Bret Easton Ellis

Bret Easton Ellis
Ellis in 2010
Ellis in 2010
Born (1964-03-07) March 7, 1964 (age 60)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation
  • Novelist
  • screenwriter
EducationBennington College (BA)
Period1985–present
GenreSatire, black comedy, Transgressive fiction
Literary movementPostmodernism
Notable worksAmerican Psycho (1991)
Less than Zero (1985)
The Shards (2023)
Signature

Bret Easton Ellis (born March 7, 1964) is an American author and screenwriter. Ellis was one of the literary Brat Pack[1] and is a self-proclaimed satirist whose trademark technique, as a writer, is the expression of extreme acts and opinions in an affectless style.[2] His novels commonly share recurring characters.[3][4]

When Ellis was 21, his first novel, the controversial bestseller Less than Zero (1985),[5] was published by Simon & Schuster. His third novel, American Psycho (1991), was his most successful.[6] Upon its release the literary establishment widely condemned it as overly violent and misogynistic.[7] Though many petitions to ban the book saw Ellis dropped by Simon & Schuster,[5] the resounding controversy convinced Alfred A. Knopf to release it as a paperback later that year.[8]

Ellis's novels have become increasingly metafictional. Lunar Park (2005), a pseudo-memoir and ghost story, received positive reviews. Imperial Bedrooms (2010), marketed as a sequel to Less than Zero, continues in this vein. The Shards (2023) is a fictionalized memoir of Ellis's final year of high school in 1981 Los Angeles.[9]

Four of Ellis's works have been made into films. Less than Zero was adapted in 1987 as a film of the same name, but the film bore little resemblance to the novel. Mary Harron's adaptation of American Psycho was released in 2000. Roger Avary's adaptation of The Rules of Attraction was released in 2002. The Informers, co-written by Ellis and based on his collection of short stories, was released in 2008. Ellis also wrote the screenplay for the 2013 film The Canyons.

  1. ^ "Birnbaum v. Bret Easton Ellis". The Morning News. January 19, 2006. Retrieved February 25, 2007.
  2. ^ Salfield, Alice; Gallagher, Andy; MacInnes, Paul (July 19, 2010). "Video: 'I really wasn't that concerned about morality in my fiction'". The Guardian. Retrieved July 28, 2010.
  3. ^ Peitzman, Louis. "This Is How All The Bret Easton Ellis Novels Fit Together". BuzzFeed. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
  4. ^ "Bret Easton Ellis loses a few marbles in 'Lunar Park\' - Taipei Times". www.taipeitimes.com. August 21, 2005. Retrieved December 14, 2022.
  5. ^ a b Christensen, Lauren (March 31, 2019). "Bret Easton Ellis Has Calmed Down. He Thinks You Should, Too". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 4, 2022.
  6. ^ Flood, Alison (March 13, 2012). "Bret Easton Ellis contemplates American Psycho sequel". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
  7. ^ Garner, Dwight (March 24, 2016). "In Hindsight, an 'American Psycho' Looks a Lot Like Us". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
  8. ^ McDowell, Edwin (November 17, 1990). "Vintage Buys Violent Book Dropped by Simon & Schuster". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 3, 2019.
  9. ^ Zenou, Theo (June 24, 2021). "The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis review — the shock jock of literature is back". The Times. Archived from the original on June 25, 2021. Retrieved December 20, 2022.