BOOK REVIEW: Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis (1985)

*** 1/2 Stars

Fiction dubbed transgressional has been around for a while. Jean Genet got started back in the 1940s and then there is Henry Miller and of course Hubert Selby Junior, to name a few. So shocking people and challenging what we might call morals is nothing new. Brett Easton Ellis started his foray into this genre when he was only 21 with Less Than Zero. And it is this issue of maturity that colours many readers view of the book.

Personally, I have a bifurcated view on that issue. In this book there is clear evidence that he was working from a well-considered set of rules when he began writing. For instance, his sentences are short and clean and he avoids the use of adjectives to describe anything. Given that this is a book that is written in the first person this is an impressive feat. More importantly, this austere approach accentuates the protagonist’s soulless view of the world. In terms of well-considered prose I give him credit where credit is due. It's also very readable. How many people have started this book and not finished it? I'll bet dollars to donuts the ratio is exceptional.

On the other hand you cannot look past the content which is, simply put, confronting. I believe that readers end up disliking the book because of the hollowness of the characters that fill this world and I tend to agree myself. For me it is a contradiction in terms to create a work of fiction that so single minded in its vision. There is no sense of wonder here, just a description of feckless people who are prisoners to wealth, a small world view, instant gratification and its corollary addictions. There is not a single moment when the author asks us to feel sorry for these people. On the contrary the characters become increasingly profligate as the story unfolds. It is all one-way traffic.

Bottom line, I take this book as an inevitable and therefore an acceptable entry into popular culture. One of the charms of the 1980s, the period in which Less Than Zero is set, is that we embrace it for its garish fashion and unrestrained materialism. This combined with our affinity for the music of the era means there is a cartoon sensibility to everything related to the 1980s. In amongst all this someone was going to write at least one (if not a hundred) book of transgressional fiction about such an era. In my my mind it may as well have been an angry 21 year old who had a passion for concept and writing. Add to this that Ellis is clearly drawing on his own life experience to some degree or another I feel that Less Than Zero is a solid entry.