Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version nyu B notes v1.5 12/10/84; site csd2.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!epsilon!zeta!sabre!petrus!bellcore!decvax!decwrl!pyramid!ut-sally!seismo!cmcl2!csd2!krantz
From: krantz@csd2.UUCP (Michaelntz)
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: Re: Less Than Zero - No spoilers
Message-ID: <2660007@csd2.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 24-Dec-85 22:56:00 EST
Article-I.D.: csd2.2660007
Posted: Tue Dec 24 22:56:00 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 26-Dec-85 03:59:31 EST
References: <869@houxa.UUCP>
Organization: New York University
Lines: 48

/* csd2:net.books / lmv@houxa.UUCP (L.VANDERBILT) /  3:58 pm  Dec 16, 1985 */

Lynn Vanderbilt writes:

> Less Than Zero is written by Bret Easton Ellis, a college
> freshman or sophmore at Bennington.  The book was billed as
> the voice of the next generation and takes you through the
> world of drugs, male prostitution, homosexuality, etc..   It was also
> called the "catcher in the rye" for the eighties.  It is
> supposedly fiction, but after reading it I wonder how much of it could
> have possibly been made up through the eyes of an eighteen year old.
> Has anyone else read this book and if so what do you think about it?
> The book gets pretty sick in some spots (at least I thought so) but it
> does so with a matter of fact attitude.   I didn't think there were
> many things left that could shock me, but this book did in a couple
> of parts.  I think a lot of people will read it and say "oh, it's just
> a sick book" and not finish it or whatever.  I agree it is "sick" but I
> also think that's pretty bad considering the author is only 18.  I'm
> very curious to other people's reactions and/or opinions about the book.

> Lynn
> ihnp4!houxm!houxa!lmv
> /* ---------- */


    Lynn, and others:


    Less_Than_Zero is a terrible novel.  Don't let the Salingeresque
affadavits fool you.   Ain't nothing wrong with porno literature (see
Portnoy's Complaint, all Henry Miller, some Mailer...) but you have
to back it up, and Ellis doesn't.  That he could write any sort of
coherent narrative at the age of 20 is remarkable (I know from
experience, since I'm 23 and I still can't) but that's tough bananas.
His book simply shouldn't have been published.  But it sold, so the
book execs knew what they were doing, right?  Go figure.

Yours Literarily,

Michael Krantz
Courant Institute
251 Mercer St.
NY, NY, 10012

- - - - - 

"The text reveals the process of its own production."
(by the way, who out there knows what that means? (net.semiotics?))