Less Than Zero

Rating:
Summary: Life's too short to read this book
Review: After reading so many positive reviews of this book and enjoying so many books that have been compared with this novel,I decided to read it . Upon searching everywhere I finally found this "gem of a novel".I dove into this book with enthusiasm but by the end I was more than a little disapointed .Not only were there too many insignificant characters, they were all completely flat and uninteresting .
As an avid reader I have never read a book with such a boring protaganist.With all the usual components of what i find to be a great read : glamorous , oversexed, and drugged up rich kids, somehow this book just dosen't work. Don't waste your time. If you want a similar but MUCH better read try TWELVE.

Rating:
Summary: Sidney Sheldon For The Next Generation
Review: Ellis has written a very light, easily readable novel with lots of "shocking" sex scenes and one-dimensional characters. He owes a huge debt to the likes of Sidney Sheldon ("The Other Side of Midnight"), Jackie Collins and their ilk. It's a simple formula: people love to read about the seamy side of the lives of the rich and famous. The same audience that devours Us magazine will be enthralled by this tale of rich LA teens and their debauchery. Set it in say, an upscale suburb of San Francisco or Boston, and suddenly the novel loses its allure- we're willing to belive certain things about Los Angeles because of its association with the entertainment industry. Reading the book is like watching a car wreck. Or Britney Spears, for that matter, We're shocked that these kids sleep with each other- regardless of sex (GASP)- that they become prostitutes- are ignored by their wealthy parents- indulge in drugs- and our seemingly intelligent narrator seems to take it all in stride. And like Sheldon and Collins, that is the allure- a look into a world most of us will never see. Reading LTZ for any perceived literary value is like claiming to read Playboy for the articles.

Rating:
Summary: Less Than Perfect?
Review: Having read 'American Psycho' and 'Rules of Attraction' and being very familiar with Ellis' writing, the controversy or rather haunting elements in 'Less Than Zero', really came as no surprise to me. You have the usual closet case sex, the abusive drugs(this time even heroin), and the one liners that most people would love to say, but only in a parallel universe. Honestly, this book is lukewarm to say, a few pages in American Psycho? But, there's something else, something different, that's disturbing about this book, and it may not have been so apparent upon it's release...

We watch as Clay is taken back to his hometown, a very familiar hometown, the town of L.A. Everything, to him, is the same, the people are the same, the areas, and everything seems bland. In a world mixed with chaos, Clay seems so bland and bored by it. He's used to the macabre and the if only illusions of sexual deviances. It's a disgusting world, really, and yet love remains...if only to be used as a term to describe cheap, softcore pornography sex. The story is about Clay and in this story, amidst all we read about, while we stand in horror, he stands in pity and boredom.

I think what's so odd about this, is that this is the real root of social commentary by Ellis and it's only really seen today. As more and more kids today are exposed to so many things, we really face everything by the age of 18 to 20. Where sex was a major, pivotal point in a relationship, in the book, running along with today's views, sex is a thing...it's a fling. I think as you read the book in which characters are put in unbelieveable situations, one including a male whore, you really are taken back. This is disturbing, visually(moreso to those who haven't read Ellis) and theoretically, as you see how close it is to today. People and young adults primarily grow tired today of the same old, same old. Since when did growing up age so young?

While much weaker in retrospect than Ellis' previous endeavours, this is a fine novel with subtle social commentary and interesting advances into personal narrative. I suggest this, but be forewarned, you may not appreciate this and even disagree, but then again, what isn't an argument without the knowledge. Go find out for yourself, maybe you'll even read more from Ellis.

To those who have read, both this and Ellis, I hope you find this informative, to say the least.

Rating:
Summary: I couldn't put it down...
Review: I have been a huge Bret Easton Ellis fan ever since I read American Psycho. Less Thank Zero was the second Ellis book I read. I thought it was excellent. I really think that he took the time to develop the main character and make the reader understand what was going on inside his head. The book really delved into real LA life in the 80's. I am the same age as the kids portrayed in the novel and I found it so hard to believe that they could act that way because I know that I could never act that way myself. That is why it was especially shocking to me, because these kids lead such fast lives. I am not trying to make it seem like an admirable thing or anything, however, one needs to realize that it was reality. There really were kids like that back then and there are kids like that today. Rather than saying that the book is just about a bunch of disaffected kids, look at it for its biting realism. I also thought that the plot was developed perfectly. I really couldn't put the book down because I was so drawn to it and I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next.

Rating:
Summary: A young writer who understands his subject & what a subject!
Review: I learned about Bret Easton Ellis from an interview in "High Times" magazine. His age at Less Than Zeros publishing (21 yrs.) is what interested me the most. I read the rave reviews on the books cover and decided to give it a go. From the first few lines you're thrown into a world that, although on a much more extreme level than the everyday life I'm used to, is an obvious example of art imitating life in its most Kafka-ish depths. Ellis pulls no punches, hides from no subject and tells everyone to open your eyes and open them wide. He also manages to slip in many of the literary techniques and characteristics used by the writers which I have been studying and trying to understand for my own personal benefit. Ellis's style, a modern-day Henry Miller type of journal entry that is fast paced and quick chaptered, was a pleasant surprise. He should stand on the literary mountain for quite some time, and will probably be standing on top before everything is said and done. Try this book. It's the real Beverly Hills 90210, without a single Tori Spelling smile.

