Sunday Read: Less Than Zero

(Or ‘My Christmas Holiday was Wilder than Yours’)

I was all set to strongly dislike Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis. It was published in 1985, when Easton Ellis was 21 and still at university. Quite apart from anything else, this makes the average English student (i.e. me) look bad. Most of us can barely finish an essay, never mind an actual book with chapters and everything. More worryingly, it’s an American ‘coming of age’ novel and that’s never encouraging (see also: The Catcher in the Rye). Finally, it’s named after an Elvis Costello song about Oswald Mosely, which might have been cool at the time (hmmm) but doesn’t quite work now. My Dad listens to Elvis Costello while he does the washing up and hipper-than-thou he ain’t.

But but but, the thing is… it kind of had an effect on me. It’s really uneven and sometimes ridiculous, but one plotline in particular was unexpectedly shocking. And though it started life as a creative writing assignment, the average English student couldn’t have written it, that’s for sure.

To begin with, the story’s pretty simple. The astoundingly rich and spoilt college student, Clay, comes home for Christmas. ‘Home’ is a huge mansion in permanently sun-baked L.A, where everyone is beautiful, tanned and constantly on drugs. Clay’s a complete douchebag who spends his time doing coke, watching MTV and going to parties where everyone’s sleeping with everyone. Shocking in theory; tedious in reality. Clay has little sisters but claims not to know their names. This is presumably meant to be nihilistic but is actually just ludicrous. Too far Easton Ellis, too far.

But as the book develops and characters begin to actually do stuff it gets more absorbing. One of his drug dealer friends is in trouble and keeps disappearing. Another one needs an abortion and a third is genuinely going psychotic. There’s an ex-girlfriend too, but Clay doesn’t really care about her so neither do I. And then comes the shocking bit.

I’m trying really hard not to give anything away, but as Clay literally witnesses an old friend become a casualty of their hedonistic lifestyle, he remembers their childhood together. The contrast is really disturbing, even though Clay claims it isn’t.

Often, it’s hard to tell where Clay ends and Easton Ellis begins. The novel is a roman à clef, apparently, and Easton Ellis is known for partying as hard as he writes. This makes it hard to tell if Clay’s philosophical noodlings that ‘people are afraid to merge’ and ‘you can disappear here’ are deliberately clichéd and teenage, or if Easton Ellis genuinely agrees.

The most convincing character is L.A itself. Easton Ellis’ home town, the city is as bright and unforgiving as you’d expect and it’s hard to imagine the book succeeding without it’s all consuming presence.

Sometimes dull, sometimes shocking, Less Than Zero is definitely worth a go, especially as it’s quite short and you’ll look cool reading it.

Amazon: £5.91