New Bret Easton Ellis Novel "Imperial Bedrooms"

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Alfonso
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Re: New Bret Easton Ellis Novel "Imperial Bedrooms"

Post by Alfonso »

Glamorama is a complete piece of shit. Found a hardcover copy of it for about 3 dollars a few years ago and I didn't make it through the entire monstrosity.
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Re: New Bret Easton Ellis Novel "Imperial Bedrooms"

Post by Alfonso »

LOVED American Psycho and Lunar Park. Less than Zero I also found really good/solid. Haven't read his other books. I don't read him expecting revelations on human nature or anything like that, but Glamorama just seemed way too shallow for me. And it had nothing to do with the book being about the fashion world, but rather the story being just ostensibly forced/pointless if you ask me.
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Re: New Bret Easton Ellis Novel "Imperial Bedrooms"

Post by Alfonso »

Yeah, your book doesn't necessarily have to be shallow if the subject matter is. Still, will check this new thing out as soon as it's available here!
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Re: New Bret Easton Ellis Novel "Imperial Bedrooms"

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Finished this today. I put it down for over a week when I was about two thirds in (not because I hated it, it just happened that way), and towards the end I wondered if that was why certain things seemed a bit confusing or if it was intentionally constructed that way.

Anyway, I think I need to read Less Than Zero and then take another look at this. I'm kind of having the same problem as Geoff in that I don't know what to make of this. There's something interesting going on here about how the total loss of privacy in our society and the resulting paranoia result in everyone's life just being a fake narrative, and that vaguely picks up on a few of the more interesting ideas from Lunar Park. Also:
SPOILERSPOILER_SHOW
I thought it was kind of amusing how Clay is sort of a reverse Patrick Bateman in that he's in denial of the violent things he does whereas Bateman seems to have made up most of it.
As far as the writing style goes, though, I'm honestly getting a little sick of it. Every single one of these characters is a detached, rich, cynical alcoholic, it's always the same voice. It's semi-justified by the fact that Lunar Park basically says Patrick Bateman, Clay and Ellis are all the same person, but it's also tiresome to read. Yakka-yakka, I had to down a bottle of [insert expensive liquor brand] to stop my hand from shaking and [insert random inexplicable action, preferably namedropping another expensive brand name], blah-blah.

I dunno, it's hard to believe that such a short novel would be anything but incredibly densely structured and purposeful given that Ellis has pulled that off in books twice as long, but I can't say I really see it just yet.
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Dr Yail Bloor
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Re: New Bret Easton Ellis Novel "Imperial Bedrooms"

Post by Dr Yail Bloor »

I'll have to get this, last thing I read by Ellis was the informers (which I liked a lot).
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Re: New Bret Easton Ellis Novel "Imperial Bedrooms"

Post by AskForRaffo »

Would you recommend me this new one?

Last one I liked was The Informer, I think Glamorama was boring and Lunar Park ...well, I dont know how I managed to read the whole thing.
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Re: New Bret Easton Ellis Novel "Imperial Bedrooms"

Post by Scumfucker »

Lunar Park is easily his best. I didn't know he had a new one out.

I don't understand the Glamorama hate. I love that book. I've read it multiple times.
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Re: New Bret Easton Ellis Novel "Imperial Bedrooms"

Post by cxwx »

I noticed “The Shards” is out. I’ll eventually read it once it’s in a paper back as I’ve read everything else he’s published except “White”

(I vaguely remember him claiming he won’t write any more novels because ‘the novel is dead’ but he was probably being a coy asshole like he is with everything else.)
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Re: New Bret Easton Ellis Novel "Imperial Bedrooms"

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cxwx wrote: Mon Mar 20, 2023 9:14 pm “The Shards”
:lol: :lol: :cheers:
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Re: New Bret Easton Ellis Novel "Imperial Bedrooms"

Post by spacehamster »

I just realized I posted in this thread before I decided to write my master's thesis about Bret Easton Ellis. I did eventually come to like Imperial Bedrooms and it sort of turns all of Ellis' novels that came before it into a neat cycle that's bookended by Less than Zero and itself, but this new one sounds like it's just more of the same and Ellis has really lost me in the meantime with his constant whining about young people and their political correctness (has he discovered "wokeness" yet? Not that it's really a different idea or anything), so... I'm kind of required to read this now what with the thesis about Ellis, but I also don't really want to because I'm scared I'll hate it.
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Re: New Bret Easton Ellis Novel "Imperial Bedrooms"

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spacehamster wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 10:47 am I just realized I posted in this thread before I decided to write my master's thesis about Bret Easton Ellis. I did eventually come to like Imperial Bedrooms and it sort of turns all of Ellis' novels that came before it into a neat cycle that's bookended by Less than Zero and itself, but this new one sounds like it's just more of the same and Ellis has really lost me in the meantime with his constant whining about young people and their political correctness (has he discovered "wokeness" yet? Not that it's really a different idea or anything), so... I'm kind of required to read this now what with the thesis about Ellis, but I also don't really want to because I'm scared I'll hate it.
I’m scared I’ll love it like all his other shit I’ve read but I’d probably hate “White” even though I already know he’s a gigantic asshole.
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