SOURCE: "Attack of the Anti-Heroes," in Los Angeles Times Book Review, August 8, 1994, pp. 3, 8.

In the following review of The Informers, Karlen critiques the development of Ellis's work.

Joe McGinniss' gravest crime against literature was not The Last Brother, the author's recent and ridiculous faux-biography of Ted Kennedy. Rather, McGinniss' worst felony was rushing Bret Easton Ellis, his fiction-writing student at Bennington College, to publish Less Than Zero at age 21.

Ironically, the 1985 first novel was an excellent beginning for an obviously talented writer; Less Than Zero provided a provocative snapshot of a time when the anomic ditherings of idle, rich, drug-addled, white-bread Los Angeles young adults was considered fresh material. Bearing a canny journalist's eye for detail and dialogue, Ellis' storytelling already carried the complete lack of sentiment and empathy of a seasoned nihilistic novelist.

Ellis became a famous, best-selling young writer and was touted as the voice of...