| Title | : | The Rules of Attraction |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 067978148X |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780679781486 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 283 |
| Publication | : | First published September 1, 1987 |
The Rules of Attraction Reviews
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”So I stand against the wall, listen to REM, finish the beer, get more, keep my eye on the Freshman girl. Then some other girl, Deidre I think her name is, black spiked hair that already looks dated and trendy, black lipstick, black fingernail polish, black kneesocks, black shoes, nice tits, okay body, Senior, comes over and she’s wearing a black halter top even though it’s like forty below in the room and she’s drunk and coughing like she has T.B., swigging Scotch. I’ve seen her stealing Dante in the bookstore.”
Bret Easton Ellis, in describing this girl, gives us those extra descriptive terms that make us give Deidre a second look. Coughing, swigging, and stealing. Okay, so she is a bit trashy, a bit goth, a bit too easy, maybe, but any girl that steals Dante would definitely have perked my interest back in the day. The music is loud so I’d have to nuzzle up to her ear. She probably smells faintly still of the perfume she put on earlier, but her skin has probably also started to soak up some of the aromas from the party.
I’d tell her, I saw you stealing Dante.
Now Sean is way more worried about banging the cute freshman girl.... Why?... because she is garden-fresh, practically just hatched. She hasn’t been initiated into the Camden Liberal Arts college tradition of swill, sweat, and semen. Interesting enough, Camden is probably the most famous college in recent American literary history. Writers Ellis, Jonathan Lethem, and Jill Eisenstadt all attended the very expensive Bennington College in Vermont. All have used Camden as a fictional universe for their Bennington experiences. The author Donna Tartt also attended Bennington, but in her novel The Secret History, she uses the fictional name of Hampden.
Camden. Hampden. I do believe there is literary collusion going on. No Russians as far as I can tell were involved.
Sean has a stalker, a sweet secret admirer, who leaves him love notes in his mail box. ”It is simple. I watch him. He reveals himself in dark contours. Everything I believe in floats away when I witness him, say, eating or crossing the boundaries of a crowded room. I feel a scourge. I have his name written on a sheet of pale blue paper that is tissue thin.” She is a ghost throughout the book as we whiplash between different narrators who all reveal pieces of what has happened. Sometimes their accounts differ, and sometimes the omission of facts from one narrator, in particular, reveals much about how far they are from understanding what they truly desire. Sometimes they lie. The task for the reader is to evaluate what we are told until the truth becomes a glittering, but tarnished, pearl.
So I’ve sort of introduced Sean to you, as he is tucking Deidre into his back pocket in case he needs her while he attempts to catch the eye of cute freshman. As the plot develops, his life becomes more complicated as he finds himself trapped in a confusing, obsessive relationship (sexship) with Lauren. To add more spice to the caldron of lust, he also is having sex with...Paul? Is he? As this triangle acquires more weight, we start to understand the inability of any of these characters to get passed impulsive desires and find any meaning in love.
”’He likes him. He likes her. I think she likes someone else, probably me. That’s all. No logic.’”
Ask that same question of these people a week later and the corners of the triangle will point in different or all new directions. It is all fluid and meaningless, but not without psychological mutilation.
Remember the stalker?
”The seeds of love have taken hold and if we can’t burn together, I’ll burn alone.”
Going to class at Camden seems optional. It is certainly low on the list of priorities. These kids are being washed up on the shores of a hedonistic island, and if anyone is feeling inhibited, soon the copious amounts of alcohol, drugs, and hormonally driven lust have them dancing to the latest Talking Heads album along with the natives.
It makes me wonder, after these people are booted off the island, how anyone can reintegrate into regular society. Camden will leave these people morally decimated, distrustful, and with probably more than one nasty habit. Ahhh yes, the ‘80s.
Don’t miss the Dressed to Get Screwed party. The highlight of the year.
The book jacket says this is a vast departure from Bret Easton Ellis’s first book, Less Than Zero, which for a few chapters I was thinking what the hell are they talking about, but as I got deeper in the book, I started to realize that this book is actually significantly different from his first book. In Less Than Zero, his characters are soulless, people really beyond redemption in my opinion. In this book, he infuses some humor, some legitimate pain, and explores deeper themes about adolescents awkwardly trapped in an extended childhood and with no real idea why anyone would ever want to be an adult. They are rich, spoiled, and lost. LIke a spectre floating behind the scenes, we have the tale of the secret admirer who is the only person who seems to understand real desire, and sustainable love. The poignancy of her situation will make your heart strings tremble.
