2. The Rules Of Attraction (1987)
The novel follows a group of rich, hard partying and raucous students in a liberal college in New Hampshire during the 1980s. It focuses, in particular on a love triangle between three students. Lauren loves her boyfriend Victor and pines for him. In her first week of college, she gets mortal drunk and ends up being raped. She starts an affair with Sean Bateman, a depressive, often suicidal heavy substance abuser, but she makes it clear to him, that he is just a toy to while away the time until Victor comes back. Paul Denton is bisexual and claims to have had sex with Sean and he also used to date Lauren. Paul is very attractive and intelligent. Their entangled lives are played out in the book with a host of interesting supporting characters. This is another book by Bret Easton Ellis that I hold in particularly high regard. It is terribly funny and witty as well as being insightful and a spot on portrayal of university based decadence. We have three narrators and as per usual for Ellis - they are disillusioned and jaded. It is more of a character based novel - focusing in intricate detail on the lives of our three main characters - than an action based novel. The three main leads are fascinating and complex creations. The supporting characters are also brought marvellously to life by Ellis' pen. Starting and ending in the middle of a sentence, some critics have called Ellis pretentious for this literary quirk, and the book is frequently overlooked (being sandwiched between Less Than Zero and American Psycho). However, I think that Rules of Attraction is one of Ellis' finest achievements. It sucks you in and keeps you reading to the end.