Less Than Zero

Rating:
Summary: Less than 200 pages
Review: ...is what my friends and I call this thing. Okay, perhaps slightly over 200 pages. Mind-numbing recital of brand names. Bratty rich kids. Sex, drugs, and presumably some rock-and-roll. Who cares? Someone recommended it, so I kept trying to read it, but I could not finish even half. Do NOT waste your time.

Rating:
Summary: A haunting masterpiece
Review: To keep it short; Ellis debut is a seminal achievement and is still his best novel. The bleak picture he paints of the youth of that time is precise and very disturbing. He knew what he was writing about and he did it in a way that captured the atmosphere very well. Unfortunately, Ellis seems to have lost the touch. Will he ever return?

Rating:
Summary: The book I read when I can't find anything else to read.
Review: This is undoubtedly my favorite book. I have the origingal edition which over the years I have broken in just perfectly. Although the book is a bit bazaar, it is definitely an excellent portrayel of the 80's. If you were raised in a fairly large city you will certainly be able to relate to Less Than Zero.

Rating:
Summary: An 80's Classic
Review: One of the most harrowing and haunting books that I have ever read. Clay's cool detachment from everyone around him draws us deeper in to his life, or lack thereof. I read this book for the first time when I was going to school in L.A., and it could be part of the reason I moved back home. True to its time, a snapshot of what it was like to live there in the 80's. If you like this book, but appreciate a novel with a bit more style and a bit more substance, try Donna Tartt's Secret History. You will see the groundwork that he has laid for her and others. Everyone from 18-22 should read Less Than Zero...and never watch the movie!

Rating:
Summary: Don't read this book if you liked the movie...
Review: I read this book in one sitting mostly because the themes addressed pulled me in like so much quicksand. Anyone belonging to the so-called "Generation X" will relate to the hopelessness, futility and desperation we all feel collectively as a generation. BTW the book goes WAY DEEPER than the movie and doesn't have the typical Hollywood happy ending.

Rating:
Summary: Sex, drugs, and more sex
Review: "Less Than Zero" is an excellent book. It describes in much detail Clays life, and his friends', when he returns home for the summer after being away at college. During the summer, some kids parents' went on vacation leaving the house a definate party spot. The rich kids of Los Angeles then had it all, a party spot to drink, do drugs, and have sex. In this book everyone is sleeping with everyone, and is always tweaked out on some form of drug. When you have money, life is not always glamours, money buys drugs and drugs lead to a bad group of friends. "Less Than Zero" kept my attention, but I'm glad I was only reading the book, and not living that life.

Rating:
Summary: brilliant
Review: Easton Ellis' debut is far more interesting than what he has published as yet. Unfortunately it seems that he's playing the same chord over and over, each time harder. From an historical point of view, there is a tradition of nihilistic debuts which describe rude violence and sex scenes in the life of a priviliged individual. In Dutch literature "De Avonden: een Winterverhaal" by G. Reve is an all-time classic and "Oblomov" (Gontjarev) -although it contains almost no violence- can, in a way, be considered as an archetype of this kind of literature. In "Less Than Zero" Easton Ellis exposes his notorious, sublime style. He knows well how to capture the Californian lingo and way of life and he is undoubtfully a master in using the 'flash-back'. Time has proved that "Less Than Zero" is a masterwork. Other young American authors like Jonathan Ames ("Nightlife") have tried to pick up the road that Ellis had cleared. Despite the awful movie that was based on "Less Than Zero", I think that this novel -from a scriptwriter's point of view- still has much potential to be adopted for the screen: exquisite locations (modern architecture in the Hills), a atmosphere of fin-de-siècle,... Mike Diliën

Rating:
Summary: Incredibly potent and emotional.......pure poetry
Review: Bret Easton Ellis has captured wonderfully the futility, sadness, and emptiness that a college student finds himself faced with as he questions his friends, family, society and its deteriorating morals. This is undoubtedly the most powerful book I've read --powerful both in its textual simplicity and emotional complexity. True sadness stems from the pure possibiliy and reality proposed by the book and its characters as their lives slowly unfold. The reader will at once find himself immersed in the book and the world of money, sex, fame, and drugs that Ellis captures and depicts so beatifully in this novel

