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Summary: The other side of the western world
Review: For me it was a pleasure to read a book from an american writer who isn't afraid to show the most darkest part of his civilization. He showed me that behind the glitter and glamour of California there's nothing but emptyness.You begin to wunder why America has succeeded in spoiling so much of cultural life, not just in Europe, but all over the world, with a message that lacks any message. Ellis talks in this book about the 1980s, but actually he also talks about our time, about how bad the situation in the western world really is. Behind our wealthy surface , there is nothing but emptyness, and Ellis shows that brilliantly . Everybody must read this book !
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Summary: The Grubby Underside of the 80s
Review: Readers of Ellis's other works will not be surprised by "The Informers", it's another uncomfortable exercise in holding a mirror up to the nasty underside of 1980s hedonism/materialism. There is a considerable shock value in the later stories in the book, very much along the lines of "American Psycho". We are presented with a world in which appearances and instant self-gratification are the only goals that people pursue, the only way in which they live their lives. The total redundancy of the characters, their inability to live in a fulfilling way is starkly apparent. I would like to think that Western society has grown out of such a depressing mode of existence, but living in London and being presented with a ten minute slot on breakfast TV this morning devoted to what type of dresses were being worn at the Oscars ceremony does make me wonder.
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Summary: a good collection from the Master of Cold...
Review: "The Informers" is a collection of short stories that I've read one critic describe as 'soul-dead' among other things. Bret Easton Ellis is sort of like the David Cronenberg (or Lynch) of the literary world, in that fans will recognize and feel at home with the style, while others will most likely be left cold and angry. This collection (which contains material that was started as early as 1983) possesses the same dense characters, subject matter, and dialogue that punctuated his previous novels. Things are horrific and chaotic, but buffered by moments of mocking humor. Stories like 'In the Islands' (which introduces us to "American Psycho" character Tim Price) and 'Letters from L.A.' (the best story in the collection) display Ellis's rarely-revealed knack for showing the feelings that make and manipulate people. 'The Secrets of Summer' and 'The Fifth Wheel' show off Ellis's lust for sadism (echoes of "American Psycho"). As as whole, "The Informers" is a mixed bag. It won't do anything to sway those who condemned AP, nor will it be anything new or special to fans. It's essentially channel-surfing as literature, and Ellis's run-on sentences help make things pass quickly enough.
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Summary: Passionate slices of life from Ellis' moral wasteland
Review: "The Informers" is not billed as a book of short stories though that is how Ellis has often described it. Ellis' stories consist of a desert car wreck, a violent rock star, an older woman who lusts for much younger men, a young man practicing a gothic vampire lifestyle and an innocent girl who is transformed by the allure and temptations of Los Angeles. Those are just a few of the stories; they're not connected literally but all definitely belong in the same book. Perhaps the simplest of all of Ellis' works, but also one of the strongest, and displays one of his central themes as well as any of his books: The use of sex and drugs by his ridiculously wealthy characters to make them feel something other than boredom, greed, and contempt. All of Ellis' characters feel like real people, as morally depraved as many of them (most of them) are. perhaps that is why he is so troubling to so many readers and critics. All in all, "The Informers" is vintage Bret Easton Ellis.
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Summary: Ellis encapsulates his theme in the proper space this time.
Review: Ellis redoes this theme over and over but in this collection of connected short stories he catches his morally and spiritually bankrupt vision of society in the best package to date. For once the voices vary slightly and Ellis opens up so many passageways for the mind to go which keeps pages turning. Some parts are overdone and the whole violence scheme is worked in but this is Ellis' best work to date.
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Summary: "Either you pay up or get out"
Review: Ellis has revisited the territory of 'Less Than Zero' and 'The Rules of Attraction' after his hyped dallying in a more sinister world altogether, and I suspect that this may be his last visit. A complex and at times confusing novel, it blends these three disparate strands into a (just about) coherent narrative that portrays the same nihilistic attitude and materially obsessed creatures as before. A good book, if not his best, worth checking out if only for the fact that there are vampires in it. Its time though that Ellis moved on from the themes he has made his own.
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Summary: Summer Season in Hell
Review: Speaking as nobody, this is a great book and among the best literature of the decade. I don't care how exhausted the topic is considered to be or who the author is. He wrote a truly great book.
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Summary: My favorite Ellis book...
Review: I've read almost all of Ellis' books (with only The Rules of Attraction left to go), and I found myself absolutely enthralled with this one. As some of the other reviewers said, this is a series of short stories, that are linked together by some of the characters. It's an interesting read because Ellis writes each story in the first person, and you often don't know who (or what) you are dealing with until you are halfway before the story. I thought that this was a very different way to write--actually, it's only when you get to the third story that you realize that these are all different people. This book is slightly depressing, but the way Ellis writes really allows you to get inside of each of the characters and feel what they are feeling. (If you want to!) I'm so tired of the happy go lucky characters that take up most books that I actually found this a refreshing change. This is a great book, and if you are a fan of Bret Easton Ellis, you should read it. If you aren't a fan, then you just might not get it.
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Summary: My First 'Easton' Experience
Review: After seeing the film 'American Psycho', I became interested in the works of Bret Easton Ellis and purchased 'The Informers', a wonderfully disturbing set of somewhat linked short stories set in the early 80's LA. Compared to all other writers (although only using this book as a basis), Easton is peerless storyteller, who can take nothingness and turn it into more than a regular author using complex plots and twists.
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Summary: Beware- for fans only
Review: This book was extremely hard to read and I'd recomend it strictly for those fans of Ellis' work that want to have the extra insights to the characters that reacur within his other work. Bascily all the stories are down beat which is to be expected for the author, however whats missing is the charm and sympathy that makes his other work extremely entertaining. Beware, this is a collection of vinettes not at all a novel.
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