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2,027 ratings,
3.34
average rating, 144 reviews
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published
1994
details
Hardcover, 240 pages
setting
isbn
9529589204
description
This powerful and poignant novel of L.A., from the author of Less Than Zero and American Psycho, depicts a generation's overwhelming dissatisfaction w…more
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avg 3.34
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
recommends it for:
PEOPLE WHO LIKE STYLE OVER SUBSTANCE
This isn't a novel. It's a collection of looooooooooosely connected short stories. More recent editions of The Informers now admit to this. When I first read the novel in '94, not knowing this fact threw me off completely. I'm re-reading it now because I hear it's being turned into a movie. It will be interesting to see what comes of that. It's certianly not Ellis's best and not a place to start if you're new to his writing. A chronological reading of his work is my suggestion or if you only wan...more
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Read in May, 2008
the way these short stories intertwine with one another is purely brilliant. i know a lot of people tend to not enjoy ellis' style of writing, but i think that the joy in his writing is all within the way everything is so disconnected and connected, all at the same time.
no other author can write end on end about seemingly useless facts, and still have use for them.
i know this sounds extremely contradicting, but he does the same thing throughout his other writings.
...more
no other author can write end on end about seemingly useless facts, and still have use for them.
i know this sounds extremely contradicting, but he does the same thing throughout his other writings.
...more
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Read in September, 2007
For the first one hundred pages I felt like it was just a not-quite-as-interesting rehash of what Ellis did in Less than Zero. However I found myself getting drawn into the strange ties between the stories, and the way the book continues to spiral into darkness. I find it hard to believe that it isn't classified as a collection of short stories, and as such I think number #12 was the stand out one to me. Worth picking up if you're an Ellis fan, but if you find his style at all tiresome I'd skip ...more
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Read in February, 2009
The Informers is a fiction novel by Bret Easton Ellis. The setting of the book is LA mostly. All of the charters are ether from LA or live there now and all the charters are very rich, most of them come from wealthy families. The book doesn’t have a story line it’s a series of short stories that are slightly intertwined with one another.
The Informers doesn’t have one set storyline the book is cut up by chapters. Every chapter starts a new story that doesn’t have much to do with...more
The Informers doesn’t have one set storyline the book is cut up by chapters. Every chapter starts a new story that doesn’t have much to do with...more
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did I miss something??
up through the last chapter of the book, I still had to adjust to the shift in character viewpoints (every chapter) and had to consciously look for any ties, which were rare and weak. I suppose it does make more sense as a collection of loosely connected short stories about people in an alternate reality of America (mostly California) in the 1980's, in a society that is genuinely fucked up (cough cough excuse me). I'll probably be offended when I reread this...more
up through the last chapter of the book, I still had to adjust to the shift in character viewpoints (every chapter) and had to consciously look for any ties, which were rare and weak. I suppose it does make more sense as a collection of loosely connected short stories about people in an alternate reality of America (mostly California) in the 1980's, in a society that is genuinely fucked up (cough cough excuse me). I'll probably be offended when I reread this...more
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Sure, it looks entertaining. But, I promise you, by the time you get to the thirtieth page you'll start flipping through the pages, just to see if the 'might as well kill ourselves now' tone dies down a little as the book goes on. Surprise! It doesn't. An endless, painful, LONG look at the lives of some very spoiled, very addicted teenagers and their over medicated, surgically altered parents. It's LA at it's worst: and I'm having trouble believing that people this heartless even exist, but that...more
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Read in May, 2009
Joe woke up and ordered a cheese omelet only to stare at it the entire time, confused about why he ordered it in the first place when he wasn't hungry, then he went to the movies but he didn't really pay attention to the first half of it, then this goth girl was looking at him funny and he really wanted to fuck her but doesn't, and he decided to visit a friend's house and so he drove there in his super expensive sports car and drank beer and afterward he went to a club and picked up a valley gir...more
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Read in August, 2009
It is my understanding that Ellis plans to follow Lunar Park with a follow up to Less Than Zero. However, I don't see how many more times he can visit these charaters since he references them in all other novels. Julian shows up in this one, if only in a conversation... letters addressed to Sean at Camden of Rules of Attraction fame. I used to think this was cool but after this novel, I actually think it is a little boring. The DISAPPEAR HERE billboard makes an appearance and there are chapters ...more
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Read in November, 2009
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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Read in October, 2009
This is a great book about moral bankruptcy in the middle of glitzy LA. I like this book because his writing contains loose affiliations of the different characters in the book. The first 9 chapters were great but the last 4 were not great.
