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3.07 AVERAGE
3.07 AVERAGE
if this is one of your top 10 books of all time, you need to stay tf away from me
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Second BEE read, last one for a lifetime. I imagine he’d self-combust if he was ever tasked with writing a book devoid of the rape of young girls, their murder, or the run-of-the-mill depravity he’s become so famous for. Crazy to think him & Donna Tartt came out of the same writing workshop
Bret Easton Ellis is something else. He has an incredible ability to take you to places that are both compelling and dark, and he can make you uncomfortable more cleverly than any author I've ever read. This is a rather short work, even by BEE standards (although, when you read as much Stephen King as I do, it occurs to me that almost anything is short by comparison) which is only disappointing b/c his novels are so few and many years in between. This has led some to call this a lazy effort from BEE, but I don't see it that way. I see it as totally deliberate. It's easy to see why it's so short. It is missing the endlessly descriptive narratives that his obsessive compulsive characters typically provide. But to me, it only works in favor of what he was trying to accomplish with this piece. And I'll take quality over quantity anytime. The book begins with a stroke of genius in that BEE cleverly pans the Less Than Zero film. It's brilliant b/c he not only gets to take shots at the film he clearly distastes (if you've read the book and seen the film, you need no explanation) but he also gets to frame the books as "real life". All the main characters from LTZ are back, in their now famous and glitzy adult lives. Including Julian, who notoriously (and stupidly) dies in the movie version for some ungodly dumb reason. He was portrayed by Robert Downey Jr in the film, no less. (sidebar; how great would a movie version of this book be with RDJ back playing a character that was already killed off onscreen? Hilarious.) Shortly after this opening narrative the book dives off into a bit of a mystery story. Definite shades of Glamorama fill this book at every turn, especially in the ultra dark final pages (some point more towards American Psycho at these parts, but for me, always Glamorama). It's a well spun tale, but if you're looking for clear resolutions and endings where all the pieces fit, you will surely be disappointed. It's a point of coolness and one of frustration at the same time for me. I completely get what he's doing and it definitely works, but at the same time, I do appreciate a more straightforward ending to a really good story rather than continually being left to draw your own conclusions among the mirk and muddle and hazy details. But BEE is far too hip and narcissistic to make it easy on his readers. One thing that definitely went over my head were the direct comparisons between the fictitious The Listeners here, and his real life film adaption of The Informers. Which of course, led several others to suggest that BEE is Clay in book form. Maybe, maybe not. And clearly, I need to brush up on my Elvis Costello references as well. But really, books like this can lead to endless speculation of symbolism and what was real and what wasn't. I do think it's clear that Clay wasn't quite the same guy that he portrayed himself to be. Which does lead you to make your own conclusions about him and what really happened along the way, and in the end, and what didn't. BEE is so very intriguing and exceptional. The one author I wish who would write more.
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It was interesting to read this directly after "Less Than Zero" - you could see how Bret Easton Ellis evolved as a writer. This book has some actual plot, its a mystery, its a LA noir. Although most of the cast of the first book returns, the events from back then are only slightly related - but its interesting to see how these fucked up teenagers turned to much more fucked up adults. Clay has the biggest change though. While in the first book he was a passive, numb protagonist who just stumbled through the happenings, he his in this book much more involved, emotionally as well as through his actions. For me these two books seem to form a moral expression of the author: Evil starts with lack of emotions, numbness. Its a precondition to becoming a sadist.
I liked the disambuigity what of the plot is real and what not.
Its fucking dark again though, not a book to read if you want to have a good time.
I liked the disambuigity what of the plot is real and what not.
Its fucking dark again though, not a book to read if you want to have a good time.
28th book of 2024.
A sequel to Less Than Zero, one that, I guess, never needed to be written. I read Ellis's debut years ago and I remember all the motifs that get thrown around: "DISAPPEAR HERE" and the horrible gang-rape of a young girl at the end of it, which is referenced at the beginning of this novel. This book was published in 2010, just five years after Lunar Park (2005), and they share many of the same ideas. In this, Clay is now a screenwriter and the start is a bit meta, about the movie adaption of Less Than Zero and how his life was written by someone else. In Lunar Park, a version of Ellis is the main character and he is haunted by Patrick Bateman from American Psycho. Interesting that his books circle the same few characters and events and they all seem to hail from where it all began when Ellis published his first book at 21. And now The Shards, which I read part of, is out too, 13 years after this was published, and returns to an idea that, supposedly, 17-year-old Bret had, but couldn't write. Anyway: Clay is still disillusioned, nihilist. He thinks he's being followed, there's a small cast of characters all somehow connected in his half-baked noir novel. There's a few expected Ellis scenes which are grotesque to read: a torture involving an insane amount of stabbing, tongue cutting-out, and the tying down of a woman who has been drugged and having seizures, raping her, pissing on her, and her eyeball coming out, before finally murdering her. Sometimes I look at the number of Ellis books I've read and wonder Why? What for? But perhaps he's still writing of generations gone, the exaggerated, sexed-up violence of the 80s which he can't seem to escape from.
A sequel to Less Than Zero, one that, I guess, never needed to be written. I read Ellis's debut years ago and I remember all the motifs that get thrown around: "DISAPPEAR HERE" and the horrible gang-rape of a young girl at the end of it, which is referenced at the beginning of this novel. This book was published in 2010, just five years after Lunar Park (2005), and they share many of the same ideas. In this, Clay is now a screenwriter and the start is a bit meta, about the movie adaption of Less Than Zero and how his life was written by someone else. In Lunar Park, a version of Ellis is the main character and he is haunted by Patrick Bateman from American Psycho. Interesting that his books circle the same few characters and events and they all seem to hail from where it all began when Ellis published his first book at 21. And now The Shards, which I read part of, is out too, 13 years after this was published, and returns to an idea that, supposedly, 17-year-old Bret had, but couldn't write. Anyway: Clay is still disillusioned, nihilist. He thinks he's being followed, there's a small cast of characters all somehow connected in his half-baked noir novel. There's a few expected Ellis scenes which are grotesque to read: a torture involving an insane amount of stabbing, tongue cutting-out, and the tying down of a woman who has been drugged and having seizures, raping her, pissing on her, and her eyeball coming out, before finally murdering her. Sometimes I look at the number of Ellis books I've read and wonder Why? What for? But perhaps he's still writing of generations gone, the exaggerated, sexed-up violence of the 80s which he can't seem to escape from.
Ci deve essere qualcosa in E.Ellis che me lo fa leggere nonostante spesso, i suoi libri, mi provochino un malessere fisico, un fastidio che rasenta la nausea. "Meno di zero" dava il via ad una serie di personaggi che incontriamo di nuovo, poco cambiati e peggiorati, in questo "Imperial bedrooms". Il solito velato scambio di persona tra lo scrittore e il personaggio, la solita fine che scivola in "American psycho" eppure non è un brutto libro, la caratterizzazione è fenomenale, sembra che stia parlando di persone che conosci, molto bene anche. Questo scrittore per me resta quindi, per me, un enigma.
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Jesus Christ man BEE needs help. This was horrid. Well written but Less Than Zero did not need a sequel. They’re horrible people