of the zeitgeist. Filled with relentless drinking in seamy bars and glamorous nightclubs, wild, drug-fuelled parties, and dispassionate sexual encounters, Less Than Zero is narrated by Clay, an eighteen-year-old student returning home to Los Angeles for Christmas. Bret Easton Ellis's debut novel is a fierce coming-of-age story, justifiably celebrated for its unflinching depiction of hedonistic youth, its brutal portrayal of the inexorable consequences of such moral depravity, and its author's refusal to condone or chastise such behaviour. Less Than Zero has done more than simply define a genre: it continues to be a landmark in the lives of successive generations of readers across the globe.