Imperial Bedrooms [Hardcover]

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Picador
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0330449761
• ISBN-13: 978-0330449762
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (135 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,973,701 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bret Easton Ellis is the author of five novels and a collection of short stories; his work has been translated into twenty-seven languages. He lives in Los Angeles.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mesmerizing But Flawed, May 4, 2010

By 

Mr. August "Literature lover" (Highland Park, IL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Imperial Bedrooms (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

If you read Less Than Zero, Bret Easton Ellis presents the sequel in a sharp, enthralling short novel. If you didn't read Less Than Zero it's OK, you will be introduced to the same characters but they are now adults. Set in Hollywood, Easton assures us that the movie industry scene has not changed. Narrated in a present tense stream of consciousness, Clay, our wealthy screenwriter, returns to L.A. during Christmas to supposedly help cast for his movie, The Listeners (The Informers?). He meets up with his old crowd, his good friend, Julian, old lover, Blair and ex-dealer, Rip. These teen-agers have not changed; they simply turned into middle-aged insecure, wandering souls. So it's again a blurry state of what are they really doing, what are they really saying?

The beginning of the story moves slowly and then it hits. As Ellis builds the plot through Clay's haze of alcohol and seduction, the story works itself into a mystery with no boundaries. Easton works his magic through a wannabe starlet, Rain Turner, a beautiful, no-talent actress. Well, she wants to be an actress and will do anything, and I mean anything, to get a callback. Clay who will do anything to get what he wants plays the game and strings her along with promises of a reading. It's not joyful. The sex, the extreme violence and the Hollywood scene are real; any talent or courtesy is strictly bogus. Ellis teaches us that Hollywood equals conspicuous consumption. The behavior of Clay and his crowd demands overindulgence in alcohol and ambition. Clay's drinking is evident in almost every scene, whether it is fantasy, reality or the devil. But the meaning is hard to capture and at some point toward the last 50 pages, I stopped trying. If I have to work too hard to decipher the meaning, maybe the timing of a character's epiphany is not meaningful.

I read the book in two sittings - I wanted to see where Ellis was going and the end of the book is shocking in its violence and denouement. He is a genuine writer with original ideas, and I have not read anyone who can match his style. His run-on sentences were often annoying and over the top, but his ability to set a tone is unmatched.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars When Indifference Has Turned To Cruelty--Older, But No Wiser, May 10, 2010

By 

K. Harris "Film aficionado" (Albuquerque, NM) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Imperial Bedrooms (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

I was a bit surprised to hear Bret Easton Ellis had chosen to revisit the characters first introduced 25 years ago in "Less Than Zero." It is, after all, one of the more quintessential novels about disaffected teens to have come out of the eighties. So specific to time, place, and subculture--"Less than Zero" presented a mind numbing odyssey through the soulless wasteland of LA's over-privileged youth populated by indifference, unrepentant drug use, and meaningless sexual encounters. Capturing the ennui of kids with too much money and too much freedom, "Zero" was more of an experience than anything else, and I think it's fair to say that it polarized its audience with Ellis's stark depiction of moral bankruptcy.

So, to say the least, I was intrigued to see where Ellis might pick up his narrative in "Imperial Bedrooms." The introduction is an absolute delight--a playful riff on the prior novel, its true author, and the movie made from the account. It's a wicked send-up blurring the line between fact and fiction for those who read the initial novel and saw the subsequent, and much maligned, film version. But after the zippy intro, there is a shift in tone more in keeping with expectations. We're reintroduced to the principles of "Less Than Zero" led by Clay (now a successful film writer) returning to his Hollywood home. And while I didn't expect the characters to be unrecognizable, it would have been nice to see some sign of humanity in anyone two decades later. If anything, their indifference has turned to cruelty.

"Imperial Bedrooms" does a nice job of recapturing some of the flavor of "Zero"--however, its sense of story is a lot stronger. This might be welcome to some readers put off by "Zero's" meanderings or loathed by others for its far-fetched contrivance. Much more plot-driven, "Bedrooms" is "Zero" refashioned into a neo-noir piece--replete with mystery, murder, blackmail, and manipulation. My problem with "Imperial Bedrooms" is its complete lack of anyone to root for. While "Less Than Zero" was content to set a mood, "Imperial Bedrooms" story elements beg for a protagonist with at least a few redeeming features. Ultimately, it seems like unpleasantness for the sake of unpleasantness. The kids you may remember are certainly older, but absolutely no wiser. Not a one. And it's a disappointment. A small amount of redemption, or hope even, might have balanced the unsavory aspects of "Imperial Bedrooms." The lack of any depth or character development makes me wonder what the point of Ellis's new enterprise is. KGHarris, 5/10.

14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars What a disappointment., June 28, 2010

By 

Theodore Anderson "Santiago3" (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Imperial Bedrooms (Hardcover)

I am a huge fan of Bret Easton-Ellis's works, but this book was such a drag. After the first ten pages I was already rolling my eyes at the confusing prose. Not because it was hard to follow, but because it seemed like less of a plot device and more of the author still being bitter about the film treatment of his first novel. Then suddenly the writing style changes back to something more familiar and I'm once again hoping that maybe this book will find its stride.

It never did. From that point until the last page it meanders aimlessly from one forced plot point to another and finally culminates with an ending that was telegraphed clumsily and obviously from well within the beginnings of the book. Top that with some dumb, forced violence that lacks the poetic detachment of "Less Than Zero" or the visceral need for identity in "American Psycho" and you have a book so dull and desperate that it feels literally like the pawing advances of an aging 40 year old. Their hair full of dye, face trying to remain neutral so that crow's feet and lines don't show, and a palpable sense of a drowning man's desperation roiling just underneath the surface.

Ellis wants his characters to be understood in this piece but does them little justice. No one's changed or even given a chance to change. They move within the pages of this slim volume like cut out paper puppets with all the emotional depth of a Dixie cup. Why do I care that Julian is dead? Who the hell is this other female character, Flew? Why do I care about her? Oh she's dead now? Why did that happen? Who is Kelly Montrose and why do I care? Oh he's dead and this effects the characters somehow? The plot stumbles over itself to try and get somewhere and ends up reading like an overly violent fluff piece in the society column.

In short: It's a jumbled mess and is best to be avoided. I'm going to read "Less Than Zero" once again and forget that "Imperial Bedrooms" ever existed.