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& so I thought that after college this would be less impressionable & a tad less impressive. Boy was I wrong. I am still completely enraptured by this novel in which characters DON’T change (breaking 1 of the main cardinal rules of all literature—to make protagonists experience change—Ellis is intrepid). The details in this are perfect and absolutely hilarious--80's encapsulated brilliantly. You end up rooting for the sleaziest of antagonists—nobody in Camden deserves redemption and most actions taken are wholly despicable. Yet—THIS IS college. The confusion, the sex, drugs, alcohol, suicide attempts, abortions, socials… it's all recorded here. I don’t think another writer has influenced me as much in the art of immorality (this includes [up]Chuck Palahniuk & even the Marquis de Sade)—in his use of effective, rapid, stylish, unforgettable prose.
A guilty pleasure that's not all too guilty--despite the explicit content & undercurrent of melancholia. An absolutely essential novel. -
Posted at Heradas
Whenever I’m the mood for fiction about first world problems, unloved rich kids and the fucked up lives they lead, I reach for something by Bret Easton Ellis. I get on a serious kick for this kind of stuff sometimes.
Transgressive fiction, I’ve heard it called. Maybe it’s soothing to my soul to think that an abundance of money doesn’t necessarily alleviate our problems. Maybe I get a heavy slathering of schadenfreude by reading representations of the most fortunate among us enduring harrowing emotional torment. Whatever the cause, when I’m in the mood for this type of stuff, Ellis hits the spot perfectly.
As a teenager,
Chuck Palahniuk was my go to when I felt the creeping dread of the unfairness of the world, the uncertainty of life and our lot in it. I quickly grew out of Palahniuk after his fourth or fifth book, I can’t remember precisely which one. He hit some truly brilliant highs from time to time that resonated deeply with my angst riddled teenage mind, but it quickly became apparent that he had already said what he came to say and wasn’t working in an interesting space any longer. Anyway, I feel like Bret Easton Ellis is probably who Palahniuk was most inspired by. They touch on a lot of the same themes, but Ellis does it with a lot more subtlety and grace. Where Palahniuk beats the reader over the head with a theme, Ellis writes his way around it, guiding the reader toward the conclusion he’s striving for.“No one will ever know anyone. We just have to deal with each other. You're not ever gonna know me.”
The Rules of Attraction is mostly told through a series of short, unfiltered, internal, first person POV narratives that often contradict one another. They read almost like journal entries or summaries of events. Where these disparate points of view don’t quite align, where they butt up against one another, something more interesting is revealed: how subjective everyone’s reality is, how deep the well of self deception runs within us. We simply can’t see through another’s eyes. Our accounts of reality, our retellings of history, will never align with anyone else’s. We are all fully alone within ourselves, but crave social connection and understanding. It’s a sick joke that we cannot escape.
I didn’t find this story nearly as disturbing as Ellis' first novel,
Less Than Zero, something that I greatly appreciated, however it’s still pretty messed up: The novel begins with what is arguably a date rape, and continues on to accidental overdoses, suicide, suicide attempts, and continual emotional manipulation. The most disturbing element for me though, was that none of these events seem to phase any of the characters involved. They’re all dead inside, lying to themselves, in heavy denial of something or other, and entirely self-centered. Their apathy is palpable, and drips all over every aspect of their lives.
My suspicion is that this novel is a reflection on the futility of love and relationships, the improbability of knowing one another well enough to communicate from within the infinite walls of experience and subjectivity that separate us from everyone else. We become trapped in our personal experience of the world, each of us wandering around in our locked down boxes, misunderstanding one another as we inadvertently help to reinforce their own boxes.“What else is there to do in college except drink beer or slit one's wrists?”
The unfiltered internal thoughts of these characters highlighted for me a youthful period of my own life, a time where my desire for belonging and acceptance within peer groups was paramount. I cared so much what others thought of me, where I stood in relation to them. These needs, only expressed internally, desperately hidden externally, or so I thought. I loved this glimpse into the characters’ emotional lives. It rings true for anyone who remembers being young and caring so much about things that matter so little. I imagine this book would read a lot differently in your twenties, than your thirties or forties.
I enjoy the shared universe in which Ellis’ novels take place. “That kid from LA” that is occasionally referenced in The Rules of Attraction is Clay, the protagonist from
Less Than Zero. One of the main POV characters, Sean Bateman, is the younger brother of the titular
American Psycho, Patrick Bateman, pro/antagonist of Ellis’ follow-up to The Rules of Attraction. Patrick even narrates his own short chapter near the end of the novel. From what I hear, there are little crossover moments like these peppered throughout all of Ellis’ novels, and the connections are not always limited to his own work, but occasionally those written by his contemporaries such as
Donna Tartt or
Jay McInerney.
I look forward to suffering through all of his stories, along with his coterie of broken, apathetic, wealthy, unloved characters… when I’m in the mood for them that is. Just like a quality psychedelic experience, set and setting are crucial elements with his writing. These novels can be a dreadful, disheartening experience if you’re not in the right state of mind. If you’re up for it though, they’re a blast. -
This book may have sounded contrived to some, but to me it was exactly the way I remember being and feeling in college. The dorm, cafeteria and party scenes are brilliant and so are the fast travel sections. When I recently read
The Sorrows of Young Mike, it felt like a sequel because the characters were also nihilistic college students, horny and self-involved. It, along with The Rules of Attraction, touches on similar issues that hardly affect the main characters, as they are busy thinking about themselves. -
I've never really been a fan of multiple narrators in a novel. Switching character voices every 20-30 pages or so wouldn't have been so bad, but here it happens sometimes in as little as 2-3. To me it felt driving along a stretch of road that had traffic lights every 100 metres. I just want to get moving! There was no flow here. Pity, as my last outing with Bret Easton Ellis was simply superb. There was rarely a dull moment in Glamorama, and the shift in story about halfway through was one of the best and most unputdownable I've come across in years. One thing both books have in common though is young people. Bret Eaton Ellis is great when it comes to writing about people under the age of 30. Here we get a group of college students in the 80s, and I quickly noticed that some of his characters from later novels are in here too. So this is basically getting acquainted with them during their higher education. Not that the novel is about their actual education mind you, this is awash with drinking, taking drugs, partying, having sex and being in relationships all the way through. Seeing as there is no real plot, I could have read half of it and not missed much if I didn't read the rest of it. After a while it just became a drag and very repetitive. But it does capture what it intends to capture really well. Although not absolutely essential, I think it would have helped being somewhere around the age of the characters here - or if you just have a thing for spoiled, self-absorbed and tumultuous brats. Would I have appreciated it more if read in my 20s and not 40s? Probably. Although that wasn't a factor when reading Glamorama simply because it was a mesmerizing novel from start to finish and this simply was not. Makes me wish I'd read his fictional memoir 'Lunar Park' instead. -
Ellis is one of those authors that seems to grow in stature as time marches on. i see him on so many Favorite Author lists and i just have to roll my eyes a bit. personally, he'll always be the author i laughed at on a regular basis: hilariously pretentious and embarrassingly convinced that pretension equals depth. American Psycho? sorry, the film version was a better portrait of capitalist consumerism and had the intelligence to re-route the author's misogyny so that it existed solely within the central psycho. Less Than Zero? well, it's very hard for me to muster any empathy for spoiled brats who are unhappy with their oversexed, well-fed lives - and who have the lack of tact to complain about their emptiness. gosh i guess this turned out to be a review of 3 books!
but The Rules of Attraction is something different, something special. its playfulness with narrative and perspective is actually rather brilliant. i'm not sure i've read another novel where fully one-third of the narrative was a jerk-off fabrication by one of the characters (one who isn't a psychotic serial killer, that is). perhaps prior to Rules, Ellis somehow exorcised all that repulsive self-pity that inundanted Zero and then replaced it with malevolent wit. and better yet, he puts his usual snarkiness in the mouths of characters who - although soulless - still genuinely face more life challenges than his prior student portraits.
most surprising of all, the nearly-marginal story of the suicide: bitterly ironic, entirely moving, and wonderfully written. and hey, there's even a teensy little light at the end of the tunnel that didn't feel forced. good job, Ellis. i never thought i'd say that phrase! -
At first glance, this book is pointless. It's an endless loop of drugs, sex, and parties. It has no plot, it begins and ends in the middle of a sentence, there are too many characters strewn about, too many labels, too many songs, too many places. You finish the book and for a moment you think 'wait - what? That's it?' but you realize yes, that is, in fact, 'it'. The apathy Ellis invokes in his readers, shows in his characters, is still masterfully done. He breezes past topics like suicide and abortion which, when you give the way they're treated some thought, make you sick. His narrative choices may seem haphazard with the shifting first person perspective, the shifting tenses (AND THE RANDOM PASSAGE IN FRENCH WHICH I STILL CANNOT UNDERSTAND AFTER GOOGLE TRANSLATE), but it allows him to show how self absorbed his characters are and how differently they view the same things, the same people. He slips in little clues that tie in with events that are mentioned in passing and if you're paying attention to seemingly random paragraphs and details, you get a greater sense of what Ellis is trying to get across to the reader. I am constantly left wanting to read more of his work.
