LESS THAN ZERO

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by Bret Easton Ellis (1985)

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Clay returns home and has a void to fill. A hollow space within him demands that he see it all with his own eyes and hear it all with his own ears. Not only the best of human relations and endeavour, if that even exists, but the very worst too. Clay embarks upon an odyssey that journeys through the lives of the obscenely rich, over-privileged, parentally abandoned, and comfortably numb, circles of young people living in 1980s Los Angeles. A dark turn towards the seedy and sickening provides Clay with his own mental video, his own memorable snapshots, of just how shit life can be, even if you are revoltingly wealthy. Clay treads a path similar to Holden Caulfield, seeking knowledge through personal interaction and lived experience, and is perhaps just as naïve. Will Clay become a hero and save the day? Or will Clay remain indifferent to his discoveries? Fiction. 195 pages.

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DETAILS:

Title: Less than zero

Year: 1985

Author: Bret Easton Ellis

Pages: 195

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Book review by Keith Salter