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Imperial Bedrooms
Bret Easton Ellis
Barnes & Noble link

(A quick note before I begin: I am going to write 24 reviews for this blog, the 24 being the age I turn this year. A commemoration of 24 years of living. Cheesy, I know.)

Readers were first introduced to Clay and company in Less Than Zero, set in L.A. during the drug-and-champagne eighties. We watched as Clay wandered among his former pals, coming to a sudden realization that like him, we honestly didn't know what was going on.



Do not expect any answers in Zero's sequel, Imperial Bedrooms. Taking on the tradition of naming the book after something by Elvis Costello (in this case, his 1982 hit album Imperial Bedroom), Bedrooms sets Clay and friends back in L.A., but this time, in a familiar era: our own. The characters sending emails and text messages remind the reader quickly that we are certainly not in the eighties anymore. No more brick cellular phones, it's iPhones for everybody! (Seriously, everyone has an iPhone here. I lost count.)

Clay is back in L.A., this time working on the production of a film he had written. Should be easy, right? Just go meet up with some people and chat then up, try to get a production credit? Not so much. Immediately, he is roped back in with his old circle: Blair, a former flame; Julian, a childhood friend; and Rip, a friend of Julian's. He wants nothing much to do with them, so he concentrates his energy on helping the production team cast the remaining roles for his movie. Along comes Rain, a sweet young thing with no hopes for an acting career. Clay is swept away by her and is compelled to score her a role in the film. When a mystery of an old friend's murder arises, connections begin to form all over the place. Clay finds himself in a strange mess, with no way out. That is, if he stops seeing Rain...

It's been a while since I read Less Than Zero, but all the characters seem on the ball from who they were before. The writing style remains clipped, much like Zero, so at least the narrative voice is concise. Clay delivers some of his thoughts in stream-of-consciousness, as thoughts with no commas and run-on sentences. It is easy to forget little details mentioned in those thoughts, but since the book is a sparse 166 pages, readers can take the time to read it again to understand what's going on.

To be honest, when I first heard there was going to be a sequel, all I thought was "Really?" Less Than Zero never struck me as a book that needed a sequel. The characters seemed to me that things for them were resolved (or not), and that further exploration wasn't needed. I guess Ellis felt otherwise, and thus we have Bedrooms.

The book left me wanting more from the characters and more explanation. I was also left with the feeling that it wasn't even necessary to take this journey, despite that I did enjoy it.

If you are a fan of Ellis, like myself, you need no further convincing and only directions to the nearest bookstore. If you have read Less Than Zero and you're just a-itching to find out what Clay and the gang have been up to these days, wait for the paperback or borrow it from the library. At least then, you won't feel like you spent too much to find out so little.