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Summary: The Death of Romance
Review: Bret Easton Ellis is a master writer. I think that this book is his strongest yet. The 80's ushered in a new time for all the world. Sex, peace and free love no longer dominate, but AIDS, money and the all powerful Abortion dominate. This book illustrates the death of romance perfectly. There is no more "sex," it is hardcore "f**king." To really understand your world, you must learn that vaulues are dead. The since the Romanticism dominated the world in the 20th century. Cynicism is the new mind set.
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Summary: Must Be Read at Least Twice
Review: How good is "The Rules of Attraction?" I liked it more after I had read it a second time. The book was so good that after the second read, it was almost a completely different story. On the surface, the story is about an amusing love triangle. Dig deeper and it examines the effects of the seemingly unending "chain of obsession--Jaime/Victor/Lauren/Sean/Paul." The most compelling level to me is that BEE makes me care about characters like Sean Bateman by giving little shreads of evidence of how lonely his life is and not just at college. The chapter where he walks through his empty house is profound. If I had to describe the author's tone, it would be coy. There are all kinds of sly hints that the love triangle is not exactly as it seems. Paul, Lauren, and even Sean are not as shallow as they want us to believe in their first person narratives. Having read "American Psycho," it is clever how Patrick Bateman indirectly reveals that Paul's and Sean's relationship could have been "real" and not Paul's imagination. Blink and you'll miss it, but in AP, you'll see that poor Paul is still not over it.
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Summary: Modern Fiction Classic
Review: Having read both American Psycho and Less Than Zero, I picked up Rules of Attraction and began reading it with great enthusiasm. It has the same feel as Less Than Zero, but with an "east coast" twist. The beaches are replaced with endless dorm parties, and small town hot spots. The book clearly illustrates how the children of the eighties lived in a world devoid of true emotion and love. Their obsessions are nothing more than material desires which occupy their time. Their self centered view points blinds them to what is going on in their lover's minds. This book is a testament to the death of romance, which has been replaced with lust and obsession
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Summary: dress to get
Review: more of the Ellis genre where everyone is rich but broke, everyone is bisexual and everyone is miserable and lost finding themselves relating, often intimately (sex), in kakfa-esque ways- i was suprised here to see that ellis returns back to the same characters tying all his novels to the same central world - clay from Less than Zero is back at camden college and simply referred to as the kid from California, playing a minor role. sean, patrick bateman's little brother, is here, playing more of a major role, as well as characters like lauren hyde, jamie fields and victor johnson who all turn up later in Glamorama.
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Summary: Worth the time
Review: Bret Easton Ellis takes us once again into a vivd world easily recalled through countless pop culture references, this time taking us back to the 1980s Regan era. Rules of Attraction captures the lives of college students in a rural liberal arts school and their provocative, if humorous lifestyles. Also of great interest is how many characters appear in this book, only to be drawn upon for Ellis's future novels. All in all a quick and VERY enjoyable read.
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Summary: ...And a slacker was born...
Review: Like many of Brett Easton Ellis' books, I found myself wondering how I could become so disconnected from the world, like most of his characters. I daresay that I related to any of them, since many of them were spoiled, drugged, egotistical, or inconsiderate; perhaps I related to them too much in that I used to have friends like them in college. Though this was not my favorite Ellis book (Glamorama takes that prize), his story-telling style was very good nonetheless, in the way multiple storylines were presented through parallel chapters and narrators.
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Summary: Paul sums it up
Review: Somewhere toward the end of the novel, one of the characters, Paul, gives a nice summation of the plot of the novel: "He (Paul) likes him (Sean). He (Sean) likes her (Lauren). I think she likes someone else, probably me. That's all. No logic."When love isn't equally requited, it doesn't work out, and we stumble through three complex relationships dealing with this disparity. There is a difference between what we experience and what we percieve from that experience. Told through the viewpoint of the three main characters (and several minor ones) in monologues, Ellis examines the difference between experience and perception, sometimes going through the same event twice told from different points of view. What we say and what we mean are often different, and these characters bare this. If the endless drugs and one night stands of Sean and Lauren bother you, watch Paul's story. His thread is the most rewarding, and when he is absent, the novel feels colder. Sean and Lauren stumble through their relationships purposely detached. They don't know what they want from their lives or themselves. Paul is equally confused about his future, but somehow we leave the novel feeling less worry for him.
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Summary: You have to read it stoned
Review: i must have read this book thirteen times, the best moments being early in the morning with my only cigarette of the day. I know so well all the characters and the multiple allusions to events and people in other books of BEE that i get a strange feeling of being "at home" with this book.
I think this is the best book by BEE by far, because there is truly a 80's legend feel to it.
There is real communion of the author with the characters, something we could call understanding love, and which i find somewhat missing, except in brief flashes, in other BEE books.
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Summary: Movie version in production...
Review: There is a movie in production right now on BEE's "Rules of Attraction". Starring James Van Der Beek (Sean Bateman), Ian Somerhalder (Paul Owen), Shannyn Sossamon (Lauren), Jessica Biel (Lara), Clifton Collins, Jr. (Rupert), Faye Dunaway (Mrs. Owen), Thomas Ian Nicholas (Mitchell), Kip Pardue (Victor), Eric Stoltz, Jay Baruchel, Joel Michaely. For more info on the movie go to UpcomingMovies.com or avary.com for the director's online Journal of the production of the movie. "Rules of Attraction" is a great story and a true portrayal of the life of college students. One of BEE's best! I just hope the movie portrays this book very well. No doubt it would with a wonderful cast such as Ian Somerhalder and James Van Der Beek. All in all, this book is a great read and I recommend it.
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Summary: The social side of college
Review: Readers can understandably slam the characters in this book for never apparently opening a book, not caring that they're failing their classes, constantly changing majors, etc. But, honestly, is this the stuff we really remember about college? From my own experience, I remember far more vividly the parties, the friendships, the bars, etc. The characters in this book may be completely messed up academically, but we see the most interesting parts of their lives, the social ones. This makes for a much more interesting book than it would've been if it had focused on such mundane topics as term papers, chemistry labs, lecture halls, and so forth. On another note, Ellis shows some great writing in the short section narrated by Paul's mother. It might be interesting some time for Ellis to write a book narrated by a character like that, instead of admittedly self-obsessed people like Lauren, Sean, Paul, and Victor (who's equally clueless and self-obsessed in "Glamorama").
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