Each chapter has a different character narrating it and is loosely connected to the other chapter but at its heart each character is alone. The characters have to take drugs/alcohol just try to relate to each other shows you the depth of their iso...more
Each chapter has a different character narrating it and is loosely connected to the other chapter but at its heart each character is alone. The characters have to take drugs/alcohol just try to relate to each other shows you the depth of their iso...more
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Read in November, 2008
I love B.E.E. because of his unerring talent for creating the best kind of repulsed fascination. (Or fascinating revulsion.) Also, he has the best moments. This one occurs early on in the collection, and was probably the place that hooked me:
"The door opens. It's a small bathroom and Raymond is siting on the toilet, the lid closed, beginning to cry again, his face and eyes red and wet. I am so surprised by Raymond's emotion that I lean against the door and just stare, watch...more
"The door opens. It's a small bathroom and Raymond is siting on the toilet, the lid closed, beginning to cry again, his face and eyes red and wet. I am so surprised by Raymond's emotion that I lean against the door and just stare, watch...more
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Read in June, 2009
This story lacks subject. It doesn't have any kind of meaning. Vampires pop up and make racist jokes and have sex, then kill their sex partners. Guys and girls who are all uniformly rich, drug-addicted, bird-brained, big fans of sunglasses, blond, tanned, gorgeous shuffle around doing nothing, perhaps to portray the meaninglessness of life. The plot is horrible. To be honest, it doesn't seem to really have a plot. It's really more a series of horrible short stories connected only by the chracter...more
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Read in April, 2009
I've never been a huge Bret Easton Ellis fan, but I do really feel like he's at the top of his game here. These stories about vapid L.A. characters and their lifestyles are so over-the-top in their depictions of moral decay, unhinged wealth and privilege run rampant, and faint emotions drowned under medication, drink, and sex, that they just work somehow, to the point where the reader is not even surprised when the narrative tips over to possible vampirism. The way they weave in and out of each ...more
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Read in November, 2009
I'm a huge Bret Easton Ellis fan. This book is a collection of short stories, many of which contain the same characters or characters that appear in other Ellis works. That would have been great to know at the beginning, except the back cover said it was a novel, so I was always trying to connect chapters to each other that were really just slightly related short stories.
Regardless, like other Ellis works, this book focuses a lot on empty characters and places. Like in Less Than ...more
Regardless, like other Ellis works, this book focuses a lot on empty characters and places. Like in Less Than ...more
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Read in September, 2008
The best parts of Ellis' writing are his unreliable narrators - most notoriously present in American Psycho and witnessed again in The Informers (vampire or lunatic?).
It's not a novel. More a collection of short stories with a sometimes common set of characters. Each chapter is from a different character's POV. The main themes/ideas are sex, greed, indulgence, self-involvement and importance, LA, tanning, WASPS, gore, drugs, youth... and anything else you can lump into that category....more
It's not a novel. More a collection of short stories with a sometimes common set of characters. Each chapter is from a different character's POV. The main themes/ideas are sex, greed, indulgence, self-involvement and importance, LA, tanning, WASPS, gore, drugs, youth... and anything else you can lump into that category....more
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Read in November, 2008
recommended to Deidre by:
a livejournal blogrecommends it for: anyone who likes twisted novels
Grade: 6.5/10
Thoughts: This is probably one of the most messed up books I have read—next to Slaughter-House 5 and A Clockwork Orange. It was written in such a way that it made the reader go “what the fuck?” a lot. Instead of the characters holding care for others, they only cared about the styles of the day. It was really a weird book and you can tell it was from the same man who wrote American Psycho. It was intense, it was scary, it was really weird.
Thoughts: This is probably one of the most messed up books I have read—next to Slaughter-House 5 and A Clockwork Orange. It was written in such a way that it made the reader go “what the fuck?” a lot. Instead of the characters holding care for others, they only cared about the styles of the day. It was really a weird book and you can tell it was from the same man who wrote American Psycho. It was intense, it was scary, it was really weird.
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Read in April, 2009
Got to read this before the movie came out, and now that that's done, may not go see the film (might wait for the late-night cable premier sometime in the future). Brent brings back a lot of his Camdenites who are vaguely connected to drug addicts and sociopaths in Los Angeles. Many of the characters go unnamed, and the less known about them (like less than zero) the better. All the disconnected conversations and tanned skin and betamax tapes and Wayfarer sunglasses and reservations at Spago'...more
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This was my 5th ellis book,Amercian Psycho was my favorite but the informers is right behind it. I'm a sucker for short stories and Ellis does a classy job of compilating a truly nihlistic masterpiece. Much like Ellis's other novel's this book focuses on the moral deprevity of characters that reflect our daily lives.Only with Ellis's briliant contrasts and methaphors are we able to find that a rockstar and vampire can run so shallowly parallel under the illumination of an 80's strobe light. A wo...more
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Read in April, 2009
I did not like this book at all. It almost reads like separate short stories concerning alienated, amoral, promiscuous, drug-consuming, materialistic, hedonistic, violent, ignorant, unintelligent, uncultured, decadent, rich men and women in L.A. - in other words, the type of culture I utterly dislike and repudiate. The author does not develop characters; the 'ambience' is cold and cynical and depressing. One could argue that the author successfully describes a certain cultural group; however, ...more
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The vampire chapter isn't included in the cinematic release? But...but that was the best part.
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