Man, The Rules of Attraction might be the best book of this generation.

[TVC15]

After that recent discussion with Ichirou, I have been rereading all the Bret Easton Ellis novels in order.

Less than Zero is still fucking mind-blowing.  It's like Catcher in the Rye meets the Crying of Lot 49 in some ways, and it absolutely offends me that a fucking 18 year old wrote this.  18!  He's a fucking super genius!

But The Rules of Attraction, Jesus.  For how true and real Less than Zero felt, The Rules of Attraction turns down the darkness a little bit while cranking up the fast moving lives of young adults.  The book has still got its dark bits, but similar to how Less than Zero handles sexual partners (by the end of the book, sexual partners of the main character are described so vaguely that they could be male or female), RoA handles the downers of college and young adult life.  Yeah, there's death and abortions and stuff, but it's handled largely carfreely.  The love triangle at the center of the book is also silly to the point of feeling totally real.

Also, RoA introduces us to Patrick Bateman of American Psycho fame (Patrick's younger brother is the main character of Rules of Attraction), although he mainly comes across as a snooty square in the book.  We don't find out what he really is until Ellis's next book.

  ELLIS BEST LIVING WRITER

[The Fake Shemp]

Movie sucked.

[TVC15]

1) The movie wasn't bad.
2) This is about the book, so take your trash elsewhere.  There's a ton of porn in that one thread you could be cleaning up.

[Madrun Badrun]

That fact that he write at 18 makes me want to read it...but I;m quite sold.  whats less than zero about? 

[G The Resurrected]

yes theres porn on evilbore now

[Madrun Badrun]

yes theres porn on evilbore now

   where?  Tell me now! 

[Mupepe]

yes theres porn on evilbore now

they need to take that shit to mupepe.com

[G The Resurrected]

wait you want hanscock on your site mupepe? And that nasty twat in te background?

Sorry tvc didnt meant to derail your thread. The book is good the movie sucks

[TVC15]

That fact that he write at 18 makes me want to read it...but I;m quite sold.  whats less than zero about? 

Less than Zero is about a guy, Clay, coming home to LA after his first semester of college at Camden College in New Hampshire (which is where The Rules of Attraction takes place).  He tries to reconnect with his friends and his old girlfriend, but he finds that he has become disconnected from their world.  One of his old best friends has also become a drug addicted male prostitute.

The book is largely plotless.  Reconnecting with his girlfriend and old friend are basically the 2 major threads.  It's largely about the nihilism of youth, and how many things are going on, and how little it actually means.  At first it's kind of bizarre, but you eventually realize that although situations are being taken to extremes, the underlying theme is at least partially correct, at least for those that feel like outsiders of one sort or another.

[Madrun Badrun]

that sounds good.  Its going on my amazon wish list. 

[Scurvy Stan]

Hooray nihilisms.

I was just thinking I needed to get a new book to read at work. May as well be this one I guess.

[Candyflip]

Ah, I was mixed up. I thought this had something to do with that new book Oprah has been whoring. The one about the "law of attraction" lolnew-age

[TVC15]

Some pretty good copy:

Through a series of brief first-person accounts, the novel chronicles one term at a fictional New England college, with particular emphasis on a decidedly contemporary love triangle (one woman and two men) in which all possible combinations have been explored, and each pines after the one who's pining after the other. Theirs is a world of physical, chemical and emotional excess; an adolescent fantasy of sex, drugs and sturm und drang wherein characters are distinguished only by the respective means by which they squander their health, wealth and youth. The narrative relies on the stalest staples of melodrama and manages to pack in a suicide, assorted suicide attempts, an abortion and the death of a parent without giving the impression that anything is happeningor that any of it matters.

[Solo]

Is the book actually good Whitey? I saw the movie and thought it was pure garbage.

[ToxicAdam]

I'll buy this for my summer trip to Cape Cod in August. I'll create a book report when I am done. Does it need to be double spaced?

[Tauntaun]

I'll buy this for my summer trip to Cape Cod in August. I'll create a book report when I am done. Does it need to be double spaced?

I'm going to Cape Cod in August.  My family has vacationed there every summer for the past 22-23 years.  Where you at on the island, we're in Eastham.  We'll be there from the 11-18. 

[ToxicAdam]

I'll buy this for my summer trip to Cape Cod in August. I'll create a book report when I am done. Does it need to be double spaced?

I'm going to Cape Cod in August.  My family has vacationed there every summer for the past 22-23 years.  Where you at on the island, we're in Eastham.  We'll be there from the 11-18. 

My wife's family has been doing it for 15 years or so. I've been going the last 5. We stay just outside of Harwich near Chatham. We are going July 29-Aug4.

Love the place, everyone is so friendly. It's not oppressively commericialized like 99% of America.

We've never went to Eastham, but we always drive up that way to spend a day in Provincetown (got to love that place).

[whiteACID]

Movie sucked.

Don't judge a book by its movie.

[Tauntaun]

Movie sucked.

Don't judge a book by its movie.

Right, except if we're talking about people and the color of their skin.

[border]

I loved Less Than Zero when I was in high school -- and even had a chance to buy a 1st print hardcover of it once (which I really regretted not doing).

But I always figured that if I revisited it now it would seem kind of slipshod, teen-ish, overtly mopey, and affectedly nihlistic.  I'm glad to hear that it still holds up in some fashion.  Maybe I'll give it another read if I can still find my copy.  Time to crank up "A Hazy Shade of Winter"!

Have fun with American Psycho......though I imagine the movie's already ruined a good deal of it for you.  I liked the first Dexter book, but thinking of it now Ellis makes Jeff Lindsay look like a rank amateur.

[TVC15]

I read all of his books before (aside from Lunar Park).  I decided to reread them all again before doing Lunar Park since that's apparently some sort of retrospective/fake autobiography thing.

[BlackMage]

where's my episode 3?!?!!

[border]

Oh, sorry -- I didn't catch the "rereading" part

[TVC15]

where's my episode 3?!?!!

You'll get it.  My bandwidth was occupied with mass piracy last night.  I had to grab Hostel 2 and then I noticed like 6 other things I needed.

[Himu]

What all books has the author written? I'd like to try my hand in them.

[BlackMage]

where's my episode 3?!?!!

You'll get it.  My bandwidth was occupied with mass piracy last night.  I had to grab Hostel 2 and then I noticed like 6 other things I needed.

thanks, baby. *smooch*

[border]

What all books has the author written? I'd like to try my hand in them.

In order of publishing (I think):

Less Than Zero
Rules of Attraction
American Psycho
The Informers
Glamorama
Lunar Park

After American Psycho though, most critics tend to complain that the guy is just writing the same book over and over again.  I never read beyond "Psycho" so I dunno.

[TVC15]

What all books has the author written? I'd like to try my hand in them.

In order of publishing (I think):

Less Than Zero
Rules of Attraction
American Psycho
The Informers
Glamorama
Lunar Park

After American Psycho though, most critics tend to complain that the guy is just writing the same book over and over again.  I never read beyond "Psycho" so I dunno.

Well, Less Than Zero, Rules of Attraction, American Psycho, and Glamorama are working on a very similar set of themes, just from different POVs.  I don't recall much of The Informers (its short stories, basically - they could have been stand alone bits in any of the previous books with a little reworking.  I am guessing he released it as an odds and ends thing).

I really don't mind that he likes working on similar things, espeically because he mixes things up really well as far as characters go.