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Ray > Books: bret-e‎ (8)

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cover

The Shards

title

author

Ellis, Bret Easton

isbn

059353560X

isbn13

9780593535608

asin

059353560X

num pages

595 pp

avg rating

4.00

num ratings

27,863

date pub

Jan 17, 2023

date pub edition

Jan 17, 2023

Ray's rating

liked it

my rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

add to shelves

review

Bret Easton Ellis was, of course, one of the great young American authors of the 80s and every early 90s. However, his 21st century output has been ve Bret Easton Ellis was, of course, one of the great young American authors of the 80s and every early 90s. However, his 21st century output has been very sparse and honestly he is not the writer he once was.

From the beginning, there have been certain themes that have arisen in Ellis's works: the overlap of privilege and violence. Along with metafictional writing, in which 2005's Lunar Park the protagonist was the author himself (and his breakout Less Than Zero was always considered semi-autobiographical), and we have the formula for his new novel: The Shards.

It's an overwritten tome about his life as an upper-crust teenager in Los Angeles in 1981, full of queer experiences as well as high school drama that unfolded for the aspiring writer navigating as he navigated the adult world for the first time. It was a time at the private school Buckley, when apparently everyone constantly took copious amounts of drugs and had almost no consequences. Parents were basically nonexistant. And the parts about the process writing of writing his first novel are genuinely interesting. Then, after hundreds of pages about him cheating on his girlfriend with men--including with his girlfriend's film producer father, which was rather proto-Me Too--a subplot about a serial killer and a mysterious troubled new student eventually takes over the narrative. By the climax, with much unreliable narration herein, there's so much death and it's a complete bloody and intense horrorshow.

Ellis writes with excellent precision, he's an experienced author in total control of his voice and has always been a master of prose in this sense. He also drags on too much, a common problem with older established writers who don't get edited anymore, and the book did not need to be at that length.

It doesn't have the power of American Psycho, it won't be remembered as an iconic novel. It is a pretty good read for fans of Bret Easton Ellis who have waited a long time to read something new. He writes about what he knows, himself, and his descriptions of Southern California go on for quite a while. When he gets into driving from this road to that road, comparisons to the SNL skit 'The Californians' are inevitable.

No literary masterpiece. Like it or not, that era is over for Ellis. But I am glad to read his new works and for me as a fan it was worth getting into his world again. And one for such a personal, memoir-eque book, one does wonder which parts are true and which are embellished... and we can only hope that the violent murdering sections are but imagination... ...more

notes

Notes are private!

comments

1

votes

17

# times read

1

date started

Jul 16, 2024

date read

Aug 24, 2024

date added

Jul 16, 2024

owned

format

Hardcover

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position

cover

Imperial Bedrooms

title

Imperial Bedrooms

author

Ellis, Bret Easton

isbn

0330517090

isbn13

9780330517096

asin

0330517090

num pages

256 pp

avg rating

3.19

num ratings

19,544

date pub

Jun 15, 2010

date pub edition

Jun 15, 2010

Ray's rating

liked it

my rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

add to shelves

review

None

notes

Notes are private!

comments

0

votes

1

# times read

1

date started

Aug 08, 2010

date read

Aug 17, 2010

date added

Aug 05, 2010

owned

format

Paperback

actions

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checkbox

position

cover

The Informers

title

author

Ellis, Bret Easton

isbn

0330339184

isbn13

9780330339186

asin

0330339184

num pages

240 pp

avg rating

3.39

num ratings

19,189

date pub

Jul 26, 1994

date pub edition

2000

Ray's rating

it was amazing

my rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

add to shelves

review

None

notes

Notes are private!

comments

0

votes

0

# times read

1

date started

not set

date read

not set

date added

Jan 10, 2008

owned

format

Paperback

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position

cover

Lunar Park

title

author

Ellis, Bret Easton

isbn

0375727272

isbn13

9780375727276

asin

0375727272

num pages

404 pp

avg rating

3.65

num ratings

29,367

date pub

Aug 16, 2005

date pub edition

Aug 29, 2006

Ray's rating

really liked it

my rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

add to shelves

review

Lunar Park is essential Bret Easton Ellis, but only if you've already read the main works. It's a good companion to American Psycho and also Less Than Lunar Park is essential Bret Easton Ellis, but only if you've already read the main works. It's a good companion to American Psycho and also Less Than Zero, full of references both obvious to the plot and more obtuse. The pseudo-autobiographical element is nice for fans of the author. Self-indulgent for sure, but that's what we like.

