A startlingly funny, kaleidoscopic novel about three students with no plans for the future – or even the present – who become entangled in a curious romantic triangle.
The Rules of Attraction
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"Inspired. A wonderfully comic novel." --Gore Vidal
"Ellis is, first and last, a moralist. Under cover of his laconic voice, every word in his [novels] springs from grieving outrage at our spiritual condition." --"Los Angeles Times Book Review"
"Serves to establish Mr. Ellis's reputation further as one of the primary inside sources in upper-middle-class America's continuing investigation of what has happened to its children." --"The New York Times Book Review"
"Ellis is, first and last, a moralist. Under cover of his laconic voice, every word in his [novels] springs from grieving outrage at our spiritual condition." --"Los Angeles Times Book Review"
"Serves to establish Mr. Ellis's reputation further as one of the primary inside sources in upper-middle-class America's continuing investigation of what has happened to its children." --"The New York Times Book Review"
Book Description
Incisive, controversial and startlingly funny, The Rules of Attraction examines a group of affluent students at a small, self-consciously bohemian, liberal-arts college on America’s East Coast. Lauren, who changes the man in her bed even more often than she changes course, is dating Victor but sleeping with Sean. Sean – cool, ambivalent and deeply cynical – might be in love with Lauren, but he’s not going to let that stop him from bedding Paul. Paul, as shrewd as he is passionate, is Lauren’s ex-lover and the final point in this curious triangle. This is a breathtaking tale of sex, expectation, desire and frustration. ‘A tour of the heart of darkness, a moral armageddon’ The Times ‘Compelling . . . sympathetic to his “lost generation” the way only Fitzgerald was about his’ Vanity Fair ‘One of the primary inside sources in upper-middle-class America’s continuing investigation of what has happened to its children’ New York Times ‘Inspired. A wonderfully comic novel’ Gore Vidal
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
30 of 31 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Having read all of BEE's work, I believe this is the best example of his misunderstood genius. A complex, subtle and strangely poignant account of American college life in the 1980's, played out through three first-person narrators who show us the world through disillusioned, disaffected eyes. The characterisation is expertly done, and in the end we are left feeling a strange empathy with these hollow lives. It begins in the middle of a sentence and ends in the middle of a sentence, and true, nothing much happens in between, but this is a book about characters, not plot. Style truly reflects content, and the effect is to immerse you totally in the world being portrayed...
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Ellis' second novel, sandwiched between scathing debut "Less than Zero" and the hard-hitting "American Psycho", was always going to be somewhat overlooked. However, it is just as involving and affecting , albeit subtler than A.P. It is the literary equivalent of creeping up on someone, tapping them on the shoulder and putting a mirror up to their face the instant they turn around. For a few seconds they are shocked by their own appearance... This novel is not about "them", the characters, the situations, it's about you. People you know, things you've done, or thought, or thought you've done but can't remember. An examination of a generation so bored with itself and its preoccupations that it's forgotten it was bored at all, and is simply floating from one pointless event to the next, one partner to the next, one drug to the next. It works on so many levels - outwardly shallow, but it's the superficiality that leads you to look deeper into the characters actions and motives. I personally would not criticise either the novel itself or Ellis style, but it has been mentioned elsewhere that he has been criticised for leaving a page blank, with accusations of pretentiousness for this. However, for me this was one of the most powerful moments of the story - the absence of Lauren's contribution for that day says more about her feelings then than she would ever spell out herself...
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By C. Lochhead
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This was the first Bret Easton Ellis book I'd read, so I wasn't sure on what to expect, but the book didn't disappoint. In fact it has made me stick a few more of his books in my Amazon wish list.
The start of the book sets the tone for the characters. It starts mid-sentence like your just dropping in on the book, and it ends mid-sentence, as if you just drift off not really caring about what has happened. This juxtaposition works very well and helps show the characters true essence.
Are money and drugs ruining the world? After reading "The Rules of Attraction" you will certainly believe so. The wild times, out-of-control students and disregard for anything other than oneself, doesn't paint a very pretty picture.
The story revolves around three main characters, Sean, Paul and Lauren. All rich, beautiful and delusional. Which attribute describes them best is hard to tell. As you go deeper the characters become entangled in various situations, some more serious than others. But all with the same terrible, depressing & soul-less attitude.
As the old cliche goes, after I started I didn't want to stop. A great read.
The start of the book sets the tone for the characters. It starts mid-sentence like your just dropping in on the book, and it ends mid-sentence, as if you just drift off not really caring about what has happened. This juxtaposition works very well and helps show the characters true essence.
Are money and drugs ruining the world? After reading "The Rules of Attraction" you will certainly believe so. The wild times, out-of-control students and disregard for anything other than oneself, doesn't paint a very pretty picture.
The story revolves around three main characters, Sean, Paul and Lauren. All rich, beautiful and delusional. Which attribute describes them best is hard to tell. As you go deeper the characters become entangled in various situations, some more serious than others. But all with the same terrible, depressing & soul-less attitude.
