Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I first read this about 20 years ago, or so, and I remember, at the time, I was rather impressed. This time, however, not so much. Then again I’m older now, more jaded and cynical, and not even the kind of jaded and cynical I thought I was when I was a fresh-faced post-teen. I’ve read a few thousand novels since then, and in as much as we can recognize these things when we’re in the midst of them, “contemporary literature” has changed.
(But I still like it more than Franzen).
(FWIW, I only re-read this one because a friend of mine was comparing his Girl Scout cookie addiction to the movie version of the book, and I decided to write a short story about it . You can read A Hazy Shade of Thin Mint if you want).
When a 19 year-old kid writes a roman a clef that winds up being a tour de force, one can’t help but read other things by him and make comparisons. So I read Rules of Attraction and American Psycho and found them to be pretty good; Years later, Glamorama and Lunar Park, not so good. The clef had gone flat, to abuse the phrase. The tour had lost its force.
Now, on re-reading, I’m thinking it’s just me that’s changed. Ellis himself, in an interview with Amazon, says that he, after 20 years, finally sees why the book is so awesome. So it’s definitely just me.
And now I’ve discovered that Ellis finally wrote a sequel, Imperial Bedrooms with all the main characters grown up and facing middle-age. So maybe there’s a chance for me to go, if not full circle, at least back in step with Ellis. I guess I’ll read this sequel. If it’s mediocre, perhaps that’s a sign of brilliance, that Ellis addresses his audience the way they address their reading. Youth is too enthusiastic, middle-agers are too mediocre, and mixing them for together, mediocrity always wins.