Writer Crushes – Bret Easton Ellis
It’s not often, and really, perhaps never, that a book, even on multiple re-reads, makes me feel slutty. ButThe Rules of Attraction (TROA hereinafter) written by Bret Easton Ellis, is all about sex – messy, random, wanton sex – and is so visceral it makes me want to move to New Hampshire and sleep my way through a term of American College life.
But only if it’s this funny.
Ah, the power of great fiction.
You either really like, or don’t like, Bret Easton Ellis. He has a prickly public persona (although his infamous Twitter feed has toned down) and his landmark book, American Psycho, has offended as much as it has been lauded. Whatever your opinion, the man knows how to write. In TROA, his sparse style and zoned out characters are combined with sharp humour and heaps of wasted sex to deadly effect. This book contains three great examples of why I love Bret’s writing.
Inventive Story telling
Sometimes I just want to float in time and space with characters. I don’t want to be herded through chapters with multiple lines of suspense. There doesn’t have to be a ticking clock forcing the plot to an inevitable conclusion.
These ‘commercial’ techniques of modern day story-telling make me feel violated, and not in a good way. I’m aware of them. I succumb to them. As humans we’re hard wired to respond to them. There are many brilliant writers who use these techniques to maximum effect. I don’t diss them or their work. It’s just not the only way to tell stories.
TROA is a great example of floating.There is no Save the Cat structure. The book starts and ends in mid sentence. It eschews all the current literary bag of tricks. And guess what? It’s still an amazing read.
Ambiguity
Too often stories are so ON POINT: here is THE CLUE, THE REVEAL, all as subtle as a sledgehammer. Stop the insanity. I don’t need to know everything. I like being confused and TROA uses ambiguity in a very clever way.
Two of the three major characters, Paul and Sean, may or may not be stumbling through the early stages of a relationship. Since Paul only narrates the sexual/romantic scenes between them, we’re left to wonder if it’s real or if it’s Memorex. But wondering is a good thing. It’s where the reader makes her or his own interpretations. We make it what we want to make it. Do I really need to know or want to know? Nah. Let me live in my own fantasy world. It’s the whole reason why I love to read.
Same scene, different point of view
One of the most satisfying (and difficult to execute, imo) stylistic choices TROA’s employs is the recounting of identical scenes from alternate character viewpoints. The effect is hilarious in its execution, especially the misinterpretations. Sean, Paul and Lauren pine for one other and past loves yet they’re just as willing to end up in bed with whoever’s available or not passed out.
It’s impossible to read TROA without thinking about sex. Wild, crazy, party fuelled sex that defines what it means to be in your twenties. I don’t want be twenty, or even thirty, again but I sure as hell don’t mind feeling a little slutty.
Thank you Bret.
