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Review
'Less a meditation on ageing than it is a Hollywood noir.' --Sunday Herald
'Ellis's toned narrative is toned and menacing.' --Financial Times
'Exposing human nature at its worst this is brutal Ellis living up to his trademark.' --Daily Express
'Ellis's toned narrative is toned and menacing.' --Financial Times
'Exposing human nature at its worst this is brutal Ellis living up to his trademark.' --Daily Express
Product Description
‘His tautest, most compulsively readable work since American Psycho. A sequel to Less Than Zero, it imagines what became of that book’s group of over-privileged, dead-eyed kids as forty-year-olds’ Hari Kunzru, Observer
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Remembered enjoying Less Than Zero back in the 80s & a few of his other novels, but Imperial Bedrooms is dire stuff. The old characters from his first novel are back & where their behaviour seemed quirky & cool (well, maybe) when they were twenty somethings, now seems obnoxious & tiresome. The reader has moved on over the last 25 years, but the characters are even more vacuous & self-absorbed than before. The story isn't v interesting, dialogues between characters seem to end suddenly due to lack of interest & the writing style is all a bit high school. Waste of time & money, I'm afraid.
Format:Paperback
I have admired BEE for many years, but this book fails on almost every department.
The opening is confusing, doesn't make a lot of sense and is just an excuse to alter things. I wonder if highlander 2 started with a similar message, we would by planet zeist-Don't think so.
There is also no need to use the less than zero characters, with a short rewrite we would have a bunch of new characters which we basically have anyway.
The plot is dull and predictable (espcially as the person "following" Clay has no real motive to do it in this way). There is also some tacked on contractually obligated gorn which is pointless (especially the "buying" people bit, I wouldn't have noticed if this was cut out).
It just seems to be his revenge for the failure of the Informers movie (he cannot totally escape blame for that either) and recycles pieces from Lunar park (the ghosts) and Glamorama (satire of the movies).
More effort needed next time Bret.
The opening is confusing, doesn't make a lot of sense and is just an excuse to alter things. I wonder if highlander 2 started with a similar message, we would by planet zeist-Don't think so.
There is also no need to use the less than zero characters, with a short rewrite we would have a bunch of new characters which we basically have anyway.
The plot is dull and predictable (espcially as the person "following" Clay has no real motive to do it in this way). There is also some tacked on contractually obligated gorn which is pointless (especially the "buying" people bit, I wouldn't have noticed if this was cut out).
It just seems to be his revenge for the failure of the Informers movie (he cannot totally escape blame for that either) and recycles pieces from Lunar park (the ghosts) and Glamorama (satire of the movies).
More effort needed next time Bret.
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
The old gang from "Less Than Zero" are revisited in a sort of sequel, "Imperial Bedrooms". They were wasted as teenagers and they're wasted in middle age. Trent Burroughs is married to Blair, Julian Wells is around, Rip Millar is creepier than the last time, while Clay is as vapid and self-absorbed as ever.
The story begins with a film Clay wrote and is helping produce, "The Listeners", where he meets a desperate and beautiful actress, Rain Turner, who will do anything for a starring role. Clay and Rain become involved but then the murders start happening and Clay doesn't realise what he's gotten himself into nor who Rain really is. Mysterious texts follow sackings of his flat and blue/green BMWs stalking Clay wherever he goes. Somehow his "friends" are all tied into this and Clay has to decide who to trust...
If not for the characters' names this could easily be a standalone book rather than a sequel. Besides finding out that our heroes of "Less" turn out to be older and still behave like they did 25 years ago, it's not exactly a revelatory update. But that's fine because the book is more than the better for it. It launches straight into the story. The story seems very The Hills/The OC in style; it's all about who slept with who, what their game is, jilted love, revenge, etc. except for several horrific scenes. I'm thinking of what Clay does to the two hookers at the end and the grotesque murder (all detailed) of one of the main characters by another. Also, while this is a Hollywood novel, Ellis doesn't do what most Hollywood novels do and inject satire or parody into the story. It's a straightfoward serious story that plays off of perceived Hollywood stereotypes to construct something original.
Ellis specialises in 1st person narration and Clay's voice is as cold and dispassionate as it was in the '80s and the familiar scenes of drug abuse and sexual exploitation are told with all the emotional resonance of a shopping list. We see the story through Clay's eyes and his lack of interest in his friends from "Less Than Zero" heighten their characters' level of interest in the reader. Rip in particular is a menacing figure who seems to be somehow omnipotent but because Clay shields himself from finding out about Rip's life, we never know more about him, making Rip even more terrifying. Clay's a great character who evolves throughout the story from being emotionally detached to become totally changed, finally ending on the words "I never liked anyone and I'm afraid of people".
