Less Than Zero is the slice-of-life narration of four weeks of Clay’s life. Clay is back from his school on vacation to his hometown of Los Angeles. He is part of the artistic elite, the kids of movie directors and actors, kids who drive Porsches and Cadillacs of their own. Kids who should be happy because they have everything. They have houses with pools, plenty of money to buy cocaine, and visit the best pubs and bars in town. Bret Ellis’s narration is curt, matter-of-factly, and non-judgmental. The voice of Clay is detached and unconcerned. He sounds the same when he is having a coffee and is having sex.
Clay’s girlfriend Blair, who is still serious about Clay, knows that Clay does not have the same feelings for her. His friends Julian, Trent, and Blair’s friends Kim and Alana are other characters with the same economic background as Clay. Parents of many of them are in the entertainment industry, and they know many people. When they watch a movie, they know many people from the credits. Rip, Finn, Muriel, and Clay’s family are the other characters that populate most of the scenes. Every character has a distinctive personality. Ellis describes their physical appearance, style, and mental makeup with meticulous detail. The characters abuse drugs and alcohol, sleep around with everyone and are continuously seeking pleasure and fun.
Music plays a vital role in the novel’s narrative. X, the iconic Los Angeles band, appears many times, so does Elvis Costello. Clay’s room has the poster of Costello’s album Trust. Jim Morrison and the Doors are mentioned many times, and so are Psychodelic Furs. Ellis seems passionate about music, and he describes the music being played in the background of the scenes even when it is not needed. It creates an environment, and Clay tries to put on the music even when they visit someone in a disconcerting scene.
Ellis’s writing is engaging, and though the plot is non-existent, you keep flipping pages because you feel like it. One sentence leads to the next, and you feel like you are living Clay’s life. The life of a pampered teen with loads of money, parents who do not have time, and a desire to experience exotic stuff even if the experience includes watching your friend selling his body for money. Ellis is brutal when he describes the casual approach the protagonists have towards relationships. They do not care much about their sisters, friends, lovers, or parents. Clay’s internal thoughts are used to describe the amoral life of a teenager who belongs to high society. The language highlights the lack of caring on Clay’s front about what one would think of as alarming events. Even when Clay’s acts show that he is disturbed enough, the first-person narrative is not dramatic.
Ellis was part of the literary brat pack that was known to write genre-defying stuff. These authors wrote in the minimalistic style of Raymond Carver and inherited his pessimistic outlook. Less Than Zero is a coming-of-age, young adult novel that offers no hope. The protagonists are not likable, but Ellis treats them with a lot of sensitivity and concern. If you do not have strong biases, you will start caring about the characters. The characters are entirely amoral, but they have a sensitivity that makes them act in ways they may not be comfortable with. The addiction adds another angle that forces them to take specific steps that are not the right ones in the long run. Still, the characters realize the harm only in hindsight.
The book is small at 202 pages but is impactful and leaves an impression on the reader’s mind. This makes me want to read American Psycho, the more famous novel by the author. It also seems like an ideal book for making a movie, with many scenes written like a screenplay. A movie was made, but Ellis was unhappy with it since the director changed the plot quite a bit. The first-person narrative acts like a camera in this case. The fact that the prose is minimalistic works in favor of giving the scenes a color that the director would want.
As an author, one can learn Ellis’s craft of writing to create a flow. Several reviewers on Goodreads have commented that they continued to read the book because the flow was so good. The story feels like one is living someone else’s life. You keep filling in the details, but the narrative provides the barebones structure of Clay’s life and also the life of his friends. Ellis adds enough intrigue for the reader to keep reading. The end effect is one of added empathy for a particular lifestyle.
In the end, the book is worth reading for the effect Ellis creates and the sheer pleasure of reading the book. Recommended with a rating of 4/5.
The Goldfinch is truly a Dickensian novel, as many people have already observed. It is the odyssey of Theo, his coming of age story, and his meeting many oddball characters throughout his life. As in The Secret History, the plot is not the mainstay here, but it is not a plotless novel as many Literary Fiction works are. Tartt, in fact, relishes silly plot twists and many dramatic scenes that are very unlike any literary book. To be fair with her, she had expressed her displeasure with the distinction between genre fiction and literary fiction, citing the time when her influences, including Dickens, wrote novels that did not respect that distinction. They wrote literary fiction that was consumed by the masses. Tartt has been highly successful in bridging that gap, writing a novel that won the Pulitzer prize, and sold 13 million copies simultaneously.
