Less Than Zero - Bret Easton Ellis, 1985.

“This is one of the most disturbing novels I’ve read in a long time”

-Michiko Kakutani
From the original review in the The New York Times, June 1985.




Bret Easton Ellis’ debut novel, Less Than Zero, introduces themes and styles that were to become key components of his unique literary style; affluence, nihilism, violence, offbeat sexual liberties and most importantly, the compelling way in which he is able to recount the aforementioned in an off-hand, indifferent manner as if everyday life contains such extremes.

The novel’s protagonist, eighteen year-old Clay, known only by his forename, has returned to Los Angeles after his first semester at university in New Hampshire. The young student begins to pick up his Californian life where he had left off; a cocaine-fuelled, party-filled movie star existence, however he is disillusioned by his friends’ reckless behaviour, relentless vanity and an increasingly dark search for new means of hedonism that by the end of the novel reveals themselves sickening and undefendable. It is, however , Clay’s inability, and lack of desire, to condemn the actions of his those he spends time with, that proves to be the most disturbing characteristic of this novel, not the fact that such vile happenings exist.

The first of four events that disturbs our protagonist is an anorexic female friend of his injecting heroin, whilst simultaneously laughing and crying, and being filmed by a crowd of onlookers at a party. It is needless to go into more detail regarding such events which can only be given justice in prose via the pen of an author as renowned as Easton Ellis, but the last such occurrence that shocks Clay is a scene that rivals that of American Psycho which needs only be referred to as ‘the one with the rat’ in order to cement its notoriety.

Similarly to American Pyscho, the further one reads into the novel, the more repelling the details of the plot become, as Easton Ellis forces the reader to think of the perils of the mega rich; a complete breakdown of all relationships within the family, a boredom which can only be conquered by the use of increasingly more grotesque forms of stimulation, and ultimately, a lack of anything to lose, which proves to be the key reason why Less Than Zero’s characters carry out their actions, and ultimately justify them.
If you want something, you can have it.
If you want something, you will have it.