Books: Less Than a Hero

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It wouldn't be hard to read all this as breast-baring confession, or at least rueful self-parody, except that it quickly veers into fiction. Bret (this is the fictional Bret) has managed to sire a son with an actress named Jayne Dennis, and when he flunks out of his umpteenth rehab he decides to save himself by marrying her, moving to Connecticut and becoming a regular suburban dad. But Bret brings his demons with him, both figuratively--he can't kick the sauce and he's haunted by his late alcoholic, rageoholic father--and literally: the Connecticut McMansion is assailed by supernatural bogeys, including a real-world incarnation of Patrick Bateman, the titular American Psycho. If the pace flags in places, there are the bones of a great book here: Stephen King--style horror imbued with Ellis' trademark narcotized despair.

So is that guy--the repentant, demon-chased Oedipal wretch Bret--the real Ellis? There's certainly a strong family resemblance. Ellis had a difficult, angry, alcoholic father. He dates both men and women. He has lost some of his lust for fame (although the real Ellis still lives in Manhattan, not Connecticut). "There's a heavy dose of self-loathing about celebrity," he sighs. So what does he not loathe? "Um." Long silence. "Ah, I like to write. I love to read. I like to go to movies. I like to go to museums." He's trying for a straight answer, but he starts cracking up halfway through. "Long walks on the beach ... rainbows ..."

The truth is, even if Ellis decided to drop all the layers and the games, you get the feeling he wouldn't know how. He's just as confused as we are. "I'm a weird person," he insists. "I'm not normal. Do you think the guy you're sitting across from, who wrote these books and who's put himself out there, do you think that that's, like, conducive to normal behavior? I'm beginning to think it's not. I'm beginning to think it's all one big mistake." He gives me the quizzical stare again. "If I said I was going to the rest room now, would you believe that I was coming back?"