Less Than Zero

EDITORIAL REVIEW: 'One of the most disturbing novels I've read in a long time. It possesses an unnerving air of documentary reality' - Michiko Kakutani, "New York Times". In 1985, Bret Easton Ellis shocked, stunned and disturbed with his debut novel, "Less Than Zero". Published when he was just twenty-one, this extraordinary and instantly infamous work has done more than simply define a genre, it has become a rare thing: a cult classic and a timeless embodiment of the zeitgeist. Twenty-five years on, "Less Than Zero" continues to be a landmark in the lives of successive generations of readers across the globe. Filled with relentless drinking in seamy bars and glamorous nightclubs, wild, drug-fuelled parties, and dispassionate sexual encounters, "Less Than Zero" - narrated by Clay, an eighteen-year-old student returning home to Los Angeles for Christmas - is a fierce coming-of-age story, justifiably celebrated for its unflinching depiction of hedonistic youth, its brutal portrayal of the inexorable consequences of such moral depravity, and its author's refusal to condone or chastise such behaviour. 'An extraordinarily accomplished first novel' - "New Yorker". 'The Catcher in the Rye for the MTV generation' - "USA Today". 'Remarkable. A killer - sexy, sassy, sad' - "Village Voice". In 1985, Bret Easton Ellis shocked, stunned and disturbed with his debut novel, Less Than Zero. Published when he was just twenty-one, this extraordinary and instantly infamous work has done more than simply define a genre, it has become a rare thing: a cult classic and a timeless embodiment of the zeitgeist"One of the most disturbing novels I’ve read in a long time. It possesses an unnerving air of documentary reality." - ’ Michiko Kakutani, New York Times Twenty-five years on, Less Than Zero continues to be a landmark in the lives of successive generations of readers across the globe. Filled with relentless drinking in seamy bars and glamorous nightclubs, wild, drug-fuelled parties, and dispassionate sexual encounters, Less Than Zero – narrated by Clay, an eighteen-year-old student returning home to Los Angeles for Christmas – is a fierce coming-of-age story, justifiably celebrated for its unflinching depiction of hedonistic youth, its brutal portrayal of the inexorable consequences of such moral depravity, and its author’s refusal to condone or chastise such behaviour. "The Catcher in the Rye for the MTV generation." - USA Today Set in Los Angeles in the early 1980's, this coolly mesmerizing novel is a raw, powerful portrait of a lost generation who have experienced sex, drugs, and disaffection at too early an age, in a world shaped by casual nihilism, passivity, and too much money a place devoid of feeling or hope. Clay comes home for Christmas vacation from his Eastern college and re-enters a landscape of limitless privilege and absolute moral entropy, where everyone drives Porches, dines at Spago, and snorts mountains of cocaine. He tries to renew feelings for his girlfriend, Blair, and for his best friend from high school, Julian, who is careering into hustling and heroin. Clay's holiday turns into a dizzying spiral of desperation that takes him through the relentless parties in glitzy mansions, seedy bars, and underground rock clubs and also into the seamy world of L.A. after dark. Clay comes home to L.A. for Christmas vacation and re-enters a landscape of limitless privilege and moral entropy, where everyone drives porsches, dines at Spago, and snorts mountains of cocaine. 'Less Than Zero' is a shocking coming-of-age novel about the casual nihilism that comes with youth and money A raw and powerful portrayal of unmitigated hedonism in the brattish youth of 80s America, Less Than Zero is the instantly infamous debut which shocked the world and became a cult classic. When college student Clay returns home for Christmas, he is thrust into a dark world of excess as he attempts to rekindle an old romance and save his friend from self destruction