Rules of Attraction [Paperback]

Bret Easton Ellis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2011

336 Yr. of Pub.01-01-11 Paper Back English

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: PAN MACMILLAN (2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0330536346
• ISBN-13: 978-0330536349
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (159 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,549,950 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.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book Full of Dirty Purity July 20, 2000

By "goldrobotboy"

Format:Paperback

This is one of the most gorgeous books I have ever read. Ellis is a smart enough writer not to make it gorgeous in the conventional sense, one where swelling sentences and gushing adjectives are mistaken for beauty. Instead, Ellis uses sheer simplicity and straightforward dialogue to convey just how deeply jaded the characters in the novel are. Every character is longing for something more, but trying to go after it in a self-destructive and obsessive compulsive fashion. It is a dead on accurate portrayal of college life, of the religion of namedropping, gossip, misdirected desire, and the search of a place to belong. The characters are expertly drawn and given voices that have more emotion and chracter in them than those found in most films. It is funny and sad at the same time. When you finish the book, you realize it starts in the middle of a sentence and ends in the middle of a sentence, a subtle yet heartbreaking technique that suggests people have felt this way since the beginning of time and that they always will.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars to date, this is Ellis' best work June 24, 2001

By man_invisible VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

After reading every other book in Bret Easton Ellis' backcatalog, I picked up "The Rules of Attraction" expecting more of his overused trademarks: cocaine, sex, vacuous characters. I was really surprised when, in the first few pages, this shaped up to be an incredibly involving novel with some semblance of humanity incorporated into the vacant lives of beautiful college kids searching for love. The story is told through POV segments of various characters, including Sean Bateman (good-looking, hard-drinking, narcissistic), Paul Denton (openly bisexual, provides the novel with genuine morality), and Lauren Hynde (fretting over her boyfriend, who's off in Europe). Their weekly activities of going to parties, getting drunk/high, and getting laid are chronicled in a hell-as-repetition way, with Ellis incorporating bits of stark, unexpected humor that catches the reader off guard. "The Rules of Attraction" flows with a fluid consistency, so that even events that seem to repeat aren't marred by their redundancy and instead seem fresh. What Ellis does--which doesn't happen in many of his novels--is make us sympathetic toward these characters, even though they can be relentlessly egotistical and plain down stupid, we are curious about what their futures hold. It's only in the last 30 or so pages that the novel begins to wear out, with inexplicable motivations and emotions that drift with the consistency of mood swings coming to surface. Despite this, "The Rules of Attraction" is still a damn good novel--one of the best I've read in a while--and it's doubtful Ellis will ever be able to top it.

26 of 32 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I always knew it would be like this. November 22, 2003

By E. Kim

Format:Paperback

Where "Less than Zero" lacked in direction and "American Psycho" lacked in consistancy, "The Rules of Attraction" picks up to pieces to form Bret Easton Ellis' most intriguing and important novel to date. Unlike his other novels, I never once felt the need to question the direction of the plot, I was instead lost in the unique and profound story told by the different views of these college students who attended a liberal arts school in New England. Sure like all Ellis' novels, there's drugs, sex, and a lost sense of identity. But unlike his other novels, "The Rules of Attractions" keeps fresh chapter after chapter. I think it had alot to do with how the book was written, with different commentaries by all the characters in the novel. Sometimes the diiferent perspectives of the characters contridicted the other and miscommunications with the conversations were to say the least, really humorous. This is really a touching, sad, funny, and remarkable novel. I guess there are some people who probably can't stomach Ellis' style of heavy drug use and sex. All I can really say if you are that type of reader is: Deal with it. Rock'n'Roll.