The Rules of Attraction
by Bret Easton Ellis
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Book Summary Information
Author: Bret Easton EllisEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1998-06-30
ISBN: 067978148X
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Vintage
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780679781486
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Book Reviews of The Rules of Attraction
Book Review: Humorously Sad
Summary: 5 Stars
The Rules of Attraction is told by many narrators: Sean, Paul, Lauren, and a few others (including Clay from Less than Zero, but mainly those first three. That alone makes this novel interesting, as you sometimes read the same event from two different perspectives, and wonder if someone is lying or hiding things; it also makes for devastatingly sad moments, as one character thinks very highly of his/her relation to someone, and that other person can't even name the former person correctly.
The novel is usually narrated in the present tense - as was Less than Zero - and all three (main) narrators have distinctive voices. Paul, passionate on the surface but pragmatic at bottom; Sean, he sleeps with just about everyone but is in love with Lauren (although you can put those in a different order: apparently in love with Lauren but sleeping with everyone...); and Lauren, still thinking of Victor, in Europe, whom she seems deeply in love with, yet also sleeps with a ton of other people.
Paul wants Sean, who wants Lauren, who wants Victor, who wants Paul. This is the tragic circle presented in this novel.
Plot-wise, it's a difficult novel to summarise, and I won't attempt to do so, because it doesn't matter much. What matters are the characters, their thoughts, their sad lives. The Rules of Attraction has a layer of humour that wasn't present in Ellis' previous novel, as well as a different style, but at heart, the novel is equally as sad as Less than Zero. Indeed, one can only feel broken-hearted at all these characters' lack of solid relationships and purpose in life. It's just sex and drugs, and neither makes anyone happy. They're in college, and their majors sound like a joke, exchangeable and disposable.
Ellis, I hear/read often, considers himself a moralist. And the good thing with that is that he doesn't chew the moral for you: he gives you things as they are, and gives you enough credit to know what's morally bankrupt on your own - just as he did in Less than Zero - and if you can't see that it's morally bankrupt, then even an explicit moralisation wouldn't save you. I like that. Ellis gives you credit, and does away with that ever-annoying pat on the back given among well-intentioned, but condescending, people. None of that here.
Because of this, many readers think Ellis does the apology of the characters in his novels. He doesn't, he only presents them as they are, and leaves the judgement up to you; but more than judging, one feels like sympathising with these sad characters, and you finish the novel with a strong liking for real relationships.
Overall, this book is very good. The quote at the beginning makes perfect sense, and gives the right angle to approach this novel; the structure (with many different points of view) is brilliant and creates a lot of fun and sad moments; the characters are endearing even though you dislike their actions very much (which isn't an easy thing to achieve, for an author); and it's a good read.
Recommended! But make sure you read this with the right angle.
PS: There is some French in the novel, very little, but it has a ton of grammatical mistakes. The character is a native French, and shouldn't have made those mistakes, and Ellis should have had it corrected by a native French speaker (although it's not horrible French, it's obviously second-language French). But that's just a detail.
Summary of The Rules of Attraction
Set at a small, affluent liberal-arts college in New England at the height of the Reagan 80s, The Rules of Attraction is a startlingly funny, kaleidoscopic novel about three students with no plans for the future--or even the present--who become entangled in a curious romantic triangle. Bret Easton Ellis trains his incisive gaze on the kids at self-consciously bohemian Camden College and treats their sexual posturings and agonies with a mixture of acrid hilarity and compassion while exposing the moral vacuum at the center of their lives.Lauren changes boyfriends every time she changes majors and still pines for Victor who split for Europe months ago and she might or might not be writing anonymous love letter to ambivalent, hard-drinking Sean, a hopeless romantic who only has eyes for Lauren, even if he ends up in bed with half the campus, and Paul, Lauren's ex, forthrightly bisexual and whose passion masks a shrewd pragmatism. They waste time getting wasted, race from Thirsty Thursday Happy Hours to Dressed To Get Screwed parties to drinks at The Edge of the World or The Graveyard. The Rules of Attraction is a poignant, hilarious take on the death of romance.
Ellis, Bret Easton Books
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