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This was my introduction into the world of Bret Easton Ellis, and I fell hopelessly in love.
I couldn't believe that someone could put together a written work, which not only emanates the characters hyper-sexed-over-zealous-self-conscious-unaware-searching-for-love-not-knowing sadness, but uses language to reinforce its themes. It would seem confusing, but at my first read, it was what I was feeling at that moment (minus the drugs, those came later). Rules of Attraction, at its base, is a novel about communication and the inefficiency of words. It is also a meditation on reality, what is it to who? A theme that pops up in Easton Ellis's later works.
As Lillian has reminded me, it does start and end mid-sentence, only in the brillance of Easton Ellis's mind should a slice-of-life story cut in like any other voyeur, "mid-action" (just as simple as listening in on a phone conversation or looking through your neighboor's window). Easton Ellis makes the reader a voyeur, and yes, it made me feel dirty as it should, but a good dirty. -
My friend lent me this book and I was super excited because we're trying this new thing where we lend each other a book to read every month... and this was the first one of our new little reading adventure.
I was bored. Insanely bored. It felt like someone was literally yelling gibberish so fast into my ear that I almost couldn't understand them at all.
I tried to enjoy this. I did. I read 50 pages the first day and then I just decided to read the rest of it in one sitting because I knew if I put it down I would never pick it back up. I felt like I owed it to my friend to at least complete the first book that she was loaning me.
Not much else to say. I didn't like it. Not even a little bit. It didn't captivate me. I feel harsh saying this but... I would quite literally watch grass grow. -
'The Rules of Attraction' is a dark satire that follows the lives of hedonistic and unsympathetic college students. Centred around an unusual love triangle between its three protagonists, the novel is a multi-perspective tale that depicts different forms of desperation and abrasiveness. Packed with page-turning scandal and sharp narration, the book is a strangely intoxicating read that quickly moves from sensational events to bizarre tragedies. Overall, this novel largely portrays the world as a dog-eat-dog environment, and implies that the idea of being loved and cared about by your peers is totally daft.
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3.5 Stars
The Rules of Attraction is one of those stories that makes you feel slightly uneasy while reading it. It had the feel of both A Clockwork Orange and Trainspotting in the sense that it is so over the top and risqué. The Rules of Attraction is unlike anything that I have ever read before.
I had never read anything from Bret Easton Ellis before, although American Psycho has been sitting on my shelf for quite some time now. I came across The Rules of Attraction at a local thrift shop and I recognized the authors name which helped in my decision to pick it up.
The Rules of Attraction tells the intersecting stories of three prominent characters (Sean Bateman, Lauren Hyde & Paul Denton) as they experience their college years in the 1980’s. The story is told by jumping back and forth between short vignettes that showcase each of these characters perspectives. Every now and then, a minor character tells their story from their perspective through their own little mini vignette.
It is definitely no secret that the 80’s were a wild decade, but holy shit does this story ever make that time period sound completely over the top and insane. I have always been slightly disappointed that I didn’t get to experience the 80’s, mainly because the music during that decade contains some of my favourite songs and artists of all time. After reading The Rules of Attraction however, I’m wondering if I would have ever been able to survive going to college during this era.
I loved the idea of hearing the different character’s perspectives, especially when they were describing the same scenes. Rather than have the exact same scene play out repeatedly, each character is so fucked up on either drugs, alcohol or something in between, that their stories are all completely different. For example, when Sean believes that Lauren is in love with him, only to jump to her perspective to find out she just likes to have him around to keep her company while waiting for her “boyfriend” to return from Europe. It’s moments like these that actually make this story more realistic and believable. No two people are going to have the exact same interpretation of a moment. Everyone experiences things differently. I’m still unsure if the relationship between Paul and Sean ever even happened. Not knowing the definite outcome is something that might drive some readers nuts. Hell, it usually drives me nuts, but for whatever reason, it worked perfectly within this story.
