be.

Secondly, incredible book. For anyone who enjoys painfully honest stories about life then you will love The Rules of Attraction. The novel exploits 'relationships' and their futility by showing the mixed opinions of three selfish college students in a love triangle.

Ellis narrates the characters dialogue and thoughts in an incredibly realistic way which made me individually feel as if the events were being acted out as if was reading them. The whole book is like a film playing out in your brain.

For anyone who liked 'American Psycho', this book plays out in a very similar fashion with a definite feel of nihilism and pointlessness that brings meaning.

Just read the novel, it's amazing, it's among my all time favorites.

defective product
Just received this book and a copy of Less than Zero.Discovered that "Rules" is missing several pages at the beginning....perhaps this is intentional?

First time, very first time, in hundreds of items ordered books , CDs and other stuff that I've received anything defective.

Looked over the return policy.LOL, for the ten bucks this cost I'm going to toss it in the paper recycling and buy a copy at a "bookstore".

I don't visit "bookstores" much anymore because I buy nearly all of my books from amazondotcom.Well,Isee there's an advantage after all.It's just not worth it to package this to return....and order another?Wull,, (as you younger people like to pronounce it ) Wull, da, it might be defective and missing pages too.

Note to Amazon.No, not gonna do it.....buy electronic book downloads.

... Read more

Product Description
In this seductive and chillingly nihilistic novel, Bret Easton Ellis, bestselling author of American Psycho, returns to Los Angeles, the city whose moral badlands he first surveyed in Less Than Zero. His characters go to the same schools and eat at the same restaurants. They have sex with the same boys and girls and buy their drugs from the same dealers. And their interactions delineate a chilling, fascinating, and outrageous descent into the abyss beneath the gorgeous surfaces of L.A. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (86)

HATED IT!
This is by far one of the worst books I have ever read.Could not even finish it, something I rarely do!It is so confusing with the storyteller constantly changing.By the time you figure out who is telling the story, it changes.Makes no sense, awful, just awful.And the book cover says "Now a Hollywood Hit Movie", huh???Never even heard of it so my guess it was never realeased or just flopped at the theater.A total, complete waste of time, just painful to read, so I had to finally stop after about 1/2 way through.If I could give this book zero stars I would have.

Less than Less Than Zero
"Danny is on my bed and depressed because Ricky was picked up by a break-dancer at the Odyssey on the night of the Duran Duran look-alike contest and murdered".If that line dopesn't make you laugh out loud (or at least cringe) than BEE may not be the dude for you.However, if you enjoy the odd Danielle Steel literary epic from time to time, you might want to pick "The Informers" up, post haste.Because BEE has nothiong on DS -- same league, my friends, same league....

Much pseudo-ado about nothing
NOTE: The edition I read was not the same as this one (it was much older), and I include my review as I believe that they should be largely the same barring the different cover.

My only previous experience with Ellis' work was the harrowing 'American Psycho,' which still disturbs me with some of its imagery.Thus, I was quite intrigued to see what some of Ellis' next works might have been like, and if any of them continued in the vein that he had established with man being inhumane to other men.

What I got was largely stories which were the snippet equivalent of what *I* considered to be the worst parts of 'American Psycho' - the inane, often disjointed, conversations that rich white folks had with other rich white folks in the early to late 1980's.With characters barely communicating with each other over issues that barely registered on my personal Give-a-Crapometer, I found the stories to be about as vacuous as the characters with them, and took very little away from them.

There was one high point in the collection, and that one was the "vampire story."It certainly wasn't fantastic, but it was different enough that I at least vaguely remember the specifics of the story, if not the title.

An easy pleasure
Very highly recommended, though you shouldn't expect anything dramatic, momentous. The writing is wonderful, not beautifully tight as in American Psycho, but with plenty to like. Some very nice passages and stories. It's also a book which once you've finished, you can easily re-open at almost any page and enjoy reading some more.