Rating:
Summary: A Definite read....worth reading twice!
Review: Less Than Zero is Bret Easton Ellis first novel, and I fell in love with it like I did for American Psycho. The story takes place in L.A. in 1985, and the narrator is Clay; a young adult who comes back to L.A. from college in the East for Chirstmas vacation. Now as he comes back, he see's his friends doing drugs, having sex, and basically ruining their lives. His best friend is Julian; a heavy drug user, and a male prostitute, there is Blair; Clay girlfriend, and ex-girlfriend. Rip; Clay's dealer. As the story moves along, Clay gets sucked in the life style they have chosen, and realizes that this is not for him. He see's his friend Julian get caught in prostitution, Rip gettign rich from drug dealing, and Blair doing the same thing.
In the end, he then heads back East and leaves California forever.

So what makes this book so good? The way the story is told, and also how Ellis expressed his characters, and also how he can write. Good book.

Rating:
Summary: A trully unsettling novel. One I'll never forget.
Review: Less Than Zero tells in vivid first person a journey through the underbelly of 1980's L.A. life from the passive point of view of Clay, a young man who finds himself facing the hard truths of adulthood. The story is told in short, but journalistic flashes in the mode of music video. From page to page the story drives home the flip side of the over priveledged preppy life - too much too soon, be it money, free time, and most dangerously - drugs. It has been compared to Salinger's Catcher in the Rye and I can see the similarities. Ellis, who in college when he wrote the novel, is one of America's most loved by fans, hated by critics authors. Less Than Zero was a triumphant debut novel and one that has spellbound audiences for near two decades. Check it out. You won't soon forget it.

Rating:
Summary: Running on empty
Review: Make no mistake about it: Bret Easton Ellis can write. He can produce spare, tight sentences that evoke chilling and haunting images. But there's something fundamentally lacking in "Less Than Zero" which makes me give this book only three stars.

Ellis is a master at depicting the anomie of the young, bored, and super-rich, as he did superbly in "American Psycho"; but at least the loathsome yuppies in that book were alive. "Less Than Zero" seems populated by walking zombies. Here we have Clay, the protagonist (or is he an anti-protagonist?) fresh off the train home for mid-year break from a college in New Hampshire (Dartmouth, maybe? Ellis carefully declines to identify the school); he hasn't been home for two minutes before he's bored into a coma. The problem is, he's already bored the reader. And the rest of the people in the book aren't any better: Blair, his soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend, spoiled rotten by her film-director father; Julian, descending into a miasma of drugs and prostitution; Daniel and Trent, indistinguishable blonde beach boys with too much money and nothing to do for it; and Clay's parents, dashing from one extra-marital affair to the next, and his sisters, only in their early teens but already as crass, materialistic and soulless as Clay and the parents -- are there any redeeming virtues to these people? Or is what passes for their lives an experience in pure hedonism? Clay seems more like a cardboard cutout than a person; his soul is so shriveled he can watch a snuff movie featuring a fifteen year old girl and yawn through the whole thing. He's a passive sociopath, uncaring, unfeeling, un-alive. One gets the impression that the only reason he's not out making a snuff film of his own is that it would take too much effort. Clay is fascinated by a billboard on the freeway that says "Disappear Here". We get the feeling that if Clay disappeared, nobody would care much one way or the other. He's that much of a cypher.

Ellis's problem in this book is he does such a great job of describing the emptiness of his character's lives, we wonder why he bothered writing about them at all. They don't grab us, they don't interest us, there's nothing about them we can relate to. As Blair says to Clay toward the end of the book, "You're a beautiful boy, but that's about it." It's not that Ellis can't invent interesting characters; Patrick Bateman, the anti-hero of "American Psycho", was a loathsome psychopath, but at least there was some substance to him. The characters in "Less Than Zero" seem to be made of air. Perhaps that's the fundamental problem with the book; the sense of emptiness is so overwhelming that ultimately the book's impact on us fades to less than zero.

Rating:
Summary: Drains you dry
Review: Probably my fav book by Ellis seeing as I felt so utterly empty inside after finishing it. These characters Blair, Julian and friends have got to be the most shallow and unfeeling people I've ever read. Sure, Bateman in "A. Psycho" was materialistic but he was insane unlike these kids who're supposedly NORMAL teenagers!! If this is what the rich life in L.A. is all about than I'll be certain to never visit. But I am so sick of hearing people say this was a boring story and don't feel sorry for these kids just because they're spoiled and rich! Can we honestly say we wouldn't be as empty if we lived the way they did with only cocaine and meaningless sex to entertain us? Ellis is brilliant in depicting the lives of materialistic, spoiled brats having to live without love and emotional security. If you're looking for a novel to leave you feeling hollow and disturbed emotionally, I highly reccommend this. It gives the word 'dreary' a whole new meaning.

Rating:
Summary: Life in the carpool lane
Review: this book was just ok. i wouldn't recommend it to anyone, that's for sure. i'm sick of reading books about drugs and sex and all that crap. there's no passion in drugs. i'm looking for something a bit more.