In
Glamorama, a young man in what is a recognizably
fashion- and celebrity-obsessed Manhattan is gradually, imperceptibly drawn
into a shadowy looking-glass of that society, there and in London and Paris,
and then finds himself trapped on the other side, in a much darker place where
fame and terrorism and family and politics are inextricably linked and sometimes
indistinguishable. At once implicated and horror-stricken, his ways of escape
blocked at every turn, he ultimately discovers - back on the other, familiar
side - that there was no mirror, no escape, no world but this one in which
hotels implode and planes fall from the sky.
In
his inimitable style, Bret
Easton Ellis has ventured into uncharted, taboo territory for years. His
books portray a perverse blend of fortune, fantasy and deep-rooted human flaw,
a world whose inhabitants constantly walk the line between sanity and obsession.
With Less
Than ZeroEllis introduced the younger generation of Los Angeles'
privileged, troubled class; The
Rules of Attraction gave readers a glimpse into the twisted world
of small, Northeastern college life; in American
Psycho one witnessed the shocking fusion of money and angst in the
1980s, as manifested in a main character obsessed with style and consumed
by arbitrary vengeance. This definitive satire rivals both Bonfire of the
Vanities and Spy magazine as the final word on the decade of excess.