A Review by Dr. Joseph Suglia
Ellis's THE INFORMERS (1994), seems, at first glance, to be nothing more than a collection of short stories and drafts for Ellis' more ambitious novelistic projects ("The Secrets of the Summer," for instance, reads like an early version of AMERICAN PSYCHO). It is far more than that, however. Each story connects with all of the others; the book has an inner continuity that is staggeringly intricate. There are complicated interchanges between the "characters"; each one of them is absolutely interchangeable with everyone else.

THE INFORMERS is set in Los Angeles in the 1980s. No one in the book has an individuated personality. All of the characters take Valium and drink Tab. All of them say the same things and have the same desires. Indeed, all of Ellis' "characterologies" are the same. This is not a flaw in his novelistic practice. It is, rather, a sign of his writerly strength. In "The Up-Escalator," a middle-aged woman cannot distinguish her son, Graham, from any of the other tall, blond boys that populate the novel. In "In the Islands," William cannot distinguish his son, Tim, from Graham. One stoned pool boy is identical to another stoned pool boy.

"Perfection," it would seem, may be bought and sold in mass quantities. According to the logic of the work, one's identity is founded upon the products one buys. Because products are available in mass quantities, identity is also available in mass quantities. If commodities are equivalent to each other (through the medium of money), there is no reason that identities should not be posited as equivalent as well. It is the logical consequence of living in a culture that valorizes consumerist equivalence that its citizens should also be indistinguishable from each other. The most dominant figure of "The Informers" is the destruction of individuality by the exchange of equivalents.

Another of the novel's obsessions is the effect of a highly technologized media culture on social relationships. Rather than bringing the "characters" together, audio-visual technology drives them further apart. One person can only relate to another by relating him/her to a media image. While on a plane to Hawaii, William and Tim both listen to headsets, each playing a different kind of music; they can only endure each other through the magic of technological "communication." In "Another Grey Area," Graham identifies his father's corpse by likening it to Darth Vader. His "friend" Randy drapes his face with a copy of GQ and effectively becomes John Travolta, whose image is featured on the cover. One character, Ricky, is murdered on the night of a Duran Duran look-alike contest, which is a propos because everyone in The Informers participates, whether intentionally or not, in a celebrity look-alike contest. In "Sitting Still," Susan dislikes her father's fiancée (partly, at least) because the latter likes the film "Flashdance." Most pathetically, in "Letters from L.A.," Anne is slowly swallowed up in the media culture of Los Angeles - a culture that she once disdained.

Dr. Joseph Suglia ... Read more

Product Description
Set in Los Angeles in the early 1980's, this coolly mesmerizing novel is a raw, powerful portrait
of a lost generation who have experienced sex, drugs, and disaffection at too early an age, in a
world shaped by casual nihilism, passivity, and too much money a place devoid of feeling or
hope.

Clay comes home for Christmas vacation from his Eastern college and re-enters a landscape of
limitless privilege and absolute moral entropy, where everyone drives Porches, dines at Spago,
and snorts mountains of cocaine.He tries to renew feelings for his girlfriend, Blair, and for his
best friend from high school, Julian, who is careering into hustling and heroin.Clay's holiday
turns into a dizzying spiral of desperation that takes him through the relentless parties in glitzy
mansions, seedy bars, and underground rock clubs and also into the seamy world of L.A. after dark.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (251)

Boring!
This book is so boring! I cannot believe that I wasted my time reading it. The book might deal with rich kids problems in Beverly Hills and the problems may be real but gee nothing happens in the book! It is like the book just goes around in circles forever. Would never recommend this book to anyone!

Just like new
The book arrived on time and was just like new, so I recommend shipper.

As for the book, it's very stream of conscious and dark.I enjoyed it and would recommend it, but only for those that enjoy dark books.

