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Checked out
Due 2017-12-10
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Publication
New York : Simon and Schuster, ©1985.
Description
Returning to Los Angeles from his Eastern college for a Christmas vacation in the early 1980s, Clay "reenters a landscape of limitless privilege and absolute moral entropy, where everyone drives Porsches, dines at Spago, and snorts mountains of cocaine ... A raw, powerful portrait of a lost generation."--Back cover.
Media reviews
The narrator, Clay, and his friends - who have names like Rip, Blair, Kim, Cliff, Trent and Alana - all drive BMW's and Porsches, hang out at the Polo Lounge and Spago, and spend their trust funds on designer clothing, porno films and, of course, liquor and drugs. None of them, so far as the reader
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can tell, has any ambitions, aspirations, or interest in the world at large. And their philosophy, if they have any at all, represents a particularly nasty combination of EST and Machiavelli: ''If you want something, you have the right to take it. If you want to do something, you have the right to do it.'' Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member AlCracka
The defense I see most often of Ellis is: "You just don't get the joke." And could there be a more annoying defense? How can you even respond to that? It's meaningless.
And it's not a joke. It's satire; that's totally different.
I spent tonight arguing about Ellis with some very smart contrarians,
They're right, and that's not valueless. Ellis has achieved something. I actually know these people - not Ellis' caricatures of them, but the real people - and I see what he's describing.
The only problem is here's the first sentence of this book: "People are afraid to merge on freeways in Los Angeles." This is a metaphor, I happen to know because I was an English major, and it's fucking stupid. And it's his big theme! This! People are afraid to merge! Like he's discovered some grand truth! He'll return to it like fifty times!
So. It's not a useless book. It's a decent satire of shallow pop culture sociopathy. Like Wallace, Ellis is concerned with connection: he wants us to engage with life. (To "merge," even!) Unlike Wallace, he refuses to make helpful suggestions; if you're irritated by Wallace's desperately wide-eyed sincerity, Ellis might speak to you.
But for fuck's sake, it is all awfully tedious.
And it's not a joke. It's satire; that's totally different.
I spent tonight arguing about Ellis with some very smart contrarians,
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and here's what they said: Ellis has captured the soulless Me First Generation, and their failure to connect with life, in a really effective way. He refuses his rival David Foster Wallace's edict that literature has to solve something; he insists, with merciless implacability, on simply showing it to you. No solutions, no conclusions.They're right, and that's not valueless. Ellis has achieved something. I actually know these people - not Ellis' caricatures of them, but the real people - and I see what he's describing.
The only problem is here's the first sentence of this book: "People are afraid to merge on freeways in Los Angeles." This is a metaphor, I happen to know because I was an English major, and it's fucking stupid. And it's his big theme! This! People are afraid to merge! Like he's discovered some grand truth! He'll return to it like fifty times!
So. It's not a useless book. It's a decent satire of shallow pop culture sociopathy. Like Wallace, Ellis is concerned with connection: he wants us to engage with life. (To "merge," even!) Unlike Wallace, he refuses to make helpful suggestions; if you're irritated by Wallace's desperately wide-eyed sincerity, Ellis might speak to you.
But for fuck's sake, it is all awfully tedious.
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LibraryThing member Sapiens1
Rough book. Easy read. I heard this author featured on Keillor's Writer's Almanac so I picked up the book at my PL. Written like a journal. Short chapters like vignettes. Adults/parents self absorbed and caught up with work life and social life in Hollywood and Palm Springs. Kids ignored, given
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money freely. Pays for cars and drinks and dope. Crazy non-stop life of hedonism, intoxication, ineffective psychotherapy, and male prostitution. Lovelessness but not necessarily hopelessness. Main character, Clay, can't seem to connect on greater than a superficial and stoned level with anyone in his life. Seeking meaning. Seeking love. Seeking identity. Witness to mindless nihilism, drug abuse, prostitution and death. Seems lost in a downward spiral, but still on track to rise above through college education in NH. Get out of LA or die. Adult authorities are so self-absorbed its criminal negligence. Sad read. Horror story really. Not sure it' s worthy of the read, I mean, what is the redeeming value of this book? It's so cynical. Is life really like this for some youth of the 80's? or today? Show Less
LibraryThing member amanda4242
What can I say about this book that wasn’t said while I was still in diapers? Probably nothing, but I’ll still give you my opinion.
