![The Informers | [Bret Easton Ellis]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51h37bUM88L._SL175_.jpg "The Informers | [Bret Easton Ellis]")
The Informers
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- Regular Price :$34.95
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Average Customer Rating
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LENGTH7 hrs and 53 mins
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RELEASE DATE03-31-09
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AUDIO FORMATS
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Program TypeAudiobook
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PUBLISHER
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Audible Editor Reviews
True to the darkly satirical trademark tone of all Bret Easton Ellis' novels, this tale coasts on the voices of Therese Plummer and Christian Rummel, narrating California's disaffected youth with the biting nonchalance that only New York actors like these could provide. The Informers is a series of linked vignettes depicting the alternatingly bland and violent hardships of the stereotypically rich, numb, and dumb in 1980s Los Angeles, each chapter told from the perspective of a different and often anonymous person. That anonymity is the key to Plummer and Rummel's masterful telling. The majority of these characters talk through their surgically altered noses and draw out their surfer vowels in classic West Coast style, largely indistinguishable from one another by voice, just as they are by their actions.
There is a bisexual love-quadrangle where everyone is looking to trade up for a wealthier connection and a bigger apartment. Rummel voices the female portions of dialogue with surprising ease. A father desperately forces his son into a bonding vacation in Hawaii where he fails to make conversation and fails to get laid. Rummel's rendering of both father and son's drunken slurring is tragicomic in the extreme. A college student takes the train cross-country to watch her father marry a much younger health nut and aspiring newscaster who owns 20 ripped Flashdance sweatshirts. Plummer's judgmental inflections are perfectly timed in this very rare treat, as Ellis does not often so deeply develop female characters. A junkie rock star lists an assortment of beatings, rapes, and near-miss overdoses he floats through with groupies at the Tokyo Hilton. Rummel's snappy and snappish accent for the put upon British manager of the band is a major bright spot in this long string of Californians.
But some names do stand out in the endless parade, as Ellis reinvents many characters from his other novels in this one. Tim Price (from the cult classic American Psycho) tells of a gloomy foursome having dinner on the anniversary of their friend's death by brutal car crash. A middle-aged pill-popper speculates on the herpes-riddled adventures of Blair and Julian (from Ellis' first novel, Less Than Zero). A college student takes the semester off, slowly sinking into the Los Angeles lifestyle until she can't mobilize for a return to Camden (the school in many Ellis novels), chronicling her progress from scholarly and sensitive brunette to bored and senseless blonde by writing unanswered letters to Sean Bateman (from Rules of Attraction). Listening to Therese Plummer and Christian Rummel give voice to these old and familiar favorites will send shivers up your already creeped-out spine. With over 100 audiobooks between them, the two narrators have no trouble expressing an utter indifference with which each of these character snapshots is speeding toward denial or death. In less capable mouths, a story like this would just leave you cold, but Plummer and Rummel make it chilling. —Megan Volpert
Publisher's Summary
Dirk sees his best friend killed in a desert car wreck, then rifles through his pockets for a last joint before the ambulance comes. Cheryl, a wannabe newscaster, chides her future stepdaughter, "You're tan but you don't look happy." Jamie is a clubland carnivore with a taste for human blood. As rendered by Ellis, their interactions compose a chilling, fascinating, and outrageous descent into the abyss beneath L.A.'s gorgeous surfaces.
As an added bonus, when you purchase any of our Audible Modern Vanguard productions of Bret Easton Ellis' books, you'll also get an exclusive Jim Atlas interview added to your library.
This production is part of our Audible Modern Vanguard line, a collection of important works from groundbreaking authors.
©1995 Bret Easton Ellis; (P)2009 Audible, Inc.
What the Critics Say
"The Informers skillfully accomplishes its goal of depicting a modern moral wasteland...arguably Ellis' best." (The Boston Globe)
"Spare, austere, elegantly designed, telling in detail, coolly ferocious, sardonic in its humor; every vestige of authorial sentiment is expunged." (The New York Times Book Review)
"Ellis...is an extremely traditional and very serious American novelist. He is the model of literary filial piety, counting among his parents Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nathanael West, and Joan Didion." (The Washington Post)
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What Members Say
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"Morale Decay and Vampires in Early 80s L. A."
Would you listen to The Informers again? Why?Yes, I would. Not right away but I could listen to it again in a few years. Bret Easton Ellis is one of my favorite writers - at least for now - so I usually revisit writers that I like.
What did you like best about this story?I thought the vampire, zombie subplot was done very well - it highlights the moral decline aspect of the story very well.
What does Therese Plummer and Christian Rummel bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?Christian Rummel and Therese Plummer do an excellent job in their narration. It’s not easy material to tackle – it’s mostly conversations and reflection, there’s little to no action – and they do a good job capturing the feel and tone of the story – which can quickly switch from horror to dark humor and back again. They also convey the characters apathy well – an emotion that plays like an additional character in much of Ellis’ work.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?A film was already made of this book and although a lot of talented people were involved the end result was terrible. The look and feel of the movie was well done - but they totally missed the point of the book.
Any additional comments?'The Informers’ is a bunch of short stories by Bret Easton Ellis culled from an earlier writing period – the mid 80s – so they closely match the tone of ‘Less Than Zero’ and ‘The Rules of Attraction’ – they’re pretty dark and shallow – mostly dealing with the moral decline of the time (Bret Easton Ellis being a moralist).
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