Rating:
Summary: A dark, smothering, disturbing, downward spiral into hell.
Review: Written in clear, simple, matter-of-fact prose, Less Than Zero, is a chillingly disturbing and hair-raising novel that hones in specifically on L.A.'s edgy, filthy and unrepentant subculture, where booze, drugs, hustling, casual, empty sex, shallow values as well as violence-both physically and visually-are the norm. It is a subculture of pills, plastic surgery, 'laboratory' or 'Frankenstein' created perfection, spiritual vacuousness, fatalistic/lobotomized acceptance or indifference of anything and everything are neatly meshed together with a wad of cash acting as a decorative bow. The novel revolves around Clay, a young man on summer break from college in New Hampshire. Visiting his financially well-to-do family, he decides to 'reconnect' with some of his school friends and girlfriend, Blair-the very latter a brainwashed drone to the excessive frivolities that only L.A. can offer. After getting into the inner sanctum of his friend's lives, Clay gets acclimatized (with the aid of drugs, among other things) to their jaded perceptions and their uppish, arrogant world view of, "This is how it is, man. What planet are you from?" attitude. As time progresses, Clay unwittingly begins to mirror the very people-with all their dangeriously luxuriant excesses-whom he fears and despises. What is even worse is that his family and home life is no refuge either from the dizzying despair that is slowly enveloping him, for his home life is as equally terrible as what he's trying to flee from; his only form of escapism is marijuana, cocaine, sex, partying and booze, all of which temporarily act as a kind of fake portal to the untouched nether reaches (so he believes) of his mind or his soul. But bit by bit, that too slowly gets chipped away at, and what is beyond that is too terrifying to imagine. Clay's only saving grace is a quiet moment of introspection at Topanga Canyon, where, "...I could hear the wind moving through the canyons...A coyote howled...I had been home a long time." (P. 207). Silence was his saving grace, for it forever imprinted upon his mind all that he experienced; it was the catalyst that set him free: "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 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..." (P.208). They say that the globe has many, many war zone. Los Angeles would definitely be included.

Rating:
Summary: in defense of Ellis.
Review: when i read this book i found the central themes and messages hard to miss. ellis seemed to wind up and hit you over the head with them on nearly every page. in light of this, its amazing to me that so many reviewers on this website could completely miss the point of this novel or ellis' art. this novel is in no way a glorification of the dystopia represented in its pages. it is a sharply crafted critique of the society that ellis is a product of.
i think what most inspired me to write this review were the following two statements:
1. "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" - i didnt know if it was possible to, in criticising a book, make the same point that an author was trying to make for two hundred pages...until i read this review. congratulations on reading a two hundred page novel that echos your exact sentiment without ever realizing it.

2. "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."
- please spare me the pseudo-intellectual posturing. i didnt think it was possible for someone to assert that "The same audience that devours Us magazine will be enthralled by this tale of rich LA teens and their debauchery" when speaking of any work by ellis. is it humanly possible to avoid the force of ellis' argument in such a ridiculously inept way. less than zero is a critique of the very audience you claim "will devour it". i know its fun to make value judgements of other peoples work, but please atleast attempt to understand the novel before doing so. thank you.

there are plenty of critiques that can be made of less than zero. If you have read american psycho or rules of attraction and enjoyed , then you will also enjoy less than zero. it packs just about the same satirical punch (which for some people is a heavy blow...for others hardly any punch at all). Bret Easton Ellis, along with perhaps David Foster Wallace and Toni Morrison , is one of the few authors working today who is recognizable simply by his writing style alone. This, as we have seen, tends to drive some people to make rash judgements regarding the merit of his work. i assure you that if you approach Less than Zero with an open mind, you will not be one of these people.