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White cover art

White

Written by: Bret Easton Ellis
Narrated by: Bret Easton Ellis
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Publisher's Summary

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)

©2019 Bret Easton Ellis (P)2019 Random House Audio

What the critics say

"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)

"[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)

"Tough-minded and realistic.... Ellis will lose friends over this book." (Barton Swaim, The Wall Street Journal)

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What listeners say about White

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    3 out of 5 stars

It address Bret’s own feelings but perhaps too much Brett and not enough

About our Generation X and coping with Brown Shirted identity of the extremes of left and right. Still a good story. “The truth is out there, trust no one” .., especially Twitter Facebook Google and YouTube

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Very good

I don’t agree with everything BEE writes here such as defending his unfiltered drunken twitter posts and his overly generous views on Trump. However I really enjoyed hearing his views over all. Being a gay Hollywood type i assumed he thinks a certain way. I think he’s done a constructive thing I’m writing this book.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Gen X with a Boomer slant...

i wanted to love it.

i appreciate BEE, but, after listening to White, I get the impression he is disgruntled/dissatisfied/disinterested. all around.
his tone was more angry Baby Boomer, less bewildered Gen Xer.
i was hoping for some little nugget of happiness - anything, really.

he is bang on with his assessment of social media/self obsession, though. hit the nail right on the head.

i hope his next couple of decades find him in a better place.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Slipping Away.

The first hour( of excellent narration,) kept my interest challenged, but slowly it changed to more name dropping than narrative..which by the way did not show me the time period or social issues clearly. I lost interest fast. story was too disjointed. too bad...it was well spoken interesting voice.

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Krystal a Canadian Centrist who Watches Bill Maher

The book is an apathetic rant by a middle aged man that failed the generation after him. He has nothing but apathy towards society therefore his book has little to offer society. It solidifies that the American people are largely selfish and greedy egomaniacs as described in his book as he describes his liberal boyfriend, to himself, to his rich republican friends and Kayne West. The only important warning is that irrational identity liberal politics, general voter apathy and disengagement will lead to 4 more Trumpian Years and potentially a third Trumpian Term. Yet Ellis appears decently fine with this because he has no care.

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