White

By: Bret Easton Ellis

Narrated by: Bret Easton Ellis

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

Look for Bret Easton Ellis’s new novel, The Shards!

Critic reviews

"The true scourge for Ellis is censorship."—Eli Roth, Interview

"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

"Ellis's true purpose . . . is to offend young, progressive readers."—Andrea Long Chu, Bookforum

"Fiercely independent, sometimes controversial, and always outspoken . . . White will surely anger some readers."—Peter Larsen, The Orange County Register

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

"[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

“If Joan Didion is the California ice queen who picked apart the increasingly threadbare fabric of 70s American society, then, with White, Bret Easton Ellis is her heir apparent . . . shifting his focus to nonfiction for the first time [and turning his] withering eye to the social-media age.”—H.W. Vail, Vanity Fair

“Intelligent and briskly observed. . . . [Ellis is] an artist who engages deeply with works, and his takes on film, especially, are often fascinating. . . . Ellis isn’t afraid to be contrarian, and that’s what makes this book so interesting.”—Keir Graff, Booklist

“Well written [and] bubbling with attitude and self-confidence.”—Kirkus

Should be Required Reading For Liberals

Thanks, Bret. I wasn't sure if this was a topic I could maintain interest in for nearly seven hours. I was born a few weeks before you in 1964 so the discussion of your childhood life resonated with me. But, I am a guy who watches, reads, and listens to conservative media and have for decades... since that great day in 1987 when it all began.

What could you possibly tell me that I don't already know? Well... when it comes to the views of liberals and the destruction of one particular view by a member of that liberal cabal... you can teach most of us a lot. Great book. Listened all night. You really aren't a liberal. And once liberals are forced to confront what liberalism is and given specific policies and shown the effect of those policies under liberal and conservative principals... many, if not most liberals will also discover conservative leanings they knew nothing about.

Great autobiography

Listening to Ellis' book brought back memories of the decades of my life though I'm older & definitely more lower middle class. However it is mainly his thorough disgust of the current political situation that I commend him for, especially as given his position as a celebrity exposes him to such vitriol yet he still has the courage to voice his opinion. He accurately explains why I have so much distaste for the left as much as the right and yearn for an alternative third solution.

If you like the podcast you'll like this

Very interesting! I imagine it's somewhat better suited for listening to than reading. It's the perfect thing to put on in the background while doing something else.

Articulate, well written and narrated perfectly.

I am big Bret Easton Ellis fan, I have been obