918. Glamorama

Glamorama
Bret Easton Ellis
1998
Around 550 pages

I come bearing good news for once! This is our last Bret Easton Ellis novel! Hopefully he stays down, although if any past List author were going to rise from the grave and chase us with an ax, it would be him.

So another novel where we follow a sociopathic leading man as he navigates a vapid world. This time the plot involves models turned terrorists, and if you are thinking that sounds like Zoolander...well, yeah, Ellis tried to take legal action against them and I guess they settled. 

Ellis was always obsessed with name-dropping and branding, and he does it to an absolutely absurd degree here. I get that it's intentionally obscene; it's satire. Just like Great Apes. So why aren't those novels ever fun? I imagine it's even more of a bore if you're not American.

If books had auras, all of his works would be a horrible chartreuse. 

RATING: *----

Interesting Facts:

Ellis said that the novel failed to break even for its US publisher, Knopf.

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763. Less Than Zero

Less Than Zero
Bret Easton Ellis
1985
Around 210 pages

Less Than Zero is the rating that this novel deserves. Unfortunately, it's only the warm up act to American Psycho. 

Clay is a rich young college student who has returned to his hometown of Los Angeles, California for winter break. He feels isolated from the party culture of his friends. Namely how everybody is an amoral drug addict. 

Carl Sagan had me feeling good for two seconds about the universe, now we have this guy. I hated all the characters. I'm ready to request a moratorium on novels with young men writing about their friends' partying lifestyles. It's not as interesting as they think it is.

RATING: -----

Interesting Facts:

Released when he was 21 years old and still a student at Bennington College. 

UP NEXT: A Maggot by John Fowles