Like, oh, my gosh--are sociopaths real?
Nostalgic for the 80's? Want a peek into the cold, hard truth of what life was like for teenagers from Beverly Hills High School and other upper class schools in LA? Less than Zero is a shockingly realistic depiction of teenage life exactly how it was in the rich neighborhoods of Los Angeles during the 1980s. The moral structure of society is falling apart and this started happening long before reality TV or high school massacres like Columbine. If you think rich kids have it all, you are gravely mistaken. Enter a world of disillusioned sociopaths. Only brave truth seekers should read this book. If you have the guts to read it, you will discover what it was and still is like to be a child of the rich, successful movie moguls that plague the moral fabric of America through mass media brainwashing. Ever been to a ritzy, movie star flogged restaurant like Spagos with your dad? I have. It's not as glamorous as you may have dreamed. Less than Zero is more truthful and realistic than reality TV. A must read if you want the raw truth at its core or if you simply want to learn how to be a sociopath yourself. Just joking! Looking forward to reading Bret Easton Ellis's new "brutal" sequel, Imperial Bedrooms.

After nihilism, not much else.
B.E.E. can write in an interesting manner. Little phrases resonate in your mind, partly through repetition, partly just because they just great little summations of ideas - "people are afraid to merge"..."disappear here". There are memorable interactions. But you go through the book, and people talk about this material thing or this trend and then it becomes obvious you are just following a bunch of empty, nihilistic people, and nothing really seems to happen. Well, I guess I can remembering one major bad revelation. But...why? Maybe you love this book if you can really relate to nihilistic feelings? Or maybe get something out of being shocked by the lifestyle? I don't know...I definitely didn't hate it, and I got through it okay (I stop reading a lot of books 1/4-1/2 way). I guess I just didn't get much out of it. (PS I am 34 and I knew all the references.)

Less than Zero
After all the hype, I expected more.At this moment, it is too depressing to read. ... Read more

Product Description
Twenty-five years on from "Less Than Zero", we pick up again with "Clay". In 1985, Bret Easton Ellis shocked, stunned and disturbed with "Less Than Zero", his 'extraordinarily accomplished first novel' ("New Yorker"), successfully chronicling the frightening consequences of unmitigated hedonism within the ranks of the ethically bereft youth of 80s Los Angeles. Now, twenty-five years later, Ellis returns to those same characters: to Clay and the band of infamous teenagers whose lives weave sporadically through his. But now, some years on, they face an even greater period of disaffection: their own middle age. Clay seems to have moved on - he's become a successful screenwriter - but when he returns from New York to Los Angeles, to help cast his new movie, he's soon drifting through a long-familiar circle. Blair, his former girlfriend, is now married to Trent, and their Beverly Hills parties attract excessive levels of fame and fortune, though for all that Trent is a powerful manager, his baser instincts remain: he's still a bisexual philanderer.Then there's Clay's childhood friend, Julian - who's now a recovering addict - and their old dealer, Rip - face-lifted beyond recognition and seemingly even more sinister than he was in his notorious past. Clay, too, struggles with his own demons after a meeting with a gorgeous actress determined to win a role in his movie. And with his life careening out of control, he's forced to come to terms with the deepest recesses of his character - and with his seemingly endless proclivity for betrayal. ... Read more

Product Description
The controversial novel about a handsome serial killer who moves among the young and trendy in 1980s New York. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1125)

Awesome
The book arrived quickly and in perfect condition, I can't wait to sit down and read it.Thanks soooo much!

Like Passing a Really Bad Car Wreck ...
As the saying goes, reading this book is like a passing a really bad car wreck. You know that you are going to be upset if you look too closely as you pass by, but you just HAVE to look.

I heard about this book, and it sounded like it would be more satire than "realistic", so I got a copy. Fortunately for me, I read it during a beach vacation in strong sunlight. Yes, it is that creepy, but still fascinating in some way that is hard to explain - like passing a bad car wreck and finding it impossible not to look. Any satire is greatly outweighed by the "realism".

The main character is a real sociopath, yet manages to interact with the people around him well enough. He is very "superficial" on the one hand (his elaborate routines for keeping himself in good shape and the decor of his apartment just so), yet he seems incredibly otherwise when he kills. The things he does to his victims are just insanely brutal; much of what he does is so out in the open that it is unbelievable that he can get away with it, yet he does in a believable way - a sad comment on our society I think. You might even laugh at times (like I did) - it is so strange that you may not know what else to do. This guy is like the devil - all pleasing appearances, yet all evil inside. This guy is NOT someone you would ever want to meet.

