Courtney Weaver in "The New York Times Book Review" (09/27/1998) says: "I found it...reminiscent of Bret Easton Ellis on a bad holiday in Scotland."
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"[Fashion] struck me as being a great metaphor for what society is representing at the moment. Ninety per cent of the characters in the book are models, and I have a very sinister and angry feeling about models, especially the kind of reactions they inspire in people, including myself. This kind of lust mixed with awe and dread and insecurity. This book is my attempt to grapple with that emotion and control it in a way."
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Bret Easton Ellis published his first novel LESS THAN ZERO when he was 21 and still an undergraduate at Bennington College. The novel revolved around a young man who returns from college to Los Angeles and becomes disheartened by the moral vacuousness of his friends. Themes of apathy, disillusionment, and depravity would continue in his subsequent novels, notably AMERICAN PSYCHO, the story of a psychopathic yuppie murderer, which was made into a film starring Christian Bale. Ellis is also known more...
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1964 Los Angeles, Southern California, California, Pacific States, Western States, United States,
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This book was graphic, but almost comically so. I realize that it was a commentary on the excess of the 1980's, but there were parts of the story that were so unrealistic that they were annoying. For example, the violence and the carnage that took place inside of Patrick Bateman's apartment were so over the top that it would be impossible not to ruin every single thing in the place. Bateman even finds skin & blood from several of his victims on his furniture or on his walls long after they have been killed. Also, the disappearance/murder of Paul Owen appear to have been a dream & the murder of 2 prostitutes appears to have been imagined. Is it possible that Bateman was so high (he was a cocaine addict) that he truly couldn't tell reality from fiction?
I have to say that I truly prefer the movie (with Christian Bale) over the book, but I also felt that way about "Less Than Zero." Somehow, Ellis's books translate much better on film than in their original form. I'm not sure what that says about him as an author, but I doubt I'll read another one of his books.