Less Than Zero

I read this book again yesterday. I need to stop rereading books in the hope that they will finally click with me.

This book is part one of what I perceive as the author's attempt to rewrite Catcher in tea Rye. Oh sure there is some "shock value" stuff in there that you would not find in Salinger's book but then you find much in Salinger's book you can;'t find here like interesting characters and a point to the pointlessness.

The scenes in Less Than Zero that are meant to make you feel terrible for everyone involved are written with such a dearth of compassion, humanity or reality that they do little beyond making me think this is just stupid and ridiculous. The paperback I was reading, which I picked up for a quarter at Goodwill, said something on the back about these poor characters afflicted with too much money. Hmmmhmm. That doesn't really seem to be the problem when I read the book. It seems to me like the author sprained something trying to desperately to create some poor little rich kids with no morals. I hope he recovered but from what I have read of his subsequent work I think not.