'White'. Bret Easton Ellis – A Review

Perhaps I should be honest from the beginning, a true confession of a type: I've been a reader of Bret Easton Ellis since around 1986. Again, maybe sounding like a geek, I have read every novel, and only a small selection of magazine pieces over the last 30 years. It was in the Sydney airport, after escaping from LA, that I came across Less Than Zero on a corner newsstand, waiting for customs, to let me enter the country. What brought me to this first published book, (Ellis was only 21 years of age) had to be the title, mirroring my general self worth, in 1986. From that point, never missed one of his texts. One could well call me a 'completest'; this label applies to me when it comes to this author.

When passing a bookstore window, and seeing White displayed at the front, walked right into the store and bought it. I was surprised, expecting another novel, to find a memoir, an auto-biography..,this only made me curious. The man's only in his 50's, a memoir? I thought grimly, is he leaving us?

'White' is not necessarily a memoir in the modernist vain of Nabokov's “Speak Memory” or Vidal's “Palimpsest”. It is more a structured stream of consciousness; a light, humorous and honest commentary on a writer's life so far; thoughts about art, aesthetics vs. politics, and the ever growing moral authority of the corporate system, including President Trump.

As a Gen X'r, ( a term I despise) Ellis' Less than Zero, came to be representative of a spoiled, educated, and the nihilistic youth of the 80's. When you have everything, what do you have left but relationships, and even they become toxic. The film adaptation staring Robert Downey Jr., did capture the drug invested entitlement, but left the audience with a little hope. The book does no such thing. Ellis' memories of the time period in White, is different. Anyone growing up in the 60's, 70's and 80's will relate to that time he calls Empire.

Personally, I was much more curious about his time in New York, when writing American Psycho, the context of his life, and how Patrick Bateman came into being. Ellis does go into some depth about this period, and the roller coaster of praise and death threats this work spawned. He touches on Bateman many times throughout the writing, and we come to realise, as a writer, this character was an exploration of self. Rather than take this work literally, with 20/20 hindsight, American Psycho was simply a metaphor of the times. Greed, materialism and pathological narcissism at its worse. I believe Bret called it a “selfie on steroids”

Rather than giving a blow by blow account of the entire book, Ellis' many insightful commentaries on American society in present time, I must make a few observations on his views on Twitter and the 2016 election, and Hollywood's neurotic, and, at times, fascistic response to Donald Trump's win.

During 2017 and particularly 2018, people on the Left and the Right went totally insane in the wake of Trump's win of the US presidency. Ellis describes himself, as not so much apolitical, but refreshingly “neutral” before, during and after the 2016 election. His long time boyfriend is an avowed “socialist”, and like most of the Hollywood establishment, the boy went into several mental breakdowns. Many people lost friends. Are you pro-Trump or pro-democrat? The divide became a dismal, echoing chasm, where friends were lost, marriages failed, and MSM, who turned full-on conspiracy theorists. Ellis gives many personal examples of the Hollywood crowd, losing it. This is a time in history, for many that pay attention, who most would rather forget.

Bret's discussions on Aesthetics vs. moral authority in art generally, I found the most interesting. What is style over substance? Have we relented to moralism in art, teaching our audiences what it mean to live a happy life? Is this a corporate effort to get everyone to think the same, destroying all individual and dissenting voices? In our time, is any dissenting voice simply wrong because it goes against the prevailing narrative, posing as Truth? I loved these discussions and his many examples in film.

Ellis' discussions about Empire vs. post Empire, bordered on sentimentalism. Illustrating Charlie Sheen's on-line fall from grace, and his hedonistic revolt against the system, left me empty. However, his discussion of Frank Sinatra as the last of the Empire's icons, hit the mark.

I believe the major question he poses in this text: Because of social media, the divide in ridiculous political views, has discourse on art and life being suppressed, in the realm of corporate/social media? Are we being forced to have the same views on just about everything?

These are excellent questions, and worth exploring in this Post-Empire milieu.