Born in 1964, and published his first novel at the age of 23, Ellis is the prominent
moralist of last century, along with
Don Delillo.
In my opinion, Ellis is the master of monologue in novel. Except Glamorama, all his books are mammoth monologues of some sense. American Psycho is the neverending monologue of the infamous Patrick Bateman, Rules of Attraction is a collection of monologues of different people telling the same story by their own perspective, and Less Than Zero is the monologue of a underaged guy inbetween cocaine addicts.
Ellis is also very succesful in linking books into each other by small crossovers. Actually, his books can be regarded as stories that look at cross sections of a generation. In Rules of Attraction we meet Patrick Bateman, who is the brother of one of the main characters. In Glamorama, we meet him for 5 seconds at a bar where he is trying to hide his blood stained clothes from his friends. If Less Than Zero is high school years, and Rules of Attraction college, then American Psycho and Glamorama tells how these people become adults.
Published books:
Less Than Zero (1985)
The Rules of Attraction (1987)
American Psycho (1991)
The Informers (1994)
Glamorama (1999)