So, wait - have none of you guys (Pedro, Joker, Cecil) read Glamorama? I cannot, cannot recommend it strongly enough. If you like Ellis, I think this really is the pinnacle of his style and vision. It's epic, man. So cold, so violent, so funny, so detatched, and yet ultimately really beautiful. Plus it's got a massive movie metaphor running through the whole thing.
I've cut/pasted a few quotes to try to entice you into making it the next book you read...
I'm just staring at nothing or what I imagine is nothing until I'm finally moved to say, "As a general rule you shouldn't expect too much from people, darling," and then I kiss her on the cheek.
"I just had my makeup done, so you can't make me cry."
"I am so tired of looking at that empty expanse that's supposed to be your face-"
"A smart suit," she sighs. "Being buff. A cool haircut. Worrying about whether people think you're famous enough or cool enough or in good enough shape or . . . or whatever." She sighs, gives up, stares at the ceiling. "These are not signs of wisdom, Victor," she says. "This is the bad planet."
She waves me away. "Animals need as much love and respect and care as we give people."
I consider this. I think about all the things I've seen and done, and I consider this.
"I think they're better off without that, baby," I say. "In fact I think they're doing okay."
"My motto is: the better you look, the more you see."
Sinead O'Conner was singing "The Last Day of Our Aquaintance" and it was either 11:00 or 1:00 or maybe it was 3:15. A big murder trial was going on that week in which the defense convinced me that the victim - a seventeen-year-old-girl fatally beaten by her drunken father - was actually guilty of her own death. Mermaids had been spotted during a swim before dawn.
"Could you kill somebody?" I heard a voice ask.
A moment passed before another voice answered, "Yeah, I guess so."
"Oh, so what?" someone else answered.
(...Plus my signature) You guys must read it!