This is a book that will likely scare the hell out of you. If not,then watch the movie.

Absolutely disgusting
I realize this book was supposed to be a satire of our culture in the 80's.It could've been done without the horrific and disgusting descriptions of the murders the protagonist conducted.I am not kidding when I say I was absolutely revolted.A good writer should be able to get his point across without excess, and this was excessive violence beyond the pale.

American Psycho
This item was listed as free shipping, and ordered on September 2nd.I find out that it won't be shipped until September 20th...I won't order free shipping again and will probably look elsewhere to buy.This is rediculous!

Behind every great fortune lies a crime...
I've heard in the blogosphere that there's been a resurgence of interest in American Psycho.Since I hadn't read the book when it first appeared, I thought I'd try it on this go-around.It is a darkly humorous novel and highly original in many respects, such as the narrator's propensity to describe in exquisite GQ detail other characters' attire--as refreshing and as bracing as the J&B the main character, the wealthy young Wall St. scion, Patrick Bateman, favors.It's not a typical 'American' novel and reminds me of Jim Thompson on steroids, with a dash of F. Scott Fitzgerald.There's alot of very detailed horrorific (and creative) killing, which alternates with comedy, like Bateman evading an hopeful homosexual paramour at Barney's.In a scene the movie did well, there is a hilarious panic attack brought on by the comparison of business cards, their quality of paper, their ink, and typeface.

The 'unreliable narrator' is played to the hilt: we don't really know if this is a 'real' person doing 'real' things, or a real crazy person, or a real crazy person doing 'real' things, etc.It's hard to believe a mass serial killer could rack up this number of victims even in NYC.That's part of a deeper inquiry--what really lies below the surfaces, like tastes in clothes or music, that makes people more deeply human, if anything.

But it's also subtle commentary on the American scene, or at least a slice of it, so to speak, in the late '80s, which is just as applicable today, hence, I suspect the resurgence in interest.Here we have crime hiding in plain sight, and nobody interested in doing much about it--as large a problem in the '80s as with the more recent derivatives-based scandals with characters like Madoff and such.Some elements are quite dated--such as the need to return videos to a store, or the references to 'hardbodies'--but that doesn't detract from the core update of Vanity Fair.

I'm also reminded of a recent article in the Times about the 'compassion deficit' that the wealthy can experience, as they feel that they become less and less connected to the same society as the rest of us.This concept was elaborated in a discussion of charitable giving, and how the wealthy give far less than the less well off as a percentage of income, and when they do give, it's usually to 'status' organizations.

How long can the unsustainable be sustained?There is no comeuppance for Bateman--though there is a hint, towards the end, which is weirdly prescient given 9/11: "History is sinking and only a very few seem dimly aware that things are getting bad.Airplanes fly low across the city, crossing in front of the sun."

Alas, the mendacious rich, as well as the poor, will always be with us. ... Read more

Product Description
Stalking Bret Easton Ellis is a novel comprised of several vignettes detailing the lives of a handful of young college students in New England and Los Angeles. They are living the life that we all dream of-or maybe it's the life that we think we want to live. They struggle to find their way and yearn for acceptance and meaning in their superficial, empty, post-modern lives where money and beauty call the shots and indecency and nonchalance run rampant. Despite living on opposite coasts, the central characters' lives intertwine in "that way that people with million-dollar houses" have lives that intertwine. They are connected by an unspeakable code of skewed ethics and a lifestyle that dictates the necessities of the high life - a life they all struggle to belong in, whether already there or not. The fight to be part of the in-crowd is undermined by the pure emptiness of the lifestyles of the rich. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

A poor imitation
Just because the book is titled "Stalking Bret Easton Ellis" does not give the authors carte blanche to blatantly plagiarize his style.

