NY Times Profiles Bret, Lunar Park

The NY Times profile on Ellis and Lunar Park is now available.

Beyond the audio of Bret reading an excerpt from Lunar Park, there are a couple of sections to the story that I found particularly interesting. The first was Bret's thoughts on American Psycho.

But while working on "Lunar Park," he re-read the earlier book and saw it in a new light. "When I got to the violence sequences I was incredibly upset and shocked," he said, in a surprising public retreat. "I can't believe that I wrote that. Looking back, I realize, God, you really sort of stepped over a line there."

Do any of you believe he's being truthful there? I certainly don't. I think its more of an 'I'm going to do and say exactly the opposite of what you think I should' type answer. He has forever been misleading the press and public about himself, and I smell more of the same here.

Next, I was hoping he'd have at least a tidbit to say about what his next project might be.

His next book, he said, might be about Hollywood, a curious choice for someone who claims to have lost interest in social satire. In any case, almost everything Mr. Ellis has said through the years about what his next project might be has proven to be wrong. Which might, in the end, be the point.

"I was a mystery, an enigma, and that was what mattered," he writes in "Lunar Park." "That's what sold books, that's what made me even more famous."

Besides, Mr. Ellis said the other day, "they're not big lies, you know; I just play around with things."

August 06, 2005
LINK

Category: Lunar Park
Comments: 13 (closed)

Previous Comments

I totally agree with his answer being BS, and I bet his Today Show appearance will be more of the same horsecrap. Wasn't "Lunar Park" originally supposed to be a political thriller? We'll see.

So he DID have homosexual expierences.
Thats really hard to swallow.
Just kidding. He is the man, no matter what.

the hollywood answer seems a bit misleading (no surpise). but if you notice that the lunar park website lists the "real" BEE's next book as being a follow up to less than zero it makes more sense...

I received an e-mail today from Robby inviting me to join his group at myspace.com.

http://myspace.com/lunarpark

Finished the book last week. Found it to be both brilliant and disappointing.

i hate to say this but i'm tired of ellis' trying to come off an enigma. the act is getting old.

in a follw up to that, i'm adding that he is also wrong that his enigmatic persona sold books. his books sold themselves because they were brilliant. he really isn't a star, so i think it's sort of strange/arrogant that he thinks his status and reputation in american culture is what sold his books, and not the books themselves. doesn't he realize that his fans love his books for what they are?

He basically wants the reality of his private life to be as blurred as the reality in hIs books(is the camera crew really there/is Bret really gay/did bateman kill all those people/is Bret now ashamed of American Psycho). His interviewing style is an extension of his writing. Life imitating art...and shit.

To be fair, the quote "I was a mystery, an enigma, and that was what mattered...That's what sold books, that's what made me even more famous", is from the novel Lunar Park which, after all, is a work of fiction.

With that said, the controversy over American Psycho DID sell books, a whole lot of them, which happens anytime a group protests a book/film/etc.

I agree that the books stand on their own, but BEE was sort of a rising star of literary fiction (which is completley separate from popular fiction), and very much known for his lifestyle.

I mean, if you have Norman Mailer calling for American Psycho to be examined before publication by a panel of '12 respected novelists', then you are sort of a star, and I don't think it's egotistical to be aware of things like that.

Also, if you're famous, and people often want something from you, why not have a little fun with them?

i read the piece and thought he came across as a little ratty. the amazon piece was kind of interesting though. while we're here - anyone know what this promo is about? is that the UK only or usa as well?

now i know the amazon piece is done in character. did anyone listen to the music he cites as being on shuffle? that has to be a twisted joke...

I assume that Bret is bisexual like most of the characters in his books

I'm almost certain Bret's Bi...or at least just heavily sexually experimental. He's very much like a nihlistic combo of F. Scott Fitzgerald, William S. Burroughs, and Jack Kerouac...and two of those three writers are bi-sexual so....
and another thing...who really cares? does it affect his writing in a bad way? i beg to differ.

and another thing...I don't know what the big deal is surrounding Bret's so-called "wild lifestyle"...all great literary figures have lived interesting, carefree, and frantic lifestyles. The Beat generation guys are prime examples, as well as Fitzgerald, Hemingway, James Joyce, Dostoevsky, Ken Kesey.....Ellis falls right in there with them in terms of his lifestyle...he's quite possibly the only "traditional" literary figure working right now, he lives like a writer...He's the type whose life will be on peoples minds and tongues for years to come, just like the previous authors i mentioned.