Publishers Weekly
03/25/2019
Political correctness is destroying America’s mind and soul, according to this contentious manifesto. Novelist, screenwriter, and podcaster Ellis, whose American Psycho sparked a furor with its grisly rapes and murders, lambastes “the threatening groupthink of progressive ideology, which proposes universal inclusivity except for those who dare to ask any questions.” He focuses on social-justice hysteria in the entertainment and media industries: critics of mediocre movies by or about women, gays, and minorities, he contends, get tagged with upholding white male privilege; social media platforms enforce “corporate conformism and censorship... stamping out passion and silencing the individual;” Trump Derangement Syndrome consumes Ellis’s Hollywood associates and his boyfriend, who is obsessed with Russia-collusion theories. Ellis’s loose-jointed essay weaves in scenes from his days as an alienated writer adrift in Manhattan, film criticism, and an impassioned defense of artistic transgression, arguing that “to be challenged... to get wiped out by the cruelty of someone’s vision” promotes a mature understanding of life. Ellis’s pop-culture preoccupations sometimes feel callow—he paints Charlie Sheen and Kanye West as America’s last free men—and his critique of leftists as “haters” who “came across as anti-common sense, anti-rational and anti-American” is an unoriginal reprise of ideas commonplace to right-wing media outlets. Still, his vigorous, daring take on today’s ideological wars will provoke much thought and more controversy. (Apr.)
From the Publisher
"The true scourge for Ellis is censorship."—Eli Roth, Interview
"Playfully provocative . . . a feature-length yawp, equal parts memoir and State of the Union address, that will infuriate or delight. . . . [Ellis] rails against the diktats of the politically correct."—Charles Arrowsmith, The Washington Post
"Ellis's true purpose . . . is to offend young, progressive readers."—Andrea Long Chu, Bookforum
"Fiercely independent, sometimes controversial, and always outspoken . . . White will surely anger some readers."—Peter Larsen, The Orange County Register
"Tough-minded and realistic. . . . Ellis will lose friends over this book."—Barton Swaim, The Wall Street Journal
"[In] his first book in nine years–and his nonfiction debut—Ellis exudes the same youthful spirit he’s always had: of irreverent amusement, quiet irony, indefatigable artistic curiosity. He’s a living embodiment of how, between the predigital world of 1985 and today, both everything and nothing has changed. And it’s been Ellis’s life’s work to make us confront the absurdity of that world in all its grimness, comedy and plastic beauty."—Lauren Christensen, The New York Times
“If Joan Didion is the California ice queen who picked apart the increasingly threadbare fabric of 70s American society, then, with White, Bret Easton Ellis is her heir apparent . . . shifting his focus to nonfiction for the first time [and turning his] withering eye to the social-media age.”—H.W. Vail, Vanity Fair
“Intelligent and briskly observed. . . . [Ellis is] an artist who engages deeply with works, and his takes on film, especially, are often fascinating. . . . Ellis isn’t afraid to be contrarian, and that’s what makes this book so interesting.”—Keir Graff, Booklist
“Well written [and] bubbling with attitude and self-confidence.”—Kirkus
Kirkus Reviews
2019-02-13
The author of American Psycho (1991) and a half-dozen other novels returns with a series of thematically related essays.
Ellis (Imperial Bedrooms, 2010, etc.)—who also has a podcast to which he often refers and who has also worked extensively on various film and TV projects—will not endear himself to those who are politically left-leaning. Repeatedly, he assails liberals for failing to accept the election of Donald Trump—and for helping to make everyone hysterical about having to see, read, and think about things we don't agree with. The left, he writes near the end, has become "a rage machine." Ellis' text also displays aspects of memoir: One piece deals with his early (and continuing) fondness for films, which his father cultivated by taking him, even at a young age, to some very "adult" movies. These memories lead him to discuss Richard Gere, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, and Tom Cruise. American Psycho is also a leitmotif: Ellis tells us about the conception and writing of the novel, lets us know that the brutality existed only in the imagination of his protagonist, and makes other comments about the film and the subsequent musical, which lost money. He slowly leads us, as well, into a discussion of his sexuality and his various relationships. Ultimately, though, his principal interest is in the fractured American culture, political and otherwise. He rails against college students who demand "trigger warnings"; blasts the traditional media; tells stories about the excessive reactions to his tweets; and celebrates some current cultural outcasts, including Charlie Sheen, Roseanne Barr, and Kanye West. He lashes out at certain writers while delivering praise to others—e.g., he admires Joan Didion and Jonathan Franzen.
Well-written pieces bubbling with attitude and self-confidence but, at times, as judgmental as those Ellis condemns.