"I'm hungover on the red-eye back to L.A...I buzz the stewardess and ask her to bring me some more red, she says they're out. Sighing, I lean back in the oversized leather seat, musing...how first class isn't what it used to be. I flip down my new Dolce & Gabbana sunglasses and stare out the window, anxious for some Xanax. I daydream about the last time I was in L.A. something, Christmas, maybe, a party with Zeigler..."

This reads like a passage lifted from "Less Than Zero" only without the believability. When BEE writes about the ennui of youth, drugs, sex, and decadence it has an authenticity to it, like the writer has lived and seen it. This novel just reads like an 18 year old thought BEE wrote some really cool stuff and they're just trying to modernize it (i.e. replacing Way Farer sunglasses with D&G). The plagiarism of BEE's style is made more flagrant and egregious by the copious use of song lyrics and footnotes which expound on trivia about that song/artist. If you're interested in this novel, please do yourself a favor and skip this cheap imitation and read Less Than Zero instead.

Horrible
Although the authors attempted to "stalk" Bret's style, they missed by a landslide. This was honestly the biggest waste of $1.00 I've ever spent. The writing is below average, and the storyline is discombobulated and uninteresting. Save yourself the horror. I couldn't bear to finish reading it.

An imitation for imitation's sake. Please don't support this.
There have been a lot of Bret Easton Ellis novel rip-offs, especially in the past 5 years, but this one has to be the most blatant. The authors of this novel have a knack for imitating and have essentially re-written Ellis' first two novels -- same locations, themes, apathetic drug-fueled with trust funds, characters, dark staccato writing style -- and have just updated the pop culture references to modern times. I cannot believe someone would be spineless and egotistical enough to publish a carbon copy of somebody else's work with their own name on it. Wow, I'm sure these two authors have an amazing career ahead of them, considering they just made it public that neither of them have any original thought, nor have the talent or ability to contribute anything new.

If you are considering reading this, why not just read an actual Ellis novel? This book just takes a piss on any self-respecting, earnest writer. Please don't waste your money and support this mockery of a novel.

Really Enjoyed It
Having read all of BEE's books, I really enjoyed this novel. Very entertaining, with dialogue and frequent references to popular culture that are comparable to Easton Ellis's work. I hope these women keep writing because, clearly, they are talented. And I'm ready for Imperial Bedrooms.

BEE Redux
I recently just finished reading Stalking Bret Easton Ellis by Caroline Weiss and Margaret Wallace. As a long time Bret Easton Ellis fan I was intrigued by the concept of Stalking Bret Easton Ellis. The book is set into two parts, one taking place in New York and one taking place in Los Angeles. There is an obvious link to the writing style of SBEE and the writing style of Bret Easton Ellis. Common themes are repeated, such as characters using lines of lyrics to express their emotions (similar to Victor Ward in Glamorama). A large number of pop culture references, models, celebs, and anything pertaining to the "scene". Drugs, casual sex, and the feeling of "Does anything truly matter when you can afford ANYTHING" streams through both place settings. A plethora of characters share their point of view experiences about their life, the parties they go to, and the people they sleep with. I may be somewhat biased as a fan of Bret Easton Ellis so I had a difficult time extracting the same emotion of deep existential void that is so prevalent in BEE books in SBEE. However, SBEE does have some very great moments of philosophical reasoning in characters you would otherwise think did not have any sense of remorse or compassion for anyone but themselves. One of my favorite lines is:

"Those eyes are full of surrender because she knows nothing, really, and lies are more seductive than the truth. I'm looking through her, to something just beyond, and I'm thinking: Watch me steal your treasure, watch me live in your palace, just watch me." (pg 8)

Bottom line:

I would completely suggest this book to any BEE fan, there a lot of similarities that are fun to compare between BEE books and SBEE. I find this book to be a great fun read, its fast paced, short, and to the point. As with most BEE books, SBEE will leave you feeling like you're not quite sure if you love the characters or despise them but they sure have some interesting stories to tell.
... Read more