The characters were all unique from one another. While a lot of their drug and relationship habits were similar, each character had their own individual voice. I can’t say that I particularly enjoyed Lauren’s moments. I found her a little annoying and not that interesting. There was just something about her that I wasn’t very fond of. I felt a little indifferent when it came to Sean. He started out interesting, but as the story went on he started to feel a little redundant. Paul however, was my absolute favourite. He felt real and relatable. While he seemed the most sane out of the three main characters, I think it may be possible that he was the most insane. Like I mentioned earlier, I still can’t tell if his relationship with Sean ever even really happened.
In terms of the minor character vignettes, I could have done without a lot of them. The random French paragraphs from Bertrand’s perspective felt out of place. I understood bits of it here and there, but I wasn’t about to go google translate the whole thing. The one vignette that I think was rather awesome and beneficial was that of Patrick, Sean’s older brother. Yes…Patrick as in Patrick Bateman…as in THE Patrick Bateman featured in Bret Easton Ellis’ later novel, American Psycho. I didn’t even realize the two books were connected, regardless of how minor, until I put two and two together and realized that the two characters shared the same last name.
One of the main characteristics about The Rules of Attraction that made it so unique was the fact that each character perspective was told using a different writing style. Sean felt very chaotic, Lauren felt very quick and to the point while Paul felt the most sophisticated. The writing was very quick and extremely fast paced to start, however, it kept that steady rhythm throughout the entire novel which started to get old. It was so fast-paced the entire time that there was no peak in the story.
When I first opened my copy of The Rules of Attraction, I thought I was missing a page as the first opening paragraph starts mid-sentence. Once I reached the end of the novel, the same things happens again except it ended mid-sentence. Once again, this is something that might piss off a lot of readers, but I found it to be quite memorable and unique. It felt to me as though this represented the idea that we as the reader are just witnessing a little snippet of these character’s lives. We jumped in and we jumped out, just like that.
I did enjoy The Rules of Attraction for the most part. It was definitely unlike anything I have ever read before. I enjoyed the quick and fast-paced nature of the writing. I’m really eager to read my copy of American Psycho as soon as possible. I’m curious to know if it will make any connections to the Rules of Attraction or if it is even told in the same writing style. If you are looking for something slightly fucked up and over the top, I would say that The Rules of Attraction is definitely for you.
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Initial Post Reading Thoughts:
This is probably one of the most uniquely written novels I have ever read. The overall tone of the story reminded me a lot of A Clockwork Orange and Trainspotting. It's one of those stories that feels a little unsettling for some reason. The Rules of Attraction is definitely very risque and slightly over the top, but that's part of what makes it so alluring. -
This book made me so glad to be 30…
The blurb says that this book is about the “death of romance”… But I feel this is a little bit more complicated than that. Sure “The Rules of Attraction” follows four unspeakably awful undergrads as they get tangled up in the most fucked up love-triangle I’ve ever read. As they agonize childishly over their various experiences, disappointments and mistakes, it’s hard to feel for them: none of them have any moral compass, maturity, honesty or self-awareness. They project huge, unrealistic expectations on each other, but never vocalize them, then hold bitter grudges against each other for failing tests they didn’t know they were going through…
Is this hilarious or sad? I guess that depends on how cynical you are! Ellis knows how to write, so this snapshot of college life and it’s horribly gritty and immoral details is an interesting read, but it is also repulsive. But that’s just his style: if you have never read him before, you should know that vacuous, depraved and apathetic characters are his thing. The lenses of dark humour with which he looks at the college experience can be very funny: but it is only funny because it’s pathetic, and I am not sure I feel inclined to laugh at that.
That being said, the multiple POVs of the same events is fascinating and entertaining. I'm always mesmerized by the way people interpret the exact same moment in such a wildly different ways, and these kids being unable to communicate adequately, well... you can imagine how that goes!
Several readers and critics have pointed out the realism of what Ellis describes in this book, assuming that everyone to ever set foot on a college campus fell into a bottomless pit of weed, drunk blackouts and awkward sex. Maybe I am a huge nerd, but I went to college to get a degree… If the “Rules of Attraction” is as realistic as they say, I’m very glad I was not in that crowd.
