Book description
In 1985, Bret Easton Ellis shocked, stunned and disturbed with Less
Than Zero, his ‘extraordinarily accomplished first novel’ (New Yorker),
successfully chronicling the frightening consequences of unmitigated
hedonism within the ranks of the ethically bereft youth of 80s Los
Angeles. Twenty-five years later, Ellis returns to those same characters
- to Clay and the band of infamous teenagers whose lives weave
sporadically through his - but now, they face an even greater period of
disaffection: their own middle age.
Clay seems to have moved on - he’s become a successful screenwriter -
but when he returns from New York to Los Angeles, to help cast his new
movie, he’s soon drifting through a long-familiar circle. Blair, his
vulnerable former girlfriend, is now married to Trent - still a bisexual
philanderer - and their Beverly Hills parties attract excessive levels
of fame and fortune. Clay’s childhood friend Julian is a recovering
addict running an ultra-discreet, high-class escort service, and their
old dealer Rip, reconstructed and face-lifted nearly beyond recognition,
is involved in activities far more sinister than those of his notorious
past.
After a meeting with a gorgeous but talentless actress determined to
win a role in his movie, Clay finds himself connected with Kelly
Montrose, a producer whose gruesomely violent death is suddenly very
much the talk of the town. As his seemingly endless proclivity for
betrayal leads him to be drawn further and further into this ominous
case it looks like he will face far more serious consequences than ever
before. Bret Easton Ellis is also the author of Less Than Zero, The
Rules of Attraction, American Psycho, The Informers, Glamorama, and
Lunar Park, and his work has been translated into twenty-seven
languages. He lives in Los Angeles.
