Less than zero - Brett Easton Ellis

After reading Glamorama, Amerian Psycho and Rules of Attraction, I was looking forward to reading Bret Easton Ellis's first book - Less than zero.

I like his writing style, it's always been blunt, sardonic - I guess "edgy" when you read the novel in regards to the time it was written, but that didn't prepare me for Less than zero.

The novel is about Clay, who returns home from college for 4 weeks and tries to hang out with old friends. What ensures is a dark run through an almost underworld, belnding rich and the non-rich in an unusual way. It touches on prostitution, homosexuality - well more androgyny, drugs, relationships - and the way that people chage when you move away from them

Rather than looking through the violence (written and implied) I found it abhorrent. The thinly veiled cruelty throughout came across as distant anger, disconnected from each of the major plot situations, it almost seemed if it was directed at the self.

Don't get me wrong - the book is well written, and it got under my skin (here I am still thinking about it 4 days later) but I still found it incredibly depressing, with an overal feeling of emptiness... I felt ever so slightly dirty from reading it.

Less than zero