Less Than Zero usually gets compared to Catcher in the Rye, but the book I always think of while reading it is Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. In both books, the
Even though I find no joy in its pages, I still find myself re-reading Less Than Zero at least once a year. Perhaps out of a desire for catharsis? Anyway, I highly recommend. For added pleasure, try reading it over Christmas.
Less Than Zero usually gets compared to Catcher in the Rye, but the book I always think of while reading it is Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. In both books, the
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characters wander around like ghosts, imbibing various chemicals (alcohol in Hemingway and drugs in Ellis) to either give themselves the illusion that they’re still alive or to numb the pain of being alive (I still haven’t decided which). There is such a sense of despair to both books that after reading them I always feel empty.Even though I find no joy in its pages, I still find myself re-reading Less Than Zero at least once a year. Perhaps out of a desire for catharsis? Anyway, I highly recommend. For added pleasure, try reading it over Christmas.
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LibraryThing member Magadri
While I love Ellis's style, I just couldn't get into this book as easily as the other two I've read by him (American Psycho and Rules of Attraction). I would read an entire page and realize I had no idea what just happened (although it's rare that anything ever did happen). Still, though, there
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were parts of this book that were redeeming, and I plan to read more of Ellis's work. Just a note: if you've seen the film, it is NOTHING like the book. Show Less
LibraryThing member burningtodd
Enjoyed the hell out of this book. Interesting writing style, very staccato, almost like a journal entry. Very much a satire about life in the eighties. Rich and stoned and bored with life.
LibraryThing member karieh
The last lines of this book sum up my feelings towards it perfectly: "There was a song I heard when I was in Los Angeles by a local group. The song was called “Los Angeles” and the words and images were so harsh and bitter that the song would reverberate in my mind for days. The images, I later
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found out, were personal and no one I knew shared them. The images I had were of people being driven mad by living in the city. Images of parents who were so hungry and unfulfilled that they ate their own children. Images of people, teenagers my own age, looking up from the asphalt and being blinded by the sun. These images stayed with me even after I left the city. Images so violent and malicious that they seemed to be my only point of reference for a long time afterwards. After I left.” Show Less
LibraryThing member ennuiprayer
Less Than Zero is a terribly chilling book about the woe-is-me white upper class college-aged kids, spending their time partying, snorting coke and whoring themselves out. And the way Bret Easton Ellis tells it, well, it's damn right poetic.
Clay returns home for Christmas break. After spending the
The book holds every vice in this ugly world that is glamoured up. Clay friends find it no big deal gang raping a twelve-year-old girl. Pimp Finn finds nothing wrong with subduing Julian into prostituting himself in order to pay back a debt. In fact, Finn even uses heroin to keep him in line. In the world Ellis created, there is no right or wrong. There's just action without consequences.
The reader feels no sympathy for Clay or the people who make up his L.A. life. Even the flashbacks of Clay's childhood bring no connection to him. Bret Easton Ellis created a masterpiece of repugnant people that readers will enjoy hating for years go come. At least for me, anyway.
Clay returns home for Christmas break. After spending the
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last four months in New Hampshire, Los Angeles seems foreign to him. Even worse, the people he knew are less friends than they are strangers. Oblivious ex-girlfriend picks up where their relationship left off. His friends are degenerate junkies. And Clay, while no different himself, begins to see himself for the first time. And the thought depresses him.The book holds every vice in this ugly world that is glamoured up. Clay friends find it no big deal gang raping a twelve-year-old girl. Pimp Finn finds nothing wrong with subduing Julian into prostituting himself in order to pay back a debt. In fact, Finn even uses heroin to keep him in line. In the world Ellis created, there is no right or wrong. There's just action without consequences.
The reader feels no sympathy for Clay or the people who make up his L.A. life. Even the flashbacks of Clay's childhood bring no connection to him. Bret Easton Ellis created a masterpiece of repugnant people that readers will enjoy hating for years go come. At least for me, anyway.
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LibraryThing member sunnydrk
The writing was simple, the dialogue entertaining. Both made for a quick and easy read; one that was difficult to put down. Growing up in the 80's, I wanted to relate to the characters but, that did not happen. Character development is slightly lacking and maybe that would have helped a little. The
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tale seems almost outlandish to me, although I'm sure there is some reality in there; which just makes me sad. Show Less
LibraryThing member MayaP
Bret Easton Ellis documents the life of Clay, eighteen years old, back home in LA for the holidays from his New England college. Clay does little. He moves in a daze, from bedroom to pool to parties and tense family dinners, watching the lives of his family and friends – mostly fellow teens with
The style is choppy- deliberately so – as Clay’s thoughts and feelings grasshopper through observations and feelings. Emotionally detached, he watches his world with the blinds drawn, numbed by a haze of sex, drugs and alcohol, witness to the slow-motion death-dives of the lives around him as his friends compete in an endless, no-holds-barred search for ever bigger and more contemptible thrills to alleviate the ennui of their hopeless lives.
Darkly pessimistic, Less than Zero confused me; why did I keep reading? Nothing really happens. There is virtually no plot and the only character development is that of Clay himself and his slow realisation that he’s living in Hell.
Clay’s final vow to leave LA and never return is the final word in a book that goes nowhere but is, nevertheless, always disturbing, fascinating and compelling.
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no direction, too much money and too much freedom – their parents all divorced and mostly absent.The style is choppy- deliberately so – as Clay’s thoughts and feelings grasshopper through observations and feelings. Emotionally detached, he watches his world with the blinds drawn, numbed by a haze of sex, drugs and alcohol, witness to the slow-motion death-dives of the lives around him as his friends compete in an endless, no-holds-barred search for ever bigger and more contemptible thrills to alleviate the ennui of their hopeless lives.
Darkly pessimistic, Less than Zero confused me; why did I keep reading? Nothing really happens. There is virtually no plot and the only character development is that of Clay himself and his slow realisation that he’s living in Hell.
Clay’s final vow to leave LA and never return is the final word in a book that goes nowhere but is, nevertheless, always disturbing, fascinating and compelling.
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LibraryThing member BrianFannin
Catcher in the Rye with cocaine.
LibraryThing member valerieowens
I read this for a book club. I found it very boring. Everyone was getting high, drunk and having sex. I just wanted someone in the novel to care about something but that never happened.
LibraryThing member OhSnap
I have mixed feelings about this book really. At a simple level, reading it sentence by sentence you think it's not having much of an effect on you, that it's just the dull goings on of unlikeable characters. And then you stop for a moment and realise how powerful it is. I didn't think I thought
And that's why I honestly can't put my finger on what made it so effective. Before I began, I had almost dismissed it in my mind after reading the blurb thinking it would be just another "detached teenager" where the author tries to create that 'reckless abandon' atmosphere but just falls short of it being effective. Throughout the book, as I said, I was indifferent really to the story. It is only looking back that I realise how powerful it was. And I also said, evertime I try to think back to the plotline, the characters, anything... I just get that same sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
I'm glad I read it. If only because it has shown me how affecting novels can be.
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very highly of it until I came to write this review and trying to think back about the story, I got an unpleasant feeling in the pit of my stomach and realised how it had affected me. It's truly depressing and yet I can't work out why. I didn't read it thinking "Wow, these sentences!!!" and the words didn't strike me as especially imaginative or intelligent. It didn't make me pause to admire the wording of certain things - in fact, as I was reading it I can remember thinking that there was nothing particularly special about the writing. I was indifferent to it so I found it slightly strange that I kept on reading. I didn't feel strongly compelled to keep reading like you would when there's cliffhangers everywhere or a suspenseful plot. I just kept reading because I did, I didn't tire or bore of the text, it was unchallenging and simple... I thought.And that's why I honestly can't put my finger on what made it so effective. Before I began, I had almost dismissed it in my mind after reading the blurb thinking it would be just another "detached teenager" where the author tries to create that 'reckless abandon' atmosphere but just falls short of it being effective. Throughout the book, as I said, I was indifferent really to the story. It is only looking back that I realise how powerful it was. And I also said, evertime I try to think back to the plotline, the characters, anything... I just get that same sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
I'm glad I read it. If only because it has shown me how affecting novels can be.
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LibraryThing member HvyMetalMG
A story about rich, snobby drug addicts that are bored with their LA lives. Yay, I get it, coming home from college, some of us mature, others don't and our perception and values change. Dud. How can this be written by the same guy who wrote American Psycho???!
LibraryThing member Darrol
Started this book several months ago and left off. Mostly because all that was going on was pointless round of boring parties and drug use with (if my memory serves) some more or less pointless sex. Taking it up again, more does happen, an alleged snuff film, a dead body and accounts of cut
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throats. And more pointless drug use, sex and a couple male prostitution scenes. Will try again later; I have a feeling I missed something. Show Less
LibraryThing member SqueakyChu
Having recently read Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho, I was interested in reading other books by this same author. I can see Less Than Zero being a build-up to American Psycho, although the former actually became Book One of a different series later.
This is not the kind of book that you read
The story follows Clay, an eighteen-year-old, who is back in Los Angeles during a 4-month hiatus from college in New Hampshire. He has an on again/off again relationship with his girlfriend Blair, a dependent relationship on his drug dealer Rip, and a puzzling relationship with Julian, a not-so-good drug dealer who borrows money from Clay for reasons unknown.
What do Clay and his friends and acqaintances do with their time? They really don't know. You'll find clubs, parties, film talk, ostentatious wealth, sex, as well as drug dealing and drug taking in this story. The narrative displays scene after scene of disaffected youth. It's almost as if you're watching a documentary of what happens to youngsters who have no responsibility nor a need to do anything significant with their lives.
The story is depressing, but quite well told. I hope that Clay and his friends, most of whom are in college (many at UCLA or USC) in this story change by the time they graduate! I'll have to check out Book Two.
This is not the kind of book that you read
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for its story. It's a voyeuristic look into life of older teens in wealthy, film industry-affected, drug-overpowered, music and club-filled areas of California (mostly Los Angeles and Palm Springs).The story follows Clay, an eighteen-year-old, who is back in Los Angeles during a 4-month hiatus from college in New Hampshire. He has an on again/off again relationship with his girlfriend Blair, a dependent relationship on his drug dealer Rip, and a puzzling relationship with Julian, a not-so-good drug dealer who borrows money from Clay for reasons unknown.
What do Clay and his friends and acqaintances do with their time? They really don't know. You'll find clubs, parties, film talk, ostentatious wealth, sex, as well as drug dealing and drug taking in this story. The narrative displays scene after scene of disaffected youth. It's almost as if you're watching a documentary of what happens to youngsters who have no responsibility nor a need to do anything significant with their lives.
The story is depressing, but quite well told. I hope that Clay and his friends, most of whom are in college (many at UCLA or USC) in this story change by the time they graduate! I'll have to check out Book Two.
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LibraryThing member aldoamparan
I had high expectations when picking LTZ up at B&N, it being my first (and the most notable) novel by Bret Easton Ellis. In all honesty I wanted to finish it, yet find myself dragging in the process. The prose is wonderful and some paragraphs--some sentences are true literary gold, but there is
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nothing much going on except repetition of what we already knew from reading the description. Still, I was done with it through many sittings. I was not entirely disappointed, if only for said lines that worked wonders in my mind, and to the book's benefit, the ending paragraph was very pleasing (without being sarcastic here). Show Less
LibraryThing member anneearney
I couldn't get the movie version out of my head and I think that affected how I felt about the novel. There are many differences, things that happen in the novel that didn't make it into the movie and vice versa. The novel seemed flat compared to the movie - it didn't get close enough to any of the
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characters for me to feel attached to them. In some ways, this seemed more fitting. Certainly the novel lives up to its title. The net emotional effect was "less than zero." The audio version from Audible came with a fifteen-minute interview with the author, which was interesting. He said (approximately) that many readers seemed to view the novel as a way to live vicariously through and see into the lives of these rich teenagers, when what he meant to write was something more critical about their place in society and the effects of their lives on others and themselves. I fell somewhere in between. Show Less
LibraryThing member wouterzzzzz
A quite depressing description of life in LA: drugs, sex, alcohol, parties... Sounds like fun, but it is mainly emptiness that you 'feel' while reading the book. Very convincing book, couldn't stop reading, and makes you feel better about your own life:)
LibraryThing member phlll
This book ranks a solid 3.5 stars, but I bumped it up due to the conversation about determining if he truly loved his ex-girlfriend at the end. It just helped show so much more of where Clay was coming from.
Other than that, the book can be summarized as "Everybody does everybody. And drugs."
Other than that, the book can be summarized as "Everybody does everybody. And drugs."
LibraryThing member hattifattener
Ellis' first novel is quickly readable and drew me along, but never fully enveloped me. Protagonist Clay's broken social attitude, fuelled by the narcissism of his young, drug-taking peers was obviously never meant to. Ellis writes in a languid, detached style that seems to reflect the
Flashes of Ellis' later American Psycho glimmer through in the unsettling marriage of humour and horror. The intoxicated teenagers in an endless cycle of shared substances and shared sexual partners is parodic, even enjoyable, but this jars harshly with the more violent of their pastimes. One of the main reasons that I failed to enjoy this book, as with other of Ellis' work, is his frank, gruesome portrayal of sexual violence against women, which for me appears to play with the border between admonishment and pornographic enjoyment.
The slim, shallow feel to the book is poignantly underwritten by Clay's growing sense of unease and unhappiness, connected to the tender portrayal of his grandmother, never quite coming to terms with her mortality. This relationship between the two and it's effect on Clay in later life was the easiest element of the novel for me to cling to, and makes the whole seem more redeemable.
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claustrophobic heat of Clay's LA Christmas break, and there is a well-crafted hollowness to the majority of the cast. Flashes of Ellis' later American Psycho glimmer through in the unsettling marriage of humour and horror. The intoxicated teenagers in an endless cycle of shared substances and shared sexual partners is parodic, even enjoyable, but this jars harshly with the more violent of their pastimes. One of the main reasons that I failed to enjoy this book, as with other of Ellis' work, is his frank, gruesome portrayal of sexual violence against women, which for me appears to play with the border between admonishment and pornographic enjoyment.
The slim, shallow feel to the book is poignantly underwritten by Clay's growing sense of unease and unhappiness, connected to the tender portrayal of his grandmother, never quite coming to terms with her mortality. This relationship between the two and it's effect on Clay in later life was the easiest element of the novel for me to cling to, and makes the whole seem more redeemable.
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LibraryThing member BethMC90
This novel was very disappointing. I expected the main character (Clay) to progress more, psychologically, in the story. Instead the documentary like novel was very anti-climatic. The story line had potential, but Ellis didn’t utilize his ideas enough. I felt like I was just reading a very long
The book, in a nutshell, is about drugs, sex, messed up teenagers, music, screwed up families, and what money and fame gets you in LA.
Happy reading
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introduction. However, the story was fast-paced and I did connect with the main character on some level. Some parts of the novel are very hard to swallow and I felt disgusted reading it. I felt like these points were supposed to be “shocker” moments, but I wasn’t shocked. I could see it coming a mile away, yet I couldn’t stop reading.The book, in a nutshell, is about drugs, sex, messed up teenagers, music, screwed up families, and what money and fame gets you in LA.
Happy reading
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LibraryThing member tmamone
Forget the movie, read the book.
LibraryThing member zstopper
This isn't a book to read for enjoyment. The characters are so vapid and vacuous, aimless and amoral, that it's just not possible to get interested in them. I guess that's the point of the story - to portray characters with so little interest in anything, that readers have no choice but to feel
The highlight of the story was the mention of the song, "Teenage Enema Nurses In Bondage." Even though this wasn't a fun read it's hard not to feel that it may have been a necessary read nonetheless.
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their despair. It seems that the narrator, Clay, is supposed to be slightly less superficial and depraved than the rest of the characters, but this doesn't make him any more appealing. I have to assume that the story is a cautionary tale about the dehumanizing effect of affluence, but I found it hard to believe that even the "blonde tanned" children of Hollywood could be that indifferent to everything, including themselves.The highlight of the story was the mention of the song, "Teenage Enema Nurses In Bondage." Even though this wasn't a fun read it's hard not to feel that it may have been a necessary read nonetheless.
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LibraryThing member brakketh
Too much sex, drugs and nihilism for these young people.
LibraryThing member KimHooperWrites
This book moves at a frenetic pace. It seemed like I'd read 10 pages before realizing I was holding my breath. In the end, the story made me feel kind of ill (similar to Selby's "Requiem for a Dream"). Even though I grew up in Southern California, I couldn't relate to much of this. I may as well
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have been reading about life on Mars. I mean, I've never even seen cocaine up close and personal. That said, the writing is effective and grabbing. The fact that one scene (you'll know which one) made me nauseated is testament to the power of the writing. Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Language
Original publication date
1985-04-17
Physical description
208 p.; 8.5 inches
ISBN
0671543296 / 9780671543297
Local notes
OCLC = 1414
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