Tartt’s prose is masterly, and her narrative is gripping. You just slide into the narrative and turn pages because of Tartt’s mastery over the form. She builds intrigue and introduces predictable twists that urge you to continue. Of course, there is the device of “The Goldfinch,” a painting worth USD40 Million that Theo is obsessed with. Tartt keeps the painting as the thread that ties many loose pieces of the narrative where Theo switches foster families, closest friends, devices to get high, and towns. The whole drama has the emotional thread of Theo’s love for his mother and his guilt about losing her, for which he partly blames himself. The two threads are tied at the incident in the very beginning that Tartt masterfully describes. That incident also introduces Theo to Pippa and Welty. Pippa would play a substantial role in the novel and in Theo’s life, and Welty is some kind of unseen force behind a lot of narrative.
Theo’s first-person narration adds intimacy and an opportunity for Tartt to hide things from the reader, the same devices Tartt used in “The Secret History.” Unlike “The Secret History” though, “The Goldfinch” is narrated by the main protagonist and not a distant observer of the main events in the novel. This change makes “The Goldfinch” much more intense, but at the same time much less suspenseful.
Tartt is a master at describing relationships and keeping them positive and intimate. Theo’s relationship with Boris forms the core of the book and is very Dickensian. Their lack of manners and concern for rules, intensity, and homoerotic tendencies make the relationship unique. Contrast that with Theo’s relationship with Andy, probably not as close as Boris’s, but equally essential for him to, and you see Tartt’s mastery in using language to create a mood.
As many people have observed, the ultimate Dickensian character is Hobie, whom Theo meets because of Welty. Hobie is portrayed as an oddball so lovable that he is unbelievable. Tartt probably needed him to balance the chaos that was there in Theo’s life. Hobie’s passion for his craft, his love for Theo and Pippa, and his philosophy of staying a bricoleur, all of that adds warmth to the book.
At this point, I want to laud Tartt’s ability to describe places. Hobie’s house is a place that you fall in love with. Theo keeps on talking about the image of the house being something that gives him peace of mind, but that is true from the reader’s perspective as well. Tartt creates a picture of the place that is so beautiful; you can close your eyes and be there and can understand why Theo loved it so much. Contrasting that with Theo’s father’s house in Las Vegas, a house with no inherent coziness and one that gets warmth only because of the intimate friendship of Theo and Boris, you realize how much places add to one’s life.
Theo’s relationships with Pippa and Kitsey are not so well described. They are not conceptualized with the same warmth and rigor. In fact, I found the entire arc of Theo’s adult life after he encounters Platt and gets in touch with the Barbour family, not a convincing one. The book would not have missed much if the entire thing was not there. In fact, the whole arc of Theo and Boris’s trip is also not so integral to the book’s entire plot. It makes sense that several critics have been frustrated with the lack of coherent plot in the later pages of the book. It is okay, and you read on, and it feels good, but it is not as gripping as the earlier part of the novel.
So, what does Tartt wants to convey through the novel? Many people thought that “The Secret History” was about the dark underbelly of academia, a lament that education does not make people good. Is there any such theme in “The Goldfinch”? People have talked about the transience of life, the pain of existence, and the support of relationships to lead a good life as the book’s core themes. I think Tartt makes that point in the monologue of Theo in the end. She talks about how The Goldfinch, the painting, is not good art because it communicates something universal that is unique and important. It is good, says Tartt, in the guise of Theo, because it affects people at an intense level. That impact is unique for every human being. Good art is not good because it contains some common principles that everyone can abstract from it. It is good because it makes every consumer feel in a very unique way. Hence good art is like a good conversation; it is a one-on-one communication between two people. Tartt has been able to express that really well through Theo’s obsession with the painting, and the change in his personality due to the existence of the same.
In the end, is it worth reading 880 pages of this little tome? I think it is. I would recommend it for people who like literary novels and people who like coming of age or family plots. I would give this 4.5/5.
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Manik Bal’s short story collection, “Her Revenge” is available now. With this diverse collection of short stories, Manik Bal continues to explore the, and the mundane in the bizarre.
