The Rules of Attraction

Rating:
Summary: One of the worst books ever written
Review: Sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, more sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. If that sounds cliche and repetitive, try reading Bret Easton Ellis' "The Rules of Attraction," a so-called novel about none other than, you guessed it, sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. There is no plot, character or meaning here. Just scene after near-identical scene of unsympathetic, nondescript rich kids getting high and screwing. You want stories that treat drugs, sex and college life with more than a modicum of imagination? Try Ellis' fellow Bennington alums Jonathan Lethem and Donna Tartt. And to think Sonny Mehta, president of Alfred A. Knopf, allegedly threatened self-immolation if his company couldn't get rights to Ellis' "American Psycho," a mess similar to "Rules of Attraction" in its redundant depravity and faux alienation.

Rating:
Summary: There is no rules
Review: Ellis gets less than zero in trying to re-create a hit book. "The Rules of Attraction" deals with college kids experimenting with sex, and drugs; seemed like a bad sequel to "Less Than Zero", yet not nearly as brilliant. You would be suprised that the characters attend college since the only things they focus on are drugs, sleeping with many people, and very rarely an actual relationship. There is no real story here when there is no focus on school; the story line seemed to disappear into the mist of reacurrences with experiments of sex and drugs.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting commentary on affluence in America
Review: Book is entertaining and reveals that money doesn't make everyone happy. It is primarily a social criticism of the rich, private school he attended. Bret Easton Ellis enraged many of the people he went to school with because he drew from his own experiences to create this scathing criticism of what a private school in the Northeast of the United States was like. It kept me entertained as I saw many of the same things occuring during college in the 90's!

Rating:
Summary: the bible of a lost generation
Review: This is a book I`ve read again and again.I find the the way it depicts life on a modern studentcampus very realistic.everybody is interested in somebody who are interested in somebody else.The "wonderful freedom" young students in western countries today experience, sexually, socially and financially ,is nothing but a curse.Having no strings attached,leaves us lost in a world where nobody really knows each other,and where noone dares having someone too close.Inside the main characters in the book yearn for love ,and for something pure they cannot seem to find in the childhood world they have left behind,and which they are unable to create for themselves in the future,because they dare not give,and not communicate.This leads me to comment on another excellent book by Ellis,Less than zero, where the main character,who also appears in the Rules(characters intertwined is something I really like about his books),is unable to recapture the tranquility of his childhood home during x-mas vacation.Alienaton is what Ellis deals with, loneliness and romantic hopes.This is a sad but realistic picture.This is what our civilization has led to,this is the "lust for life",or rather the lack of it, of a physically priveliged generation .Take away social ties,by tearing families apart,and this is what you will get.Ellis does not say that this is the best of college life,quite the opposite.He has just taken on the task of describing the in- sanity of it,the way it really is,far from american college serials and movies.

Rating:
Summary: Trashy novel with an overhyped author
Review: Damn I wish I went to Brett Easton Ellis' alma mater. I mean how many times a week do these characters fuck perfect strangers? I think his main theme is that fucking complete strangers gets old after awhile but I think it might be creepy college students should just all die. I'm not certain which was the theme but it did give a view of college that only the geeks who aren't getting laid have. It's a bit like living in the dorms next to the campus slut. You know you and your roommate and none of your friends are getting that much of it, but EVERYONE ELSE seems to be getting laid. Ultimately boring but it does provide great fodder for parody in the form of Spy's Cliff Notes parodies. Read it if you are sick of Jane Austen and Salman Rushdie, but not if you want to read something with substance

Rating:
Summary: If I could, I'd reccomend it to the world.
Review: Okay, I realize I might be over-emphatic on exactly how much I love this book but I LOVE THIS BOOK. If you ever feel the need to read a novel depicting life in a certain lifestyle,(especially if that craving reaches to college kids in the mood), then this is the book for you. I've now read it at least twenty times, and each time I can't help but get sucked into the characters and their lifestyle. The author uses a unique method of "showing the world through their eyes" to develop the characters and allow the reader to fully understand exactly what each character is thinking at any particular time. The description provided of the plot does not do it justice. This is more than just a book about three college kids, it's about a whole generation, and how anything can be different if you look at it from the right angle. No surface characters here, this novel brings you to the heart of the matter, and once there, you never want it to end. If you like Irvine Welsh, you'll love Bret Easton Ellis.

Rating:
Summary: An interesting little book
Review: After seeing the film version of "American Psycho" I was compelled to read the book. I became almost obsessed with AP--a funny, frightening, daring book. Since then I've been meaning to get my hands on more of Ellis's work. I was trying to decide between this and anotehr Ellis book, and since I'm in college myself decided to go with Rules of Attraction. A great, fun, interesting, thought provoking book. Now, I believe AP was probably Ellis's masterpiece, but Rules was very much the college, early 20's version of the world Patrick Bateman lived in.
The character I felt most for was Paul, who seemed the most genuine of the three main characters. Sean was frustrating and entertaining. Lauren was an interesting character, but her obsession with Victor became somewhat tedious at times.
However, the book was great, and oddly enough I hadnt' realized that Sean was the infamous Patrick's brother till the end. Sean was so different from Patrick (well, for one he wasn't psychotic) it never occured to me until he mentioned Patrick. And I did get a quick smile out of the brief appearance by Patrick--acting sane, oddly enough. I may have to go back and read Sean's appearance in AP.
A good book I read in 2 days! Not as "funny" as AP, but very good nonetheless!

Rating:
Summary: a great book
Review: this book isn't for everybody but I thought it was awesome. ROA does a great job of showing life from the point of view of everyone involved just like in real life. One character might be in love and think they are loved but in reality they are just a good time in the other person's eyes and Ellis does a great job of showing this.

Rating:
Summary: to date, this is Ellis' best work
Review: After reading every other book in Bret Easton Ellis' backcatalog, I picked up "The Rules of Attraction" expecting more of his overused trademarks: cocaine, sex, vacuous characters. I was really surprised when, in the first few pages, this shaped up to be an incredibly involving novel with some semblance of humanity incorporated into the vacant lives of beautiful college kids searching for love. The story is told through POV segments of various characters, including Sean Bateman (good-looking, hard-drinking, narcissistic), Paul Denton (openly bisexual, provides the novel with genuine morality), and Lauren Hynde (fretting over her boyfriend, who's off in Europe). Their weekly activities of going to parties, getting drunk/high, and getting laid are chronicled in a hell-as-repetition way, with Ellis incorporating bits of stark, unexpected humor that catches the reader off guard. "The Rules of Attraction" flows with a fluid consistency, so that even events that seem to repeat aren't marred by their redundancy and instead seem fresh. What Ellis does--which doesn't happen in many of his novels--is make us sympathetic toward these characters, even though they can be relentlessly egotistical and plain down stupid, we are curious about what their futures hold. It's only in the last 30 or so pages that the novel begins to wear out, with inexplicable motivations and emotions that drift with the consistency of mood swings coming to surface. Despite this, "The Rules of Attraction" is still a damn good novel--one of the best I've read in a while--and it's doubtful Ellis will ever be able to top it.

Rating:
Summary: Never thought I could despise fictional characters so much
Review: I never hated fictional characters as much as the ones that populate this novel. Every single character is vapid and superficial to a nauseating degree. That wouldn't be so bad in itself, if I found it entertaining, but I really didn't and I don't know how I managed to finish it.

On the other hand, Ellis is an excellent writer, I can't deny that.