Marginally better than “Less Than Zero”, not as good as “American Psycho”. I think my Ellis-reading experiment is over. -
People who did not like this book simply did not understand it. While this book has the ability to stand on it's on, the real genius is how it acts ad a platform that allows ellis's characters (from all other works) to interact with one another outside the narcissism that confines their own stories. Those who complain that this book lacks plot or character growth, have failed to ask why that is. This book is an introspective account, told in first person narrative, from various (mainly three) perspectives. The setting is not Camden college, but in the minds of these young characters. Ellis brilliantly depicts how the events that take place over a few months time, are perceived and interpreted by those involved. The book begins and ends in the middle of a sentence, symbolically stating that perhaps the reader should interpret the work as a whole in the same way. This book is about the here and now, the present moments of these peoples lives. Any beginning or end would provide a context that might and most likely would
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A tale of hedonism from Bret Easton Ellis, filled with sex and drugs.
Bret Easton Ellis is of my biggest influences as an author and this is probably the Bret Easton Ellis novel that most influenced Drug Gang. It contains similar themes and social commentary. To quote from the book itself, “I think we've all lost some sort of feeling.”
This postmodern masterwork gives great insight into the possible impact and outcomes of a nihilistic mindset. -
50th book of 2020.
This is probably the worst time to read Ellis, as he's so damn depressing. Disaffection is the perfect word for his books, the way you feel when you're reading them. (I must say, also, how great is this cover? Not sure why it is, but I think it's great.)
Despite this, by Goodreads standards, has the same rating as Less Than Zero, American Psycho and Lunar Park, I think this has been the best Ellis yet. Let me try to explain. American Psycho is just Less Than Zero on some serious, serious drugs - but bad drugs, the ones that give you the worst trips, like nightmares. This, funnily enough, actually being the novel between the two, is a nice middle-ground. There isn't too much violence, and though it's everything I expected, drugs, sex, depression, suicide... it's not quite as bad as what comes next for Bret Easton Ellis - though nothing is.
There's quite a nostalgic slope coming out of my University library; that's a funny way of describing it. But, I couldn't fathom the number of times I've walked down that slope talking to someone about books, or classes, or food, or money. In that respect, it's a nostalgic slope. The other day, I was speaking to a woman I've never met before. Middle-aged, quite quiet, so the conversation always required a lot of attention, and gentle. She was nice. She told me that she loved Bret Easton Ellis, which surprised me. I gave a spiel about my thoughts on Ellis (hearing how it sounded as I said it, and felt sick at myself) and she agreed with me. You don't want to look but you can't help yourself, was my main point. It's a window into another life, too. And I think Ellis gets flak because what he's writing isn't romantic. He's writing about a lost generation, like Fitzgerald and Hemingway did, but their generation didn't have copious amounts of sex, or do enough cocaine to kill an elephant, or wave machetes around. It's a difficult relationship with Ellis, it's awe, but also disgust. I guess that's what makes him so interesting.
Rules of Attraction is more obviously scathing. It's ironic. It's even playful. Here are some quotes... They aren't nice. I'll say that now.
A boy's thoughts on Kafka in a lecture:
'Well, like, the dude was totally depressed because, well, the dude turned into a bug and freaked out.
(He's not wrong, credit to him. Though maybe 'freaked out' is a little generous of Samsa's reaction.)
Norris pays and ask the shy, acne-scarred cashier if she knows who wrote 'Notes from the Underground'. The girl, who's so homely you couldn't sleep with her for money, not for anything, smiles and says no, and that he can look in the bestseller paperbacks if he'd like. We leave the store and Norris sneers a little too meanly, "Townies are so ignorant."
A particularly crude quote, from a poetry group:
'Yeah, I've been working on this concept that when Man fucks animals, He's fucking Nature, since He's becomes so computerised and all.' Stump stops and takes a swallow from a silver flask he brings out of his pocket and says, 'I'm working on the dog section now where this guy ties a dog up and is having intercourse with it because He thinks dog is God. D-O-G. . .G-O-D. God spelled backwards. Get it? See?'
Most interestingly are the character crossovers. One of our protagonists in this is Patrick Bateman's brother, Sean Bateman. Of course, Patrick Bateman is our American Psycho. He even has several pages from his perspective, though the voice doesn't quite match what we get later on, so Ellis maybe hadn't quite found out what he would become. The other interesting one, is Clay's several pages, who was our protagonist in Less Than Zero - he was the only voice we heard in that novel, compared to the many in this one. So all in all, a good Ellis book.
Does that make it a 'good' book? I'm not sure. Yes and no.
