Truly, there is nothing new left to say about Bret Easton Ellis’s generation-defining novel, Less Than Zero. And, despite having a bunch of options for week one of Novellas in November, I decided to re-read Less Than Zero, purely because I am absolutely engrossed in the podcast Once Upon a Time at Bennington College (to the point where I’m waiting for each new episode to drop). The podcast examines the years that Ellis, Donna Tartt and Jonathan Lethem were at college together, and specifically, the people and events that inspired characters in both Less Than Zero and The Secret History.

So, this is not a review but rather a collection of Less-Than-Zero-associated-thoughts:

• The soundtrack – music is such a big part of the story and is woven into almost every scene (and clearly Ellis loved Elvis Costello and The Go-Gos).
• My Picador Classic edition (published in 2019) has a brilliant introduction by Ottessa Moshfegh, who explores the generative experience of reading the book, referring to TaB Cola (the first soft drink that allowed ‘…pleasure without guilt, risk, or penalty’), alongside the ‘…emblematic ills of the world in 1985’ – snorting coke, doing lunch, getting drinks at the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel. She concludes, “If this book is an existential satire, its actual premise is that the world is hell disguised as paradise.” 
• Episode eight of the Bennington podcast focuses specifically on Less Than Zero. In that episode, author David Lipsky is interviewed, and he says that when he spoke to Ellis about the authors that inspired him (Vladimir Nabokov and Ann Beattie), Ellis said –

“Look, everything has been tried already. That domestic comedy that you like, that’s been done already. And stream-of-consciousness? That’s been done already. James Joyce has done that already ….phantasmagoria – that’s been tried and a lot of people didn’t like reading it. But there is one thing that hasn’t been done yet, and that’s just sensationalism. Like giving the reader sensations that they don’t know they want, and they can’t have access to. And that’s the thing that I’m going to try to do.”

• How was it to read through 49yo eyes, as opposed to 17yo eyes? Surprisingly (and perhaps sadly), it is still relevant – it speaks to image, the facade that we establish, the emptiness of modern life, consumerism and status symbols. It speaks to our yearning for human connection.

The sun’s shifting, shadows stretching across the walls, and Julian’s trying to smile. The man’s smiling back, the shadows stretching across his face.
I light a cigarette.
The man rolls Julian over.
Wonder if he’s for sale.
I don’t close my eyes.
You can disappear here without knowing it.

4/5 Didn’t disappoint second (or perhaps third?) time around.

…Blair and I are sitting at Spago after having just seen the concert and it’s late and we’re sitting by ourselves on the patio and Blair sighs and asks for a cigarette. We drink Champagne Kirs, but Blair has too many and when she orders her sixth, I tell her that maybe she’s had enough and she looks at me and says, “I am hot and thirsty and I will order what I fucking want.”