- Paperback: 208 pages
- Publisher: Picador; paperback / softback edition (Feb 1986)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0330294008
- ISBN-13: 978-0330294003
- Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 13.1 x 1.9 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 244,479 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Less Than Zero
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Product Description
Review
'It is all too relevant to teenagers today'
--Alastair Hutchinson in The Times --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
--Alastair Hutchinson in The Times --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
A raw portrait of a lost, rich generation who experience sex, drugs, and disaffection at too early an age
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Dead Generation,
By rp "rp" (London) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Less Than Zero (Picador Books) (Paperback)
Where did Bret Easton-Ellis come from? I don't mean geographically. I mean how did someone in their early twenties write such a complete book? Less Than Zero is so accomplished it's incredible. It tells the story of the teenagers of the rich and famous, and their decent into decadence simply in search of something to do. These characters simply have nothing to risk. They are dead to the world and completely souless.I think a lot of other authors wouldn't be able to resist the temptation to satirise the characters. Easton-Ellis looks beyond the shallowness of his characters and the result is a tragedy worthy of Evelyn Waugh, F. Scott Fitzgerald or Ernest Hemingway. Unfortunately, Less Than Zero is not as entertaining as Vile Bodies or The Great Gatsby. It's on a par with The Sun Also Rises though. I think as the years go by, this book will be seen as more and more tragic, and an extremely good record of 1980s America at it's most empty and decadent. When it was first released some reviewers misread it as some kind of nihilistic call-to-arms for young party people. There's even an excerpt on the back of the book from one reviewer who compares the characters to The Beat Generation and generally approves of their wild party antics. I think now that the dust has settled it's easier to understand the meaning of this book. There's no soul in this party.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
stunning - boredom never sounded better,
By A Customer
This review is from: Less Than Zero (Picador Books) (Paperback)
The first book I have ever read by Ellis and I will be reading more as a result. I have just finished the book and it has become one of my all time favourites. Ellis writes about boredom and irrelevant conversation in a gripping manner. Hard to comprehend I know but the author summaries the 80's perfectly. Anyone in their mid-twenties onwards should be able to relate to this book and find it spot on and possibly even miss those times.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
What makes this book so good?,
By
This review is from: Less Than Zero (Paperback)
Bret Easton Ellis documents the life of Clay, eighteen years old, back home in LA for the holidays from his New England college. Clay does little. He moves in a daze, from bedroom to pool to parties and tense family dinners, watching the lives of his family and friends - mostly fellow teens with no direction, too much money and too much freedom - their parents all divorced and mostly absent.
The style is choppy- deliberately so - as Clay's thoughts and feelings grasshopper through observations and feelings. Emotionally detached, he watches his world with the blinds drawn, numbed by a haze of sex, drugs and alcohol, witness to the slow-motion death-dives of the lives around him as his friends compete in an endless, no-holds-barred search for ever bigger and more contemptible thrills to alleviate the ennui of their hopeless lives. Darkly pessimistic, Less than Zero confused me; why did I keep reading? Nothing really happens. There is virtually no plot and the only character development is that of Clay himself and his slow realisation that he's living in Hell. Clay's final vow to leave LA and never return is the final word in a book that goes nowhere but is, nevertheless, always disturbing, fascinating and compelling.
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