Do I like Ellis: yes and no. -
At the beginning of the year, I decided that in 2020 I would devote some time to working through my sprawling to-read list, whether that meant actually reading the books or throwing them out. A second-hand copy of The Rules of Attraction had been sitting on my shelves for years, and I rather thought I might have missed the moment to read and/or enjoy it. Perhaps rather embarrassingly, though, I loved it. It's nihilistic, sure, but also SO well observed, hyper-quotable, and parts of it had me in stitches (especially the scene in which a group of students rush their friend to hospital only for a bizarrely incompetent doctor to declare him dead – while he's sitting up and talking). The characters are almost universally loathsome, but – and I wonder whether this is something I would've missed if I'd read it when I was 20 – there's vulnerability and naivety detectable in their desperate antics. The novel as a whole is fast, funny and brilliantly awful, but it's also somewhat more human than I was expecting.
TinyLetter -
One of the best books on insight. The setting makes this book even more pleasurable-a college campus in the 80s. We've all contemplated simple questions like "Does my best friend secretly hate me?" or "Does my boyfriend think about someone else when he's sleeping with me?". This book makes your insides squirm with embarrassment in the most hilarious form. There's so many great things about this book-the ending, the graphic sex scenes and how Victor is really a boring piece of shit. You never get attached to one cahracter, Ellis switches too fast between them, but it's what makes the book so good. You just laugh and feel sorry for all these lost assholes. I will always say "I'm sorry what did you say?" if someone asks me for quesadillas. Rock n' roll.
On a side note, if you plan on reading Bret Ellis in the full, read this first. All his characters have books of their own. The L.A. guy, he's in Glamorama. Bateman's brother Patrick, he's in American Psycho. I get upset when I read the best book first, but in this case you should. -
Rido anch'io, apro la porta, guardo Masur, che sta ridendo, ancora stupito, e poi chiudo la porta, programmando un'overdose.
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- Voglio conoscerti, - uggiola Sean. - Cosa? - Conoscerti. Voglio conoscerti. - Mi supplica. - Cosa significa? Conoscermi? - gli chiedo. - Conoscermi? Nessuno mai conosce nessuno. Mai. Tu non mi conoscerai mai. -
''He likes him. He likes her. I think she likes someone else, probably me. That’s all. No logic.''
Hella horny college kids. Also huge cunts, huge narcissists. The movie, which i adore and own on DVD, is way better.
Love the weird BEE*Bret Easton Ellis*universe.
''-I was in that class too.
-I didn't ever see u in there.
-That's why i failed it.''
Bruh, such a mood.
Fuuuuck, i miss uni. Yes granted i went to class and then after like 1-2hours left to go to a cafe but still. Online classes ain't fun. Haven't attended any but that's because i work. -
This was so good. Not as good as American Psycho, but better than Less Than Zero. Following a group of friends as Camden Collage it details their life of partying, drugs, booze and sex. It was seriously amazing. Clay was in it and so was Patrick Bateman which made me very happy. Plus Donna Tartt reference!
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Find all of my reviews at:
http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/
He loves her, but used to do it with him, who used to do it with her, who is still pining away for a different him who is currently in Europe thinking about a different her, or is she still really hung up on the him who used to do it with her current him????? Told in a free association style of rambling diary-like entries, Sean, Lauren and Paul talk about the hits and misses in their respective love lives while attending college in New England.
While the first few pages may have you thinking otherwise, this is a much lighter side of Bret Easton Ellis. Dark comedy is a fine art, and this author does it well. Apparently there is also a movie version that was made into a gazillion years ago, but as I was not a fan of “Dawson” or the Van Der Douche it never hit my radar.
However, when doing a little googly-goo of said movie, I found out this happens:
Hmmmmm, maybe I should try and track down a copy. Just to see if it maintains the integrity of the book, of course.
Blame it on the fact that I have what I’m assuming is an undiagnosed case of Ebola and am unable to take over-the-counter cold medicine without lapsing into a 12-hour coma, I completely glossed over the fact that Sean’s last name was Bateman. It took until Page 237 and a chapter told from his brother Patrick’s perspective to put two and two together. What a deliciously wicked way to help explain the nuttery that was the Sean Bateman character. If you’re looking for something that is disturbing, but not something that requires a barf bag or a trip to the shrink like American Psycho might, this is a good selection. -
Tôi thề là quyển này tôi chỉ cố đọc cho xong các bác ạ, không thích nổi một cái gì hết :)))
1. Cốt truyện, cách kể chuyện
Tác giả lồng ghép ngôi kể "tôi" ở từng nhân vật khác nhau. Nhưng theo mình đó là một sự thất bại. Mình cảm thấy nó như một mớ bòng bong, không có sự liên kết.
