Book Review: Rules of Attraction by Bret East Ellis

The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Bret Easton Ellis is one of the most successful and controversial contemporary authors, predominantly known for his most debated work - American Psycho (as misogynistic. An unnecessary debate, if you ask me. What do you think?). With the bone chilling character of Patrick Bateman brilliantly portrayed by Christian Bale on screen, both the book and the movie have achieved cult classic status.

His novels are known for the casual, unaffected narration of the extreme lives of his unique protagonists. Most of who are extremely rich, spoilt, racist, Caucasians embroiled in their first world frustrations, drowning away the existential crises that haunts them, in drugs, sex and alcohol, all readily available at the swipe of their shiny AmEx cards. This common thread enables him to weave a universe with recurring fictional settings and characters.
Rules of attraction is set in Camden College - where "Dressed to get fucked parties" are more the norm than attaining an education. The book opens mid sentence and ends similarly - signifying how there's no beginning or end to the stories of the protagonists. How the frustration, the emptiness, the lack of motivation to slip out of an ecstacy induced black out is a never ending loop. It is narrated by multiple narrators and Ellis remarkably uses the tool to portray how one event is uniquely interpreted by each party involved - each molding it to their own convenience. The narrators are often unreliable, with incidents that go against a desired narrative conveniently wiped out.
The book isn't a classic. It is 283 pages of sex, alcohol, drugs and dissatisfaction. But once you are done, it also makes a lot of sense. It captures the emotions of the lost generation of the USA in the 80s, as someone rightly mentioned, very similar to how Fitzgerald did in Great Gatsby. As one of his characters reflects, the seemingly silly problems of these kids that definitely warranted no importance in the larger realm of things, genuinely mattered to them, for who survival was never an issue.


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