The Rules of Attraction - Bret Easton Ellis

Rules of Attraction is a book by the enfant terrible of American literature, Brett Easton Ellis. Although first published in 1987, I have just finished reading it for book club! The novel tells the story of a group of (mostly) wealthy students at an American 'liberal arts' college. The first surprise and challenge that the book poses, is that it's entirely composed of first person accounts from an ensemble of characters. The story focusses on three students and the relationships between them - Sean Bateman, Paul Denton and Lauren Hynde. The novel actually begins on page 3, halfway through a sentence and straight into an account of one of the characters losing ...  Read the complete review

"Maybe their lover left them, maybe that copy of 'Speaking in Tongues' *was* really scratched... But then I came to understand sitting there... that these problems and the pain they felt were genuine. I mean, this girl probably had a lot of money and so did her dumb-looking boyfriend. Other people might not sympathize with this couple's problems and maybe they didn't really matter in the larger realm of things - but they still mattered to Jeff and Susie; these problems hurt them, these things stung.... Now that's what struck me as *really* pathetic. I forgot about her and the other geeks and did some more of the coke Lars was offering me...." Welcome ...  Read the complete review

Ellis' "The Rules of Attraction" is a collection of tales, written in the first person narator, of several college students. This is how they interact, with eachother and with others, what they say, how truth is never a definate as many of the stories contradict eachother, and bleak throughout. Ellis has continued with his young, affluent and depressed style, which he takes to its furthest boundaries with consumate style. The stories revolve, as do the hearts and minds of most young people, around sex, and occasionaly love. This book is a must read, and is comparable to Less than Zero and The Informers, rather than American Psycho and Glamorama ...  Read the complete review