2. Nhân vật
Thật sự mình thấy các nhân vật rất nông cạn, không có chiều sâu, lúc nào cũng chỉ nghĩ về tình dục, ma túy các thứ :))) Mình còn chả care đến kết cục nhân vật ý :)))
3. Văn phong
Không biết do người dịch hay do ông tác giả, nhg mình đọc thấy rất khó chịu :)))
4. Chủ đề
Mình k hề có ác cảm với chủ đề tác giả muốn khai thác. Đó là sự lạc lõng, xuống cấp của xã hội Mỹ, điển hình là bọn thanh niên ở những năm 80. Nhưng cách kể của tác giả mình thấy rất có vấn đề, thậm chí là "rẻ tiền". Mình đã đọc rất nhiều các tác phẩm có yếu tố sex (Murakami chẳng hạn) nhưng riêng quyển này mình thấy tình dục rỗng tuếch :)))
Ôi nói chung đây là quyển sách tệ nhất 2020 tính đến giờ của mình. Đọc xong mừng hú hồn :))) -
In some books nothing really happens, but it doesn't make the book any less appealing since the characters or situations are so engaging. This, to me, is unfortunately not one of these books. The book is told from the perspectives of various protagonists in a diary-like style on their lives in college over a relatively short period of time (a semester, maybe less). It seems to lean heavily on the 'shock value' of the characters' lives filled with casual sex and drug use. To me, it does not succeed in inducing this disturbingly depressing feeling of (the reader's) lost innocence like Easton Ellis' Less than Zero did, nor does it offer any alternative. For the readers who are not easily shocked you are simply left with annoying, priviliged characters lacking any depth and a lackluster story without a purpose.
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A (college) term in the lives of a group of privileged affluent students at a small liberal arts college, where the story is moved on by short first person chapters, from the point of view of one of the group. This highly acclaimed 'comic' novel comes across to me as more of a look at how these people behaved in the 1980s, having the hindsight of the revelations made many years later.
Despite the content, the storytelling device of one person's point of view chapters works quite well, in providing a rounded and seemingly overarching sense of this soulless world of privilege and naked individualism - featuring the early Sean 'American Pyscho' Bateman. 8 out of 12.
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Too pretentious and pseudo decadent book even for me. I am more than okay with the suffering of the characters and huge amounts of sex but only if these things have some, any kind of meaning for the whole plot. And in The Rules of Attraction there is no such thing as meaning. I get it that Ellis wants to tell us exactly that about the lives of the so-called lost generation of the 80`s but I am sure that story could be told in much more elegant and why not interesting way.
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I preferred the movie. i never prefer the movie.
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This review is coming from my 19/20 year old self. Because that is when I first read it, and when it had the most impact on my tender brain.
I guess this was my first big lit read. Jodi Picoult, Marian Keyes (whom I still love), Pauline Simmons, a little bit of Michael Connelly and Patricia Cornwell were my main diet. These are 'nice' authors,they write about love, drama, family, murder, all very plot driven. You read it once put it away and forget about them.
'Rules of Attraction' is not a nice book.
Trying to describe this book is really hard. There isn't a plot, I guess you can say it is a love triangle, but that would give the assumption that Easton Ellis' characters can feel. This is a novel of the 1980's, it is about excess, drugs, sex, and more excess. Characters are driven by their whims and wants, not about what they feel or need.
Surprisingly these are not 1 dimensional characters, they are unique onto themselves, and give the novel shape and structure.
This was the novel that made me go wow why have I been eating rump when there is scotch fillet here. You do sink into this narcissistic world, you smell the off alcohol from the party the night before, feel the downing hues of what ever drug is making the rounds, go with the pointless sex. It is very hedonistic and self involved, which appealed to my self involved 19 year old self.
More importantly 'Rules of Attraction' opened up a whole new world of literature. Jack Kerouac, William, Faulkner, Hunter S Thompson, Michael Chabon, Marilynne Robinson, Simone de beauvior, Albert Camus, Trueman Capote, Vladimir Nabokov, Richard Yates, and the list goes on and on. What Easton Ellis opened up for me, was that a novel wasn't just about the story, but how the story is told, the craft, the language, and how it is used.
Brent Easton Ellis you turned me into a book snob. -
Videorecensione:
https://youtu.be/Gf87It-R--c -
2.5 stars. It wasn't terrible but I couldn't get invested in the story or characters, nothing about it was able to grab me but might reread this on a later date as I have the physical version
