Bret Easton Ellis

Who is Bret Easton Ellis?

Bret Easton Ellis is an American novelist, screenwriter, and short story writer. His works have been translated into 27 languages. He was at first regarded as one of the so-called literary Brat Pack, which also included Tama Janowitz and Jay McInerney. He is a self-proclaimed satirist, whose trademark technique, as a writer, is the expression of extreme acts and opinions in an affectless style. Ellis employs a technique of linking novels with common, recurring characters.

Though Ellis made his debut at 21 with the controversial 1985 bestseller Less Than Zero, a zeitgeist novel about wealthy amoral young people in Los Angeles, the work he is most known for is his third novel, 1991's American Psycho. On its release, the literary establishment widely condemned the novel as overly violent and misogynistic. Though many petitions to ban the book saw Ellis dropped by Simon & Schuster, the resounding controversy convinced Alfred A. Knopf to release it as a paperback later that year. Four of Ellis' works have been made into films. Less Than Zero was rapidly adapted for screen, leading to the release of a starkly different Less Than Zero film in 1987. Mary Harron's adaptation of American Psycho was released to predominantly positive reviews in 2000, and went on to achieve cult status. In later years, Ellis' novels have become increasingly metafictional. 2005's Lunar Park, a pseudo-memoir and ghost story, received positive reviews, and 2010s Imperial Bedrooms, marketed as a sequel to Less Than Zero, continues in this vein.