Less Than Zero is Bret Easton Ellis' story of the privileged teenagers in 1984 Los Angeles.
Clay has returned from college in New Hampshire. His Christmas breaks lasts 4 weeks. He spends this time with his hometown friends. Their lives are filled with sex, booze and drugs. They drive fast cars and wear the best clothes.
Clay uses this winter break to examine his own life, though he does so through a drug-induced stupor. His parents are separated. His father hands out money in place of love. His mother is too self-absorbed to care about anyone but herself.
Normally, this is where I carefully describe the plot. I like to tell just enough of the story to keep the reader's interest without giving the big details away. I won't have that problem here. I have told you the entire story in the previous paragraphs. I am completely serious. That's all folks!
In case you haven't guessed, I really didn't care for Less Than Zero. Mr. Ellis has been described as having a "startling, staccato" writing style. I actually thought this book read more like a bad diary. In my eyes, Less Than Zero went something like this:
Day 1: Woke up, got drunk, drove around. Went to party. Had sex.
Day 2: Woke up, swam in pool. Snorted coke and drove around. Went to nightclub.
Day 3: Woke up. Went to shrink. Snorted coke and went to nightclub.
Not very interesting, huh? Well, that's how the story appeared to me.
Less Than Zero was supposed to shock me, surprise me, and disgust me. In fact, I found the book to be rather boring and somewhat inaccurate in its tale.
Mr. Ellis begins each scene dropping as many brand names as possible, from the clothing the characters were wearing to the trendy eateries in which they were dining. Now, I remember 1984 as well as most people. Yes, brand names were very important. However, did label-dropping really make for interesting reading 15 years ago?
I also didn't feel the main character, Clay, was entirely believable. Why did he go away to school in New Hampshire? Wouldn't a coked-out rich kid from L.A. find the slower pace of New Hampshire to be incredibly boring? If I was supposed to feel sorry for Clay, I didn't. He was just as shallow as the rest of the characters and the whole story in general.
Perhaps Mr. Ellis was attempting to expose the dark reality of being young, rich and famous in Los Angeles. All I know is that things have really changed in the last 15 years. Blame Jerry Springer, Rikki Lake or the sensationalist, tabloid-esque local news media. What was so shocking, horrifying and depressing back then is old news now. I didn't even blink at this so-called "shocking" tale.
Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David created a phenomenon with their show about nothing. Mr. Ellis has written a book about nothing. However, that's where it ends. Nothing.
I really can't recommend this book to anyone. It won't interest fiction readers. Adventure and romance fans will be unsatisfied as well.
Less Than Zero is worth about that much. Don't waste your time. There are better books out there.