Product Description
The centre of the world: 1990s Manhattan. Victor Ward, a model with perfect abs and all the right friends, is seen and photographed everywhere, even in places he hasn't been and with people he doesn't know. On the eve of opening the trendiest nightclub in New York history, he's living with one beautiful model and having an affair with another. Now it's time to move to the next stage. But the future he gets is not the one he had in mind."Does for the cold, minimal '90s what "American Psycho" did for the Wall Street greed of the '80s. You name it, he manages to get it all in" - "Vogue". "Gets under the skin of our celebrity culture in a way that is both illuminating and frightening" - "Daily Telegraph". "A Bonfire of the Vanities - "Glamorama" is more like a Semtex attack on our superficialities" - Face". "An epic that takes his blank surrealism into a realm equalled only by DeLillo" - "Arena". "A master stylist with hideously interesting new-fangled manners and the heart of an old-fashioned moralist" -"Observer". "Brilliant...He is fast becoming a writer of real American genius" - "GQ". "An American masterpiece" - "Scotland on Sunday". ... Read more

Product Description
This collection of critical essays on the American novelist Bret Easton Ellis examines the novels of his mature period: "American Psycho" (1991), "Glamorama" (1999), and "Lunar Park" (2005). Taking as its starting-point "American Psycho"'s seismic impact on contemporary literature and culture, the volume establishes Ellis' centrality to the scholarship and teaching of contemporary American literature in the U.S. and in Europe. Contributors examine the alchemy of acclaim and disdain that accrues to this controversial writer, provide an overview of growing critical material on Ellis and review the literary and artistic significance of his recent work. Exploring key issues including violence, literature, reality, reading, identity, genre, and gender, the contributors together provide a critical re-evaluation of Ellis, exploring how he has impacted, challenged, and transformed contemporary literature in the U.S. and abroad. This series offers up-to-date guides to the recent work of major contemporary North American authors.Written by leading scholars in the field, each book presents a range of original interpretations of three key texts published since 1990, showing how the same novel may be interpreted in a number of different ways. These informative, accessible volumes will appeal to advance undergraduate and postgraduate students, facilitating discussion and supporting close analysis of the most important contemporary American and Canadian fiction. ... Read more

Product Description
This work is now a major film starring Mickey Rourke, Winona Ryder, Kim Basinger and Billy Bob Thornton. Capturing the lives of a group of people in "Los Angeles", "The Informers" is an intense narrative that blurs genders, generations and even identities. The characters go to the same schools and eat at the same restaurants. Their voices enfold us as seamlessly as those of DJs heard over a car radio. They have sex with the same boys and girls and buy from the same dealers. In short, they are connected in the only way people can be in L.A. - suffering from nothing less than the death of the soul. '"The Informers" is spare, austere, elegantly designed, telling in details, coolly ferocious, sardonic in its humour, every vestige of authorial sentiment is expunged' - "New York Times". 'A well-observed and bleakly funny indictment of a culture with money, cars and drugs, where the nearest things to spiritual values are health food and good looks' - "Times Literary Supplement". 'Ellis has the ability to capture modern reality with the ferocity of a collector driving a pin through a social butterfly' - "Guardian". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

This book is writtn in spanish!
I am a huge Bret Easton fan,I saw this and thought it might be some overseas collection of stories or i dunno...buyer be aware that this is in SPANISH.I'm sending it to my brother in law who is fluent in portuguese. ... Read more

Product Description
This title offers a textual and contextual analysis of Bret Easton Ellis' most important works, focusing on their reception, popular culture influences, and literary style. Both literary author and celebrity, Bret Easton Ellis represents a type of contemporary writer who draws from both high and the low culture, using popular culture references, styles and subject matters in a literary fiction that goes beyond mere entertainment. His fiction, arousing the interest of the academia, mass media and general public, has fuelled heated controversy over his work. This controversy has often prevented serious analysis of his fiction, and this book is the first monograph to fill in this gap by offering a comprehensive textual and contextual analysis of his most important works up to the latest novel "Imperial Bedrooms". Offering a study of the reception of each novel, the influence of popular, mass and consumer culture in them, and the analysis of their literary style, it takes into account the controversies surrounding the novels and the changes produced in the shifty terrain of the literary marketplace.It offers anyone studying contemporary American fiction a thorough and unique analysis of Ellis' work and his own place in the literary and cultural panorama. ... Read more