Apparently it's not exactly true, on the surface, with his family and wife etc., but one assumes that he must have put some inner truth in the narrative. The horror element is creepy, but to be honest that's not why one reads Lunar Park. A worthy Ellis novel in the end, but only for those who are already fans... ...more

notes

Notes are private!

comments

0

votes

3

# times read

1

date started

Dec 11, 2016

date read

Dec 22, 2016

date added

Jan 10, 2008

owned

format

Paperback

actions

view (with text)

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position

cover

Glamorama

title

author

Ellis, Bret Easton

isbn

0375703845

isbn13

9780375703843

asin

0375703845

num pages

546 pp

avg rating

3.54

num ratings

23,996

date pub

1998

date pub edition

Mar 21, 2000

Ray's rating

it was amazing

my rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

add to shelves

review

None

notes

Notes are private!

comments

0

votes

1

# times read

1

date started

not set

date read

not set

date added

Jan 10, 2008

owned

format

Paperback

actions

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checkbox

position

cover

The Rules of Attraction

title

The Rules of Attraction

author

Ellis, Bret Easton

isbn

067978148X

isbn13

9780679781486

asin

067978148X

num pages

283 pp

avg rating

3.72

num ratings

48,485

date pub

Sep 1987

date pub edition

Jun 30, 1998

Ray's rating

it was amazing

my rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

add to shelves

review

None

notes

Notes are private!

comments

0

votes

0

# times read

1

date started

not set

date read

not set

date added

Jan 10, 2008

owned

format

Paperback

actions

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checkbox

position

cover

Less Than Zero

title

author

Ellis, Bret Easton

isbn

isbn13

asin

0679781498

num pages

208 pp

avg rating

3.60

num ratings

89,444

date pub

May 1985

date pub edition

Jun 09, 2010

Ray's rating

it was amazing

my rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

add to shelves

review

None

notes

Notes are private!

comments

0

votes

1

# times read

1

date started

Oct 17, 2016

date read

Oct 26, 2016

date added

Jan 10, 2008

owned

format

Paperback

actions

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checkbox

position

cover

American Psycho

title

American Psycho

author

Ellis, Bret Easton

isbn

0679735771

isbn13

9780679735779

asin

0679735771

num pages

399 pp

avg rating

3.81

num ratings

325,528

date pub

Mar 06, 1991

date pub edition

Mar 1991

Ray's rating

it was amazing

my rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

add to shelves

review

Upon recently listening to the audiobook version (which still very much deserves 5 stars, extremely good acting and interesting to get another version Upon recently listening to the audiobook version (which still very much deserves 5 stars, extremely good acting and interesting to get another version differing from Bale's voice you can't help but hear when you read), I have some new perspectives and dare suspect I may have this infamous tome figured out.

In recent interviews with Mr. Ellis, he has repeatedly said that this is his most autobiographical novel. More than Less Than Zero and Lunar Park even! What does that mean? Obviously he was deep in the 80s Manhattanite yuppie scene, but he wasn't a spoiled Wall Street guy and he obviously wasn't a killer (or so we hope).

I've always concluded that the ambiguity proves that it wasn't just a gore novel about a killer. Now I'm sure of it. Hope this isn't a spoiler, but now I am quite convinced that Patrick Bateman - that greatest unreliable narrator in literary history - was not really a serial killer. There is the way he keeps getting away with it, even at the zoo, even the ridiculous 'Chase, Manhattan' chapter, and of course the ending with the lawyer and is Paul Owen in London or not??

Basically, I think this was autobiographical in this sense: Bret Easton Ellis was a successful man in New York in the 1980s, and he had trendy friends and did everything the consumerist magazines said to be a happy person, and he was apparently in the unhappiest darkest state of his life. I believe this is a novel about a man in this position, who just goes through the motions in life and just imagines the most terrible things he can possibly imagine.

Haven't you ever done that? Dark thoughts creep in, you are acting like its all okay and doing a damn good job of acting like that - and then those sadistic horrifying images pop into your head. You can't help it, right? Everybody does that sometimes. What if we are seemingly big successes like Patrick Bateman or Bret Easton Ellis, and just do that all the time? Every moment slipping away and unable to stop fantasying about the worst possible scenarios, the most cynical thoughts about everyone we personally know and all the empty people in the background, and the most insane thing of all is that nobody knows and nobody would believe it and it all has no apparent affect on the world outside. And that's why Bateman always improbably gets away with it, that's kind of the point.

Just my latest take. It also struck me on revisiting how funny much of the novel is. It is always at least a bit dark, but certain scenes make you laugh out loud. Then it consecutively gets darker and darker and you are left forgetting the Patty Winters synopses and endless examples of people mistaking each other cuz they're all so interchangeable and the NYU "homeless" student and the models who think comet is a planet...

The Christie scenes and child at zoo part are particularly haunting. Also, the chapter 'End of the 1980s' is not violent at all but just such powerful writing that you cannot help but stay away with the lines reverberating in your head for days afterward.

Right at the very end, by the way gets even more unreliably a fantasy, with the Patty Winters show featuring an eloquent bigfoot and Patrick finds bones in his Dove bar.

Still, the funniest aspect of all is how Bateman never ever does any work. With the meticulous research Ellis did in seemingly memorizing all GQ issues and fashion catalogs ever published, it is obviously a major statement that Bateman never works. It could have been about a more obvious critique of capitalism and the business lifestyle, but it was even deeper in that these guys all spent money and not once did anything to make money.

Now on to Glamorama again, what did that all mean...? ...more

notes

Notes are private!

comments

0

votes

10

# times read

1

date started

not set

date read

not set

date added

Jan 10, 2008

owned

format

Paperback

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