"1985-2010" follow the final sentence and makes me wonder if Ellis is giving up novel writing or maybe he's giving up writing the type of novel he's famous for. I hope that's not the case. Even if some will look at this and dislike aspects of it (and if you've read Ellis before and didn't like him, this book won't change your opinion), Ellis is still by far one of the finest novelists around at the moment. It was never going to be the groundbreaking book "Less Than Zero" was but it has the virtue of being more interesting than almost any novel published this year. "Imperial Bedrooms" is overall a well written and worthwhile read.
The story begins with a film Clay wrote and is helping produce, "The Listeners", where he meets a desperate and beautiful actress, Rain Turner, who will do anything for a starring role. Clay and Rain become involved but then the murders start happening and Clay doesn't realise what he's gotten himself into nor who Rain really is. Mysterious texts follow sackings of his flat and blue/green BMWs stalking Clay wherever he goes. Somehow his "friends" are all tied into this and Clay has to decide who to trust...
If not for the characters' names this could easily be a standalone book rather than a sequel. Besides finding out that our heroes of "Less" turn out to be older and still behave like they did 25 years ago, it's not exactly a revelatory update. But that's fine because the book is more than the better for it. It launches straight into the story. The story seems very The Hills/The OC in style; it's all about who slept with who, what their game is, jilted love, revenge, etc. except for several horrific scenes. I'm thinking of what Clay does to the two hookers at the end and the grotesque murder (all detailed) of one of the main characters by another. Also, while this is a Hollywood novel, Ellis doesn't do what most Hollywood novels do and inject satire or parody into the story. It's a straightfoward serious story that plays off of perceived Hollywood stereotypes to construct something original.
Ellis specialises in 1st person narration and Clay's voice is as cold and dispassionate as it was in the '80s and the familiar scenes of drug abuse and sexual exploitation are told with all the emotional resonance of a shopping list. We see the story through Clay's eyes and his lack of interest in his friends from "Less Than Zero" heighten their characters' level of interest in the reader. Rip in particular is a menacing figure who seems to be somehow omnipotent but because Clay shields himself from finding out about Rip's life, we never know more about him, making Rip even more terrifying. Clay's a great character who evolves throughout the story from being emotionally detached to become totally changed, finally ending on the words "I never liked anyone and I'm afraid of people".
"1985-2010" follow the final sentence and makes me wonder if Ellis is giving up novel writing or maybe he's giving up writing the type of novel he's famous for. I hope that's not the case. Even if some will look at this and dislike aspects of it (and if you've read Ellis before and didn't like him, this book won't change your opinion), Ellis is still by far one of the finest novelists around at the moment. It was never going to be the groundbreaking book "Less Than Zero" was but it has the virtue of being more interesting than almost any novel published this year. "Imperial Bedrooms" is overall a well written and worthwhile read.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Good book
still reading it it has all the ingredients you expect from a Bret Easton Ellis book, also for the price was a bargain, I trully recommend
Published 1 month ago by David Rio
Imperial Bedrooms
I had already read the book in Italian I have not had to read it in English is in excellent condition
Published 7 months ago by rita zanelli
A terrible book
Read about a 100 or so pages then gave up the ghost a terrible, terrible book devoid of warmth, storyline and just a whole reason for its existence really. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Steve ALbini
Strange ending
I generally love BEE books. The Informers is the only one I don't really get on with. After the excellent, trippy Lunar Park I had high hopes for this, even though Less Than Zero... Read more
Published 12 months ago by SE
black, grim, engrossing
Good points. Yes, it's a pageturner. I want to find out what happens next. Usually it's not very much at all, but still, it's written in gorgeous prose and with almost no... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Hambletta-Maud
a murder mystery
A tautly plotted novel (once the opening couple of pages of "you know these people - you've read the earlier novel and you've seen the film" is out of the way) - which is (i) a... Read more
Published 13 months ago by William Jordan
Not pretty, completely absorbing.
Accept the change in gear from a near complete detachment in Less Than Zero, to using more obvious devices (a stalker and a preoccupation with a techno-takeover) this mature sequel... Read more
Published 13 months ago by lomesa
Tasty!
Imperial Bedrooms is a sequel to the excellent but controversial debut novel Less Than Zero. This time the author tends to concentrate more on the plot and less on the characters,... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Ross Sampson
Not quite good enough
I love Brett Easton Ellis' prose style, I love the balliness of his writing, I love the unflinching content. I was looking forward to this book immensely. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Victor Ward
Sunglasses
Ellis, although often compared to Joan Didion and lumped in with the Brat Pack writers, certainly has his own voice. And anything with his voice is worthwhile. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Aaron
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