Rules of Attraction (ROA) really was a great read. Not as brilliant as I think American Psycho (AP) is, but I did read Rules very closely because I wanted to follow exacttly what was being said - and you are the first person that I know of who has commented on the "mindless dismissial of other people" and want to yell, "yes, yes" and wish I had put that into words - that is a great insight and key to the book.
As for Bob's comments about characters that "I just don't care about" well that is one of the challenges huh? For me it has been not to like or dislike the characters (who is there to like?) but to see myself in those characters, to see the, shall we say, less flattering aspects of my own self being writ large like that, taken to the next level - As for ROA and AP - aren't our main chgaracters brothers? It is a Bateman in each book (think about that name, hmmmm) and I think in ROA we are briefly introduced to the Bateman in AP. For me AP is is in part a very chilling indictment on the materialism of the the 80s and the critique of our culture I so utterly agree with - and as Ellis counterposes the culture of acquistion against war, peace, and jjustice issues (especially in the restaurant scene but elsewhere) I think it is as applicable today, maybe much more so, than it was in the 80s. I say that wearing my American Trails shirt, lookiong at the time on my Timex single stemmed black and silver watch, making a subtle change of foot position in my AndOne shoes, my aerobiciced and yoga-pilated body flexing beneath the Levi 501 jeans and readjusting my Parveau reading glasses which are just large enough to help me read print and text and my Apple G4 monitor but not so large as to appear as if I actually needed glasses. When my dad was in the hospital in Decembner I had several Bret Easton Ellis books with me (the only one I haven't read is Glamorama) and it was quite the juxtaposition sometimes to look up from the book and deal with my father! Question: would you recommend a Bret Perry Ellis book - especially AP - to anyone else? Don't know that I would with AP - as brilliant a book as I think it is, the best fiction that I read in many,many years, I am afraid of what others would think of me if they read it and knew how much I liked it - would they catch the penetrating relentless reflectiuon of American life, or simply think I was a sicko with demented reading tastes? Vince Tamsin Lucas' post I'm quite a fan of The Rules of Attraction most of all. All that emptiness and angst and mindless dismissal of other people... - sometimes being at university did feel like that - as if everyone was competing to be the most "angsty" - I think that's what I particularly liked about TRoA. Also I love Donna Tartt's The Secret History and the same characters pop up in the background of both books which is cool. I believe Tartt and Eliis went to the same college. Bob's post >Bret Easton Ellis = a very talented writer with characters I just can't care >about, which makes for a strange reading experience. (And I'm not just >talking about "American Psycho" here.) > http://messenger.msn.co.uk
