Bret Easton Ellis: then and now

I was rather disturbed when I felt myself relating to the protagonist of Bret’s latest book, Imperial Bedrooms. I got what he meant when his character Clay would be in the ‘zone’. But that was early in the piece before he got really scary and freaky. I think he’s supposed to be this really laid back, laconic author with a wife and kids in real life, but in fiction he lets his inner psychopath well and truly loose. I bought Less Than Zero, at the LaTrobe Uni bookshop in Feb 1988, and thought I was so cool reading this great new book, in my first year of Uni, by this promising new author. Who knew that the sequel would be closer to Easton’s other book that goes around in a plastic mac. Or was that the point? All that self-centred nihilism has to end up somewhere, hurting someone.