As the old cliche goes, after I started I didn't want to stop. A great read.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
We all know the masterpiece of that author, viz. American Psycho (please watch the uncut unrated video version: the extra five minutes make a real difference), and I was curious to see what he had become with time and age. This novel is situated in the same period as the one that made his fame, the mid 80s, under Ronald Reagan, the time of the emergence of financial capitalism, or shouldn't I say the emergence of speculative stock exchange financial greedy deregulated adventure. We are dealing here with the children of the first generation of these speculators who were inventing that golden boy and yippy/yuppy age that was just being born under our eyes. The children are all in college doing anything you may think of from drama to poetry, from art to just nothing. They do not plan on getting any real competence or skill in the social field of productivity and the economy. They are just expressing, satisfying and even trying to satiate their unfathomable hunger and thirst for anything that is not advised by moral and ethical authorities in the American world or what's more that is heavily not recommended and harshly rejected, i.e. drugs from cocaine to mushroom and all kinds of other grass, substance or concoction that could get you high or just wasted; then alcohol for the very purpose of being drunk as long as possible, forever if possible (And there they are creative like champagne on the rocks or rum diet coke, and some other barbaric mixtures); and of course sex, sex and sex. The book is in fact detailed only at that level and explores all kinds of possible orientations from plain gay to plain straight and all the variations, nuances, hues and other shades in-between for both girls and boys. In fact the book is becoming obsessive about male homosexuality with a few characters.... Read more ›
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By AnnaS
Format:Paperback
I understand those who say it is a completely meaningsless book, because it really is a book about nothing and I completely get those who say that it is absolutely brilliant, because it is about nothing and still leaves you with something. Reading The Rules of Attraction is like listening to a friend who tells you too much of what you don't want to hear and while he/she is talking and talking you realize that he/she got it all wrong, everything, the whole life, but you really can't do much about it because he/she is too far off for you to even bother.
Bret Easton Ellis lets a couple of college students (mostly Sean, Paul and Lauren) talk about their completely meaningless existance of sex, drugs and parties. What is fascinating here is to get the different perspectives of different people involved in the same love triangle and to see how the same situations, words and actions are perscieved completely differenty depending on what the person wants it to be. As the satirical elements were too hidden for me to find the book funny and the characters too unengaging to find it tragic, it were exactly those glimpses of hope and complete denial that made the book interesting to me.
Would I recommend The Rules of Attraction to my friends? Not really. But maybe I don't have the right kind of friends.
Bret Easton Ellis lets a couple of college students (mostly Sean, Paul and Lauren) talk about their completely meaningless existance of sex, drugs and parties. What is fascinating here is to get the different perspectives of different people involved in the same love triangle and to see how the same situations, words and actions are perscieved completely differenty depending on what the person wants it to be. As the satirical elements were too hidden for me to find the book funny and the characters too unengaging to find it tragic, it were exactly those glimpses of hope and complete denial that made the book interesting to me.
Would I recommend The Rules of Attraction to my friends? Not really. But maybe I don't have the right kind of friends.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent condition, great book
Fast delivery, excellent price, good condition all as hoped. Great book, although like the rest of Brett Easton Ellis' work very much to a taste.
Published 1 month ago by Charlie
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not sure what the fuss is about
Having been recommended this book by numerous people I have to say I was not that impressed.
Easton Ellis is clearly not aiming to tell an actual story or anything plot... Read more
Easton Ellis is clearly not aiming to tell an actual story or anything plot... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Julius
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nihilistic romp
The multi-perspective nature of this novel keeps it fresh and at times creates delicious dramatic irony that merges humour and heartbreak. Read more
Published 5 months ago by MR PHILIP J BAYLEY
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing
The book was fantastic. Great narrative, characters and plot. Thoroughly entertaining and i would recommend this to anyone. Well worth the price.
Published 7 months ago by SRbuyer
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not a match for American Psycho
I bought this based on how good American Psycho was but this doesn't compare. I've read Glamorama too which had moments of excitement but the story did not quite piece together,... Read more
Published 8 months ago by jwtdawson
2.0 out of 5 stars
Good style, shame about the weak plot and lack of depth...
I found this to be a well written novel which lacks depth. Ellis' has an undeniably distinct and easily readable writing style and quickly advances the story - however that story... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Culture Vulture
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sheer Genius
Brilliant in every way. The characters are dark and unsympathetic in many ways yet also easy to identify with. This book is a modern classic
Published 10 months ago by Highly-Strung
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Rules of Attraction
A darkly comic novel by Bret Easton Ellis about three students- Lauren Hynde, Sean Bateman and Paul Denton (who infrequently attend class) become involved in a sexual triangle... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Junior
5.0 out of 5 stars
Either you relate or you don't: no inbetween
You have to admire Ellis' ambition here. He's writing a novel that will frustrate many and offend even more. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Alexander Lindsay
5.0 out of 5 stars
id give it 10 stars.
I was introduced to Brett.E.E through American Psycho. I saw it lying on top of a pile in a charity shop and thought id read it. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Madmarshall
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