: A bisexual student and Lauren’s ex-lover. He is infatuated with Sean and narrates their alleged sexual encounters, though the accuracy of his account is left ambiguous by the other characters' silence on the matter. Major Themes
Published in 1987—four years before American Psycho would make him infamous— The Rules of Attraction is Bret Easton Ellis’s sophomore novel. Set at the fictional, wealthy liberal arts college Camden College (a thinly veiled Bennington College, where Ellis himself studied), the novel follows a rotating cast of shallow, drug-addled, sexually promiscuous students through one chaotic semester. the rules of attraction by bret easton ellispdf
The Rules of Attraction centers on three main characters who become entangled in a love triangle that none of them fully understands. Sean Bateman (the younger brother of American Psycho ’s Patrick Bateman) is a cynical, hard-drinking drug dealer who falls for the elusive Lauren Hynde. Lauren, in turn, is fixated on her ex-boyfriend Victor, who is currently studying abroad in Europe and remains oblivious to her pining. Meanwhile, Paul Denton, Lauren’s ex-boyfriend and an openly bisexual drama student, has developed an all-consuming passion for Sean. The novel is a kaleidoscopic view of their intersecting desires, disappointments, and the moral emptiness at the center of their lives. : A bisexual student and Lauren’s ex-lover
Navigating Excess: A Deep Dive into The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis Set at the fictional, wealthy liberal arts college
in New England, the story revolves around a messy love triangle involving three deeply self-absorbed students: Lauren Hynde:
Waiting for an old flame who has moved on, Lauren represents the tragedy of romanticizing a past that was likely just as empty as the present. Stylistic Fragmentation
: The cynical, drug-dealing campus heartthrob who is notably the younger brother of Patrick Bateman, the protagonist of Ellis’s later masterpiece, American Psycho .