Product Description
This is part of a new series of guides to contemporary novels. The aim of the series is to give readers accessible and informative introductions to some of the most popular, most acclaimed and most influential novels of recent years – from ‘The Remains of the Day’ to ‘White Teeth’. A team of contemporary fiction scholars from both sides of the Atlantic has been assembled to provide a thorough and readable analysis of each of the novels in question. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

I didn't find it republican or racist
I found this to be a book about how too much of anything can cause a life
to become off track.It is a book about a man living in the Postmodern
Era who thinks he is living the American Dream, only it becomes the America Nightmare.He is cut off from reality, can buy whatever he wants,
and satisfies all his desires and cravings with little effort.This is a book that is and should be written about America. It seems to be about how so much affluence can create a subhuman society that has little or no empathy for anyone regarless of politics.The story is about a man who has lost any trace of compassion for his fellow human beings.You could say he is a victim of our industrial capitalist society who has lost his
humanity.He is representative of Western Progress.He is not human anymore, he is artificial.Liberals living in Hollywood can be just as artificial as the Wall Street CEO as represented by P.Bateman.

Ellis Deserves Better
American Psycho is one of the few books I have read more than once.I realized upon initially reading it that there was much going on beneath the surface that I was probably missing due not only to the extreme violence but also to the relentless focus on the superficial details that the main character, Patrick Bateman, describes.An excellent essay by Elizabeth Young in the book Shopping in Space allowed me to better appreciate the book the second time around.I was therefore excited when I saw the instant reader's guide by Murphet.Unfortunately, it was a letdown.

There are a couple of bright spots.Murphet does a fair job (but no better) of placing the book into the historical and social context in which Bateman existed.Murphet also does a good job of demonstrating that many events that are described in the book are probably occurring only within Bateman's head.Particularly noteworthy is pointing out that the real estate agent at Paul Owens' apartment, after Bateman allegedly killed him, was named Mrs. Wolfe.This is a reference to Tom Wolfe, the author of the realistic novel Bonfire of the Vanities, and provides a clue that that particular episode is "real."Combined with other clues, this calls into question the accuracy of Bateman's description of the murder itself.

Unfortunately, this reader's guide usually disappoints.As an initial matter, it is written in the pretentious language all too typical of literary criticism from people trying to show how smart they are.Such high-falutin' language does not impress me and others should not hesitate to say that the emperor has no clothes.

Murphet also strikes out frequently, as when a minor character mistakes Bateman for someone else and proceeds to describe Bateman in unflattering terms.Murphet believes this is noteworthy as it is inconsistent with the perception the reader has formed of Bateman.This is incorrect.Even a casual reader will recognize well before this episode that Bateman's inner view of himself is not matched by others' objective view of him.Check out what a fool Bateman makes of himself at McDonalds immediately after his attack on the homeless guy Al.

Murphet does little better when analyzing social critics of the novel.Bateman attacks both men and women in the novel, which Murphet acknowledges.Yet in discussing allegations of anti-woman sexism, Murphet focuses on whether this is attributable to the character Bateman or the author Ellis.How could anyone miss a softball like this?The better analysis is that the novel's violence may not be anti-woman, but critiques along such lines speak volumes about the callousness of such critics towards men.Further, Murphet's discussion questions regarding consumerism would be laughable if one could keep one's eyes from rolling at, again, the pretentiousness.

Ellis has written an important book skewering a noteable segment of our society.I have given the current reader's guide two stars, rather than only one, because of the paucity of literary criticisms of the novel and because a fan may get something out of it (though I would recommend Elizabeth Young's aforementioned essay over this).American Psycho deserves intelligent analysis.It deserves better than this.

