Dicen por ahí que la novela es muy de los años 80 y que ha envejecido mal, que ese rollo Bukowski pijo está muy pasado y que incluso lo que en aquellos momentos fue tildado de sensacionalista ahora es casi un juego de niños. No estoy de acuerdo. Simplemente es una novela que retrata una época, un ambiente y un grupo de gente muy determinado, alejado de lo que somos la mayoría, pero reflejando aquellos oscuros lugares a los que todos podríamos llegar bajo ciertas circunstancias, las que rodean a ...

AL DI LÀ DI TUTTI I LIMITIMi chiedo quando è stato che noi lettori – o, almeno io, e qualcun altro – abbiamo avuto bisogno che chi scriveva i libri che leggevamo chiamasse le cose col proprio nome. Che poi, spesso, quasi sempre da allora, significa: con le etichette. Che ci dicesse esattamente, scrivendolo, che musica ascoltava, quali band e album, e quali brani lo smuovevano dentro, che vestiti scegliesse, quali scarpe, vini, whiskey, palline da tennis…E di sentir parlare i personaggi sulle pag...

TW: drug abuse, pedophiliaThe person who recommended this to me cited it as her favorite book of all time, but she had read it for a class, so I think we had different experiences with it. This book is steeped in melancholy and nihilism, which I typically enjoy, but the format and emotionlessness of this often made it difficult to read, so it took me over a month to complete. Still, I enjoyed its themes and totally understand why my friend connected with it so much. I'm jealous that she got to d...

This novel irritated me but at the same time I couldn’t take my hands off it. I so clearly recognized the hardened apathy reflected in the eyes of Clay. He is a young man immobile, paralyzed by indecision, slowly rotting as he waits for whatever doom comes his way. His problem is not that he doesn’t know what he wants, but rather the ability to want has been lost in him. His circumstances, which usually is being driven by the person, is rather moving of its own accord, and he is aboard not steer...

Bret Easton Ellis lays the groundwork for the discussions of "surface aesthetics" in literature: Contrary to the reigning attitude of the dominant literary elite in the 60's and 70's, he relentlessly focuses on surfaces, insisting that they are, in fact, deep. Everybody in his debut novel is blond, tan, rich, and on drugs, even male prostitutes drive Ferraris. The soma (hello, Brave New World) that 18-year-old protagonist / narrator Clay and his, ähem, "friends" use has different forms, but much...

some books are like the face of Justin Long: this is a highly punchable face. don't you just want to punch that smug look right off of his corny face? it is a face born for being stomped into the ground. ugh, i hate justin long. although i loved him in the last few seconds of Jeepers Creepers, he was perfect for the role of Gutted Horror Victim.i also hate Less Than Zero. i blame this book for all of the ennui-laden, masturbatory nonsense that was foisted upon the world in the 80s. shouldn't ...

Books of this nature age well with me. I keep thinking about what happened, what Ellis might have meant. I find it fascinating what people walk away with from this and American Psycho. It seems rather obvious to me that this book is not just about spoiled rich drug addicts wasting away while taking some of their world with them. The characters' actions, more specifically their lack of action, says so much for the state of the times in this book, for LA, for American culture, all of which I find ...

Last year I spent a few months as an intern for a major national arts publication, which shall remain nameless because that makes me look cooler than if I just blurted it out. I had a few regular duties at this (unpaid) gig, the primary one being transcription of interviews. You might think that transcribing is drudgery, and in a sense it is. But if the interview subject was interesting—and, given this publication's bent and cachet, most of the subjects were interesting—it provided a rare glimps...

Rich kids doing drugs. Ugh.Actually, my view of this book was kind of distorted by this man I used to work with at this coffee shop.He was a huge fan if this author. And he was also a writer himself (published in Hustler!). He was in his 40's and still trying to break out. He had a son that was autistic and had tons of medical bills but because he still wanted to be a struggling artist his family had to suffer.So, he gives me the manuscript of one of his books (that was rejected by several publi...

This book seems boring and shallow, and reading it gives me an anesthetized, hollow, detached feeling that I would not describe as entirely pleasant.And yet I cannot seem to stop, and whenever I have to, I become very anxious to return to it as quickly as I can. Its appeal is no less powerful for being difficult to pinpoint or explain.This experience reminds me of something, but I'm not sure what.... Oh yeah, I know: Bright Lights, Big City. Way better, though, so far. I love all the characters'...