Friday, October 1, 2010

Brett Easton Ellis

So I finally got around to reading Brett Easton Ellis' American Pyscho a full two years after seeing the terrifying film version. I honestly did not know much about the author prior to impulse buying his book at the bookstore in Boston's South Station after a few drinks. I was blown away by what I found. A terrifying demented tale of excess in the 80's American Pyscho is a frighteningly authentic look at madness in an age without sanity. This is to date the only book I have ever had to put down because it was making me physically ill. Far from light reading this violence is not gratuitious, but instead a calculated expression of the madness and excess of 1980's Wall Street. Without question this is one of the most powerful works I have ever read.

With my new found interest in Ellis' work and the 1980's I quickly snatched up Less than Zero as well as Rules of Attraction (which is one of my favorite movies). I have just finished up Less than Zero and am very torn as to how I felt about the novel. While it included a biting critique of the drugs, sex, and money all too prevalent in 1980's LA it was not nearly the story American Psycho was. The characters were more detached, less interesting, and come to no real resolution (a similarity to Psycho).

While I enjoyed both books its clear that American Psycho is the superior and more unique work. I hope to be able to say that Brett Easton Ellis has outdone himself with The Informers and Rules of Attraction though.