White, Bret Easton Ellis
White, Bret Easton Ellis
4 Rating(s)
List: $17.50 | Sale: $12.25
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White

Author: Bret Easton Ellis

Narrator: Bret Easton Ellis

Unabridged: 6 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/16/2019


Synopsis

Own it, snowflakes: you've lost everything you claim to hold dear.

White is Bret Easton Ellis's first work of nonfiction. Already the bad boy of American literature, from Less Than Zero to American Psycho, Ellis has also earned the wrath of right-thinking people everywhere with his provocations on social media, and here he escalates his admonishment of received truths as expressed by today's version of "the left." Eschewing convention, he embraces views that will make many in literary and media communities cringe, as he takes aim at the relentless anti-Trump fixation, coastal elites, corporate censorship, Hollywood, identity politics, Generation Wuss, "woke" cultural watchdogs, the obfuscation of ideals once both cherished and clear, and the fugue state of American democracy. In a young century marked by hysterical correctness and obsessive fervency on both sides of an aisle that's taken on the scale of the Grand Canyon, White is a clarion call for freedom of speech and artistic freedom.

"The central tension in Ellis's art—or his life, for that matter—is that while [his] aesthetic is the cool reserve of his native California, detachment over ideology, he can't stop generating heat.... He's hard-wired to break furniture."—Karen Heller, The Washington Post

"Sweating with rage . . . humming with paranoia."—Anna Leszkiewicz, The Guardian

"Snowflakes on both coasts in withdrawal from Rachel Maddow's nightly Kremlinology lesson can purchase a whole book to inspire paroxysms of rage . . . a veritable thirst trap for the easily microaggressed. It's all here. Rants about Trump derangement syndrome; MSNBC; #MeToo; safe spaces."—Bari Weiss, The New York Times

Look for Bret Easton Ellis’s new novel, The Shards!

About The Author

BRET EASTON ELLIS is the author of six novels and a collection of stories, which have been translated into thirty-two languages. He lives in Los Angeles and is the host of The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast available on Patreon.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Sam on May 06, 2019

Bret Easton Ellis’ first foray into nonfiction, White, is disappointingly unimpressive. Part diatribe on the current state of the political landscape, part memoir, there really isn’t much here that’s especially brilliant or worth reading. A lot of Ellis’ commentary on politics of the last few years......more

Goodreads review by Lisa on April 19, 2019

your cranky uncle wrote a whole book about being put on blast via twitter......more

Goodreads review by Tom LA on April 22, 2025

So wonderful to read BEE’s voice again. First, I loved the “I don’t give a shit, I’ll write only about what I want” attitude. For that in itself, this book gets 5 stars. Authentic, clear, yes of course self-centered, and it’s including some pieces that he discussed in his podcast, but that’s absolut......more

Goodreads review by Meike on May 21, 2019

This collection of essays is enlightening, but not in the way Bret Easton Ellis intended it to be; rather, it shows how some well-supported criticism can easily morph into an anger that dismisses all logic and measure, which is the very behavior the author wanted to attack in the first place: "And t......more

Goodreads review by Blair on April 18, 2019

This book has already stirred up controversy – as the author no doubt intended – but a week after reading it, I already find myself without much to say. It's a loosely-strung-together set of essays that are part cultural critique, part rant and part memoir; mostly chaotic, with some (not enough) goo......more


Quotes

"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