While still an undergraduate at Bennington College in Vermont, Ellis published his best-selling novel Less Than Zero. His books have endured literary criticism ranging from "infantile and sophomoric" to the "voice of a new generation."

Much like Clay, his protagonist, Ellis is the product of a well-to-do family from the hills above Los Angeles. Like Clay, he has two sisters, but he is quick to point out that his novels are not autobiographical. "It's sort of a hassle, all these assumptions that we're one and the same: The reaction is sort of insulting. But sometimes I take it as a compliment--that people were so persuaded by that voice that they thought it had to be real."¹

Ellis' childhood was by his own account fairly benign. Born March 7, 1964, he grew up in Southern California where his father was in real estate and his mother was a housewife. His parents...