Stalking Bret Easton Ellis: A Novel in Two Parts (Paperback)

~ Caroline Weiss (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Stalking Bret Easton Ellis is a novel comprised of several vignettes detailing the lives of a handful of young college students in New England and Los Angeles. They are living the life that we all dream of-or maybe it's the life that we think we want to live. They struggle to find their way and yearn for acceptance and meaning in their superficial, empty, post-modern lives where money and beauty call the shots and indecency and nonchalance run rampant. Despite living on opposite coasts, the central characters' lives intertwine in "that way that people with million-dollar houses" have lives that intertwine. They are connected by an unspeakable code of skewed ethics and a lifestyle that dictates the necessities of the high life - a life they all struggle to belong in, whether already there or not. The fight to be part of the in-crowd is undermined by the pure emptiness of the lifestyles of the rich.

About the Author

Caroline Weiss and Margaret Wallace met in 1998; the time and the place are lost to history. They were doomed from the start: they both suffered from a crippling lack of hardship. In her youth, Caroline dreamed of better days as the subject of an E! True Hollywood Story; sadly, these dreams were not to be realized. As a small child, Margaret wrote lengthy and involved stories about glamorous women staying at elegant hotels in Detroit while other kids her age were playing outside. They share an open disgust for the banality of the workaday world and the people who inhabit it. In 2003, Margaret was living a gingham dream in Amherst, Massachusetts, and Caroline was drowning away failures of adolescence in Los Angeles. In between Pilates classes and closed discourses on terrorism and genocide, Caroline began crafting a tale. Similarly, between gin & tonics and strands of pearls, Margaret's genius began to unravel from within. This novel is the result of that remarkable long distance collaboration. The authors respectfully request all potential stalkers apply through the William Morris Agency.

Product Details

• Paperback: 196 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse (April 24, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1440120730
• ISBN-13: 978-1440120732
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #461,235 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Tour de Force Coming-of-Age Story!, August 23, 2009

By	Susan J. O'Brien "Sue O'Brien" (Newtown, PA USA) - See all my reviews

I opened this book not knowing what to expect. First efforts, especially those written in homage to well-known authors, can fall short of their goal. I was pleasantly surprised, therefore, to discover that this most certainly was not a Bret Easton Ellis imitation. To be sure, it has elements of Ellis's disaffected style. At times, it reminded me of Ellis and Jay McInerney, but it also reminded me of an earlier classic--Catcher in the Rye. I realized that Stalking Bret Easton Ellis reminded of all of these authors because the characters were such well-drawn troubled, ennui-ridden teens. I became increasingly convinced when I read the book that I was a witness to the birth of a brilliant chronicler (or chroniclers, if Weiss and Wallace remain a team) of a new generation. This must be how prior generations felt when they read Fitzgerald or Salinger.
Each character is precisely wrought and unique. To be able to render so many characters so effectively, and to weave in and out of story lines, is a great feat for even seasoned authors. I can't wait to read the next book by these two talented authors.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Like a Rush of a High to the Head, July 8, 2009

By	C. James "C. James" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

As a huge Bret Easton Ellis fan, I can forthrightly say this book not only captures the essence of his stark and poignantly brutal discourse on youth in the face of extreme wealth, but it also introduces you to a wild array of characters all intertwined by a series of parties, bemoaned yachting vacations, upper-echelon schooling, and the nonchalance of young love in the age of feigned emotion and bi-coastal trysts.

Like a party in and of itself, STALKING BRET EASTON ELLIS swirls with pop music and gossip, drugs and multitudes of aware conversations by uber-hip college kids whose only known normalcy comes from knowing they're better than everyone else. Shallow? Maybe. Utterly engrossing and fast-paced? YES.

Weiss and Wallace don't simply imitate Ellis's inimitable writing as much as they transform it into a beautifully well-crafted work of their own that whispers sin on each page and shines with the sparkle and sex of a small evening dress conveniently discarded at the door of a stranger's penthouse.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Trashy, vapid, and INCREDIBLY enjoyable, June 30, 2009

By	Steven Szlaga "gankstersteve" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

While Stalking Bret Easton Ellis is a novel in two parts, I feel its a disservice to the authors to review them separetely. Obviously they are meant to be read together, or they wouldn't have been published together. Ergo, I shall review it as one piece of work.

The East Coast stories reminded me of the smoke-filled, alochol-fueled exploits of "Rules of Attraction," while the Los Angeles characters shined with a perfect combination of desperation and ambivalance. Like the trashiest of soap operas or the most addictive of reality tv, you just can't turn away. There are no heroes in this story. And a moral? I don't think it has one of those, either. But that's not what this book is about. Stalking Bret Easton Ellis is about kicking up your feet, laying back, and watching a handful of people freefall into oblivion.