Less Than Zero

In 1985, years before American Psycho , Bret Easton Ellis shocked, stunned and disturbed the world with his debut novel, Less Than Zero . This 40th anniversary edition of the cult classic novel contains an introduction by Rachel Kushner, the Booker Prize-nominated author of Creation Lake and The Mars Room. ‘Unstoppable . . . The impeccable timing captures the banalities of Clay’s life in a way that both disgusts me and breaks my heart’ – Ottessa Moshfegh, author of My Year of Rest Eighteen-year-old Clay has come home to LA for Christmas break after his first term at college. Clay is three things: rich, bored, and looking to get high. Reacquainting himself with a world of privilege and limitless indulgence, Clay steps back into the hedonism and moral depravity of his life in California. With its relentless scenes of grotesque brutality, Less Than Zero is an unflinching portrait of a lost generation in revolt. Published when he was just twenty-one, Less Than Zero held an excoriating mirror up to the culture of excess and vapidity of 1980s Los Angeles and made Bret Easton Ellis an instant literary sensation. ‘One of the most telling and striking chroniclers of the void beneath our consumerist society’ – The Guardian ‘Deadly serious social satires masquerading as generic pulp workouts’ – Esquire ‘He is the model of literary filial piety, counting among his parents Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nathanael West, and Joan Didion’ – The Washington Post

In 1985, years before American Psycho , Bret Easton Ellis shocked, stunned and disturbed the world with his debut novel, Less Than Zero . This 40th anniversary edition of the cult classic novel contains an introduction by Rachel Kushner, the Booker Prize-nominated author of Creation Lake and The Mars Room. ‘Unstoppable . . . The impeccable timing captures the banalities of Clay’s life in a way that both disgusts me and breaks my heart’ – Ottessa Moshfegh, author of My Year of Rest Eighteen-year-old Clay has come home to LA for Christmas break after his first term at college. Clay is three things: rich, bored, and looking to get high. Reacquainting himself with a world of privilege and limitless indulgence, Clay steps back into the hedonism and moral depravity of his life in California. With its relentless scenes of grotesque brutality, Less Than Zero is an unflinching portrait of a lost generation in revolt. Published when he was just twenty-one, Less Than Zero held an excoriating mirror up to the culture of excess and vapidity of 1980s Los Angeles and made Bret Easton Ellis an instant literary sensation. ‘One of the most telling and striking chroniclers of the void beneath our consumerist society’ – The Guardian ‘Deadly serious social satires masquerading as generic pulp workouts’ – Esquire ‘He is the model of literary filial piety, counting among his parents Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nathanael West, and Joan Didion’ – The Washington Post

Set in Los Angeles in the early 1980's, Less than Zero has become a timeless classic. This coolly mesmerizing novel is a raw, powerful portrait of a lost generation who have experienced sex, drugs, and disaffection at too early an age. They live in a world shaped by casual nihilism, passivity, and too much money in a place devoid of feeling or hope. Clay comes home for Christmas vacation from his Eastern college and re-enters a landscape of limitless privilege and absolute moral entropy, where everyone drives Porches, dines at Spago, and snorts mountains of cocaine. He tries to renew feelings for his girlfriend, Blair, and for his best friend from high school, Julian, who is careering into hustling and heroin. Clay's holiday turns into a dizzying spiral of desperation that takes him through the relentless parties in glitzy mansions, seedy bars, and underground rock clubs and also into the seamy world of L.A. after dark.

Set in Los Angeles in the early 1980's, Less than Zero has become a timeless classic. This coolly mesmerizing novel is a raw, powerful portrait of a lost generation who have experienced sex, drugs, and disaffection at too early an age. They live in a world shaped by casual nihilism, passivity, and too much money in a place devoid of feeling or hope. Clay comes home for Christmas vacation from his Eastern college and re-enters a landscape of limitless privilege and absolute moral entropy, where everyone drives Porches, dines at Spago, and snorts mountains of cocaine. He tries to renew feelings for his girlfriend, Blair, and for his best friend from high school, Julian, who is careering into hustling and heroin. Clay's holiday turns into a dizzying spiral of desperation that takes him through the relentless parties in glitzy mansions, seedy bars, and underground rock clubs and also into the seamy world of L.A. after dark.