JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

In the Eighties there was a Hollywood Brat Pack consisting of the stars of coming-of-age movies by John Hughes and others (Molly Ringwald, Andrew McCarthy, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, etc), and there was a Literary Brat Pack made up of trendy, critically-acclaimed young writers.

The three most famous members of this pack were Jay McInerney, author of Bright Lights, Big City; Tama Janowitz, author of Slaves Of New York; and Bret Easton Ellis, author of Less Than Zero. They wrote about the moral and intellectual vacuity of the yuppie generation. Their best-known novels were all adapted for the screen; Less Than Zero is the one most remembered today. It starred Robert Downey, Jr in the role that would define his professional career and personal life for many years: the beautiful drug addict. He was brilliant in it; many would say too brilliant.

My ancient copy, and a recent edition (P232.50 at National Bookstores). Sometime in the 90s I was reading Less Than Zero when my flatmate asked, “What’s that about?” I said, “They do coke, they do each other, they do coke, they do each other.” My flatmate thought I’d said “They do the polka, they do each other” and was mystified that anyone would be turned on by the polka.

McInerney’s career peaked with Bright Lights and Janowitz with Slaves; their later novels received some good notices, but never the sort of attention that their breakout books got. Ellis went on to write the controversial American Psycho—controversial because many critics and readers didn’t see that it was meant as the blackest comedy. They only saw the narcissistic yuppie antihero who tortured women. Granted, it was hard to see past the chainsaw. It was also made into a film; Christian Bale was excellent, the rest of the movie flat even with the presence of Chloe Sevigny and Reese Witherspoon.

Of the three it’s Ellis who continues to produce work that gets the audience excited. His latest novel is the sequel to Less Than Zero, which also borrows its title from Elvis Costello: Imperial Bedrooms. (I read a McInerney novel in which the heroine was called Alison, as in, ‘…I know this world is killing you’. The lit brat pack loved quoting Costello. He did write killer lyrics. See Tokyo Storm Warning.)

We’re giving away a set—Less Than Zero and Imperial Bedrooms—in a future LitWit Challenge.