All The Sneaky Ones Part 5: Rules of Attraction

Once again I have diverged from the consensus cloud. But here is my question. Why are we asking a cloud what to read? My advice is, if you want to know what to read, don't ask a cloud. When else would you get advice from a cloud??

Well, maybe I would have been better off following the advice of the cloud and not reading this book. I found it deeply disturbing. It was just a bunch of overprivileged college kids at the fictional Camden College who were deeply unhappy and trying to find some semblance of meaning in drugs and casual sex. They hardly ever went to class. And no-one seemed to do any study. Issues like suicide and attempted suicide were treated flippantly, part of the group self-destruction. And it changed perspectives, so it was hard to know what was real.

It occurred to me that students today at the college that Camden College is based on, Bennington, would reference this book – or at least another by Bret Easton Ellis – and feel literary and worldly and superior while they got completely drugfucked.

The irony of this served only to depress me further.

I read it really fast, in part because I was so wrapped up in this world and it was slightly addictive, but also because I wanted to finish it and be done with it.

But the day after I finished it, this strange thing happened. I felt bereft. I actually missed it. The ending felt unresolved, and I wanted to know what would happen with these poor souls.

I guess that’s the mark of a good book.

I would recommend Rules of Attraction if, like me, you’re a bit squeamish for the brutality of American Psycho.