American Pyscho: Uncovered
We have been in need of a series like Continuum Contemporaries for a long time.Unlike the watered-down reader's guides produced by York Notes (and in the US `Cliff's Notes') these little books tackle text's which have gained something of a cult status in the late twentieth century, and do so from a perspective which is at once approachable enough for the recreational reader, and rigorous enough for the advanced student. It is therefore fitting that a text so widely, and wildly, misunderstood as Bret Easton Ellis's `American Psycho'. should be included amongst the Continuum survey.

Julian Murphet is one of the foremost critics of Ellis's work, and what you get here are all the benefits of the breadth and depth of his knowledge, boiled down into a slim and precise volume.He provides us with a short biography of the author; an exploration of the narrative voice at work within the text; a discussion of the themes of alienation and reification and a survey of critical responses.He is, however, at his most engaging in his discussion of violence and politics, the real heart of the novel itself.

He tackles the central, consuming question of whether the protagonist Patrick Bateman ever actually commits the murders so graphically rendered in the text's pages, in a manner that is exploratory and revelatory without ever being proscriptive.Thus we see an argument develop from the tentative suggestion that `everything could well be contained to the level of fantasy,' to the final assertion that the violence within `American Psycho' is`an act of language' and never really happens at all.He ties this argument in very neatly with an understanding of the text in its political context, seeing Bateman as a `pin-up boy for the establishment Right' during the Reagan era, and reading the real `murder' within the novel, not as that projected by Bateman, but rather as the `murder of the real' the erasure of all social difference and threat - what he terms `the gentrification of the city.'

Murphet rounds this off with a great critique of the film version of the novel, his genuine academic appreciation of cinema in general, making this more than just a fan's opinion.

No reader of `American Psycho' will ever wholly agree with any one theory, and indeed it is the paradoxical beauty of the novel that is never really gives you a definitive answer either way. Murphet's argument is one reading, but it is a very convincing one, and this text is a must for anyone who remains challenged by, and curious about, this work.

EXTRA CREDIT
Having read American Psycho several times since it's release, I'm surprised that it's taken somebody this long to put together something that delves deeper into this book. This reader's guide is broken down into 5 sections (the novelist; the novel; the novel's reception; the novel's adaptation; and further reading and discussion questions) and is followed by brief notes and bibliography pages. Like Anthony Magistrale's The Shining Reader and David Sexton's The Strange World Of Thomas Harris, this book allows me to further explore one of my favorite books and it's author. A little extra credit for the fans and a little insight for those who are not.

Ellis is a sicko, but it is great
Brett Easton Ellis shows a very dark character in the book American Psycho. The movie did not even begin to scratch the surface of Patrick Bateman's "odd" personality. After reading this book, the movie adaptation is unbelieveable. You understand the pain that Bateman is going through when asking for reservations. He is so deeply disturbed that he onoly lives for outward apperances. If you only read one book this summer, and you really want to be shocked, pick up American Psycho ... Read more

Product Description
In American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis imaginatively explores the incomprehensible depths of madness and captures the insanity of violence in our time or any other. Patrick Bateman moves among the young and trendy in 1980s Manhattan. Young, handsome, and well educated, Bateman earns his fortune on Wall Street by day while spending his nights in ways we cannot begin to fathom. Expressing his true self through torture and murder, Bateman prefigures an apocalyptic horror that no society could bear to confront.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Bret Easton Ellis swings and misses.
I was a huge fan of Ellis' novel American Psycho.However, I was a little disappointed in Glamorama.I can appreciate delving into the schizophrenic mind of an author, but this book really didn't make much sense.Male model, aspiring actor and scene kid falls in with a terrorist organization operating in Europe hell-bent on killing people for no apparent reason. There was no continuity other than the protagonist was an idiot pretty boy who stumbles through everything and comes out alive by luck.Well... I guess it makes sense now that I write this.I hate that guy, too.I guess I'll give it 3 stars instead. ... Read more