I never liked anyone and I'm afraid of people.

Today I read Bret Easton Ellis' new novel, Imperial Bedrooms. I realise that most of my blog posts these days involve Bret, but this new novel of his - a sequel to Less Than Zero - is very blogworthy.

The book is beautiful. Physically, it is beautiful; the cover is incredible. And the novel itself is, the more I think about it, the only logical way that Less Than Zero could be continued without the story becoming tacky or
clichéd.

Clay, the protagonist, is, in Less Than Zero, one of my very favourite characters ever written. He is just so...vague. And yet there is definitely something there behind that that I find absolutely fascinating, but which is difficult to explain. In Imperial Bedrooms, this side of Clay that wants to 'see the worst', as he explains in LTZ, is explored in depth. He is such a creep. And I love it.

He is just such a great character. Everything he says is so distant and uncaring, and even when you think - or worry - that he is going to turn into some sap, he beats some lass up. Fantastic.

Reading this only confirmed for me that B.E.E is one of the greatest novelists of our generation. His style is so honest and real. Unlike some of his contemporaries - Douglas Coupland or Jay Mcinenry, for example - the speech is actual human speech, and for me that is one of the best things about his novels.

But in Imperial Bedrooms, it was the very last paragraph that did it for me. That last line, and the dates written there. I smiled. I think my jaw probably dropped. It was perfection.