Less Than Zero in Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

Sep 10, 2016 Suvi rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: _north-america, 1970-1999, _book-shelf, novels, cities_los-angeles

American Psycho (1991) is a novel that is a force, and I doubt there are that many people who feel indifferent about it. I recognized its genius, but I think I wasn't ready for its overwhelming effect. It was nothing like I had ever read before, and I just pushed it into the back of my mind and let it simmer in there.

Now, Ellis has started to draw me back into his world, and I thought his debut novel Less Than Zero would be both a soft(er) landing and an interesting glimpse into his early ye American Psycho (1991) is a novel that is a force, and I doubt there are that many people who feel indifferent about it. I recognized its genius, but I think I wasn't ready for its overwhelming effect. It was nothing like I had ever read before, and I just pushed it into the back of my mind and let it simmer in there.

Now, Ellis has started to draw me back into his world, and I thought his debut novel Less Than Zero would be both a soft(er) landing and an interesting glimpse into his early years and where he came from. At first the trip wasn't successful. I kept wondering why I'd ever liked this guy. Then... Something clicked. I got used to the clipped style and at some point I realized I had slowly but surely been seduced.

Coke, omnipresent blondes, glimmering turquoise swimming pools, dark silhouettes of palm trees rustling in the soft night air. Sudden flashes of violence à la American Psycho tear bloody wounds in the seemingly calm exterior, but mostly Less Than Zero feels like you've been in its grasp forever. It's a place where everything looks like a slowed down and a distorted version of the real world. Something's off, and you're not entirely sure what. Los Angeles is like one of those purgatory-like nightmares, where images want to strangle you in your sleep, leaving you heaving and rolling in cold sweat.

Then it all melts into an ending that is brilliant in all its understatedness.

My decision to read this in English turned out to be a good idea, by the way. I have to remember that next time, because Ellis can write about boredom and vapidity in a way that leaves you disoriented and mesmerized. He doesn't explain much, his characters don't know what the hell they're doing on this Earth, and his subtle black humor pops up in the most unexpected places.

Now, the movie on the other hand is less successful in portraying the lost generation of the 20th century. I admit, it's probably hard to capture the mood of the novel, but when the focus is shifted to something entirely different and everything that made the novel into what it is has been taken away, it creates something else. Another story, another nightmare, and less captivating.

It's not entirely hopeless, though, because the colors are great, the 80s aesthetic almost always makes everything look better, James Spader is oddly fascinating in everything he does etc. But, the entire thing might be worth the watch just for the amazing performance of Robert Downey Jr. He might not be the Julian of the novel, but he's the Julian that everyone should see, even if it's just for that tennis court scene alone.

'I don't want to care. If I care about things, it'll just be worse, it'll just be another thing to worry about. It's less painful if I don't care.'

...more

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Dec 30, 2015 Arukiyomi rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books

Written when he was just 21, Easton Ellis, made quite an impression on the literary scene with this tale of the morally impoverished youth of wealthy Los Angeles. In it, he warms himself up for his later portrayals of 1980s USAnia in Glamorama and, most spectacularly, American Psycho.

Easton Ellis is an important novelist because he does what the archetypical novelist should: use the art form to leave humanity with an impression of itself that later generations could never do.

In the very prose he ...more

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Feb 18, 2018 Tiffany rated it it was ok

Shelves: movies, 1001-books__fromlist, 1001-books

Okay, so I've read two different places (in the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die book and in a description of this book) that this is like The Catcher in the Rye for the '80s.

...

hmmm...

On the one hand, I see the disaffected youth, unhappy with life and sort of "What does it all mean?" And to be honest, I've never completely understood the big deal about The Catcher in the Rye, so maybe this is on the same level, but maybe it's not. Maybe it's trying too hard. Maybe the people who compar Okay, so I've read two different places (in the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die book and in a description of this book) that this is like The Catcher in the Rye for the '80s.

...

hmmm...

On the one hand, I see the disaffected youth, unhappy with life and sort of "What does it all mean?" And to be honest, I've never completely understood the big deal about The Catcher in the Rye, so maybe this is on the same level, but maybe it's not. Maybe it's trying too hard. Maybe the people who compare the two just see two young men who are unhappy with their lives, and figure "Ah ha! They're the same!"

And I get the "for the '80s" part: there are a lot of references to MTV (especially turning on MTV and just staring at it, and oftentimes even having it muted), and the drugs and lifestyles of the L.A. rich kids of the '80s, and the materialism of the '80s, and the sexual freeness of the youth of the '80s. But... I feel like that's trying too hard, too. I feel like Ellis just kind of threw in EVERYTHING he could about the '80s. "Hey, MTV is big! Let's include that! Hey, Duran Duran is big! Let's name them! La Scala Boutique is fancy; let's throw that in! Drugs! Those are cool! Let's name every single one we can think of! And having sex with lots of people, from both sexes! That's in!" And everyone is too cool to take off their sunglasses. I can't read more than a couple of pages before I get "Sunglasses at Night" stuck in my head.

I just don't really feel like, for a book that's supposedly *saying something*, that this book is really saying anything. Other than, maybe, "Boy, life as a rich kid sucks." Parents suck, parents are out of touch, parents are also wasted; siblings suck, siblings are also wasted. And maybe that's what Ellis is trying to say: being a rich L.A. kid in the mid-80s sucks. Toward the end of the book, though, he does really hit hard with the underlying theme of everyone being disconnected and out of touch; no one connects with anyone else on a deep level, and everyone is lonely. There's a feeling of desperation in everyone and their actions; the word "unfulfilled" pops up in the next-to-last page, and yes, that's what this book is about, I think: everyone is unfulfilled. EVERYONE. ...more

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Nov 11, 2010 Cheryl added it

Not sure if this is a work of genius or if he's just disgorging his life story when he was in college (which was about the time he wrote the book). ...more

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Apr 17, 2014 jenn rated it liked it

Shelves: 1001, fiftyfiftyme, 2014

I didn't really want to like this one, but it kind of won me over. ...more

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May 15, 2007 Kecia rated it really liked it

Shelves: booksireadinthe80s, 1001-books, usa

I'm only a few months older than BEE so when I read Less Than Zero it was like reading my life. It shocked me to the core. No book had ever done that. Other BEE novels may be better reads, but this one turly captured the spirit (or apathy rather) of the mid-80s years for those of us in the same demographic. If you were born between '62 and '65...I think you'll see a lot of your younger self in these pages. ...more

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