Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
New York, N.Y. : Penguin Books, 1988, ©1987.
Description
Set at a small, affluent liberal-arts college in New England at the height of the Reagan eighties, The Rules of Attraction is a startlingly funny, kaleidoscopic novel about three students with no plans for the future--or even the present--who become entangled in a curious romantic triangle. Bret Easton Ellis trains his incisive gaze on the kids at self-consciously bohemian Camden College and treats their sexual posturing and agonies with a mixture of acrid hilarity and compassion while exposing the moral vacuum at the center of their lives. Lauren changes boyfriends every time she changes majors and still pines for Victor, who split for Europe months ago, and she might or might not be writing anonymous love letters to ambivalent, hard-drinking Sean, a hopeless romantic who only has eyes for Lauren, even if he ends up in bed with half the campus and with Paul, Lauren's ex, who is forthrightly bisexual and whose passion masks a shrewd pragmatism. They waste time getting wasted and race from Thirsty Thursday Happy Hours to Dressed to Get Screwed parties to drinks at the End of the World. The Rules of Attraction is a poignant, hilarious take on the death of romance.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member TiffanyHickox
The individual narratives drive this book off the edge of sobriety and into the world of laissez-faire sex, drugs and miscommunication of over-privledged college students.
This novel is an interesting study on how individual interpretation can at times make navigating personal relationships a
This novel is an interesting study on how individual interpretation can at times make navigating personal relationships a
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hazardous endeavor, especially when alcohol, drugs and beautiful youth are all on deck. The themes are classic and will resonate with the college students of today just as much as those who attended college anytime in the last 60 years (though some of the music references may be lost). Worth reading and quite different from the movie, which is also recommended. Show Less
LibraryThing member amanda4242
I really liked this book. The shifting point of view can be a little jarring at times, but seeing the same events through the eyes of different characters gives you more insight into them. My favorite scene is when Paul and his mother are talking in a hotel bar: up until this point we have only
If you liked the movie, read the book; it’s a thousand times better.
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seen her through Paul’s less than sympathetic eyes, but Ellis switches to her p.o.v. for this scene and you see that she truly cares for and worries about her son. If you liked the movie, read the book; it’s a thousand times better.
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LibraryThing member jawalter
It's not a long book, but it is a little longer than it really needs to be. There was a lot I liked about it, but after a while, I just felt that Ellis was basically repeating the same ideas.
I especially enjoyed the Rashoman-like quality of using multiple narrators to tell the same story in vastly
Aside from that, a lot of it seems to be going for shock value (Kids these days are doing the drugs and having the sex ... sometimes with the gays), but it strikes me as over-the-top and forced.
I especially enjoyed the Rashoman-like quality of using multiple narrators to tell the same story in vastly
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different ways. The idea that the perspectives of two different people about the same events can be so radically different really tickles my fancy at the moment.Aside from that, a lot of it seems to be going for shock value (Kids these days are doing the drugs and having the sex ... sometimes with the gays), but it strikes me as over-the-top and forced.
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LibraryThing member anissaannalise
Fabulous read & fast paced. BEE doesn't disappoint.
LibraryThing member worldsedge
What passes for a plot is an utter mess, the narrative shifts from character to character about every third paragraph, yet Ellis is such an astute observer and has such a way with words sometimes that this book isn't a total loss. The three main characters, Paul, Lauren Sean basically do nothing
A liberal arts college where nobody appears to go to class, ever, where unending drug use and casual sex is the norm...I now curse myself for going to a state college and majoring in business. Then again, I vaguely remember reading that people at Bennington (his alma mater) were rather annoyed by the way "Camden" was presented, so perhaps we've got a not so accurate presentation.
At one point the narrative shifts to Patrick Bateman, main character of American Psycho. No hint of a serial killer here, he is simply tut-tutting about his younger brother Sean. Very odd.
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the entire book but go to parties and have sex. Gay sex, straight sex, group sex, drunken and drugged sex. A liberal arts college where nobody appears to go to class, ever, where unending drug use and casual sex is the norm...I now curse myself for going to a state college and majoring in business. Then again, I vaguely remember reading that people at Bennington (his alma mater) were rather annoyed by the way "Camden" was presented, so perhaps we've got a not so accurate presentation.
At one point the narrative shifts to Patrick Bateman, main character of American Psycho. No hint of a serial killer here, he is simply tut-tutting about his younger brother Sean. Very odd.
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LibraryThing member soylentgreen23
One I read very quickly (or at least the time went by quickly as I was reading it) in the Algarve years and years ago; I loved it. The film is great too, and very true to the book.
My favourite part is the European travelogue - having just completed a long trip along those geographical lines, it was
My favourite part is the European travelogue - having just completed a long trip along those geographical lines, it was
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'interesting' to see another perspective. I also love the way the book ends mid sentence, which is so clever I just Show Less
LibraryThing member ishtahar
In a nutshell the story of a bisexual love triangle, with added misinformation, misidentity, self-obsession, utter lack of self respect, emotional blackmail, immaturity, drink, drugs and the ability to always remind me why I hated university so much!
LibraryThing member Magadri
I loved this book. I started reading it after seeing the movie, and I was not disappointed. I sped through this book in no time. I loved the characters, the way the narratives shift, and the overall style of the book. My first Ellis novel, but not my last.
LibraryThing member Darrol
More drug use and pointless sex. A little more plot due to being set on a college campus.
LibraryThing member satyridae
I read this book because my stepson wanted me to. I gave him the wonderful book The Last Convertible by Anton Myrer some time ago, and he read that and this back to back. Not surprisingly, he experienced some cognitive dissonance because of it. I found this book, the first I've read by Ellis, to be
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a dark and depressing slog through a college experience I'm glad to have missed. All the characters struck me as amoral and unlikable. Unlikable is too weak a word, I found these people to be loathsome and abhorrent. I was glad to see the last of them. The artsy plot devices annoyed me, too. Show Less
LibraryThing member Borrows-N-Wants
I loved this book. I started reading it after seeing the movie, and I was not disappointed. I sped through this book in no time. I loved the characters, the way the narratives shift, and the overall style of the book. My first Ellis novel, but not my last.
LibraryThing member pivic
Just like the characters in the book present themselves, bored, intelligent and dozed-off with too much money, I think the content of this book is to be processed between the lines; as the pages drip with cynicism and glibness, the people behind the words develop and function. I'm glad to see
The three main characters intertwine, lock and disperse throughout, as people do, in a variety of ways. Their personalities are unveiled as I read on, and I actually got a lot through this book. In a way, it was like opening somebody's diary; thoughts never said, love unrequited and cheap thrills, it's all here. School daze.
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Ellis' writing of collegial sex, drunkenness and drugs through the eyes of obviously intelligent creatures, as opposed to the common way of "politically correctly" finger-pointing at what's right and demonising what's wrong.The three main characters intertwine, lock and disperse throughout, as people do, in a variety of ways. Their personalities are unveiled as I read on, and I actually got a lot through this book. In a way, it was like opening somebody's diary; thoughts never said, love unrequited and cheap thrills, it's all here. School daze.
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LibraryThing member usuallee
Decent but it is just so over the top, with shallow, whiny, self absorbed characters.
Subjects
Language
Original publication date
1987
Physical description
288 p.; 7.7 inches
ISBN
0140112286 / 9780140112283
Local notes
OCLC = 867
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