Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis
5 Pulses
Many have heard of or seen the films American Psycho, Rules of Attraction, and (to a lesser extent) Less Than Zero. Few are aware that before they became movies these were all books written by Bret Easton Ellis. Ellis has written six complete works, also including “The Informers” (a collection of short stories), “Glamo-rama,” and, his latest, 2005’s “Lunar Park.”Undoubtedly his best work to date.
Ellis is predominately a dark-humored satirist, and the brutally honest gaze he has previously honed on such topics as the emotionally impotent elite of greater Los Angeles, the gilded world of celebrity and fashion, the no-need-for-introduction mentality of American financial professionals, educational institutions, and American ideals in the broadest general context, he now brings in full to the possibly ripest of all targets: upper-class suburbia.
What makes his latest attempt in “Lunar Park” that much more brutally honest, is that he himself is the focal point of the attention. Bret Easton Ellis writes himself as the main character in an (arguably) fictional story. The story’s first chapter is a seemingly autobiographical recollection of Ellis’ life from his immediate rise to wealth and stardom following the publication of his first novel, “Less Than Zero,” until the release of the book preceding “Lunar Park,” “Glamorama.”
This recollection includes gruesome details from his lurid romantic life and equally tragic family history as well as such interesting bits as his personal invitation to a “sleepover” at the White House during the Reagan administration, special guest of the vice president’s sons, George W. and Jeb Bush.
The second chapter quickly changes pace to how the rest of the story is told: a surreal dreamscape where fact and fiction blur indefinitely and Ellis takes his family for a drug-induced and emotionally charged nose dive in their haunted McMansion that no reader could ever forget. For complete accessibility, a familiarity with Ellis’ previous works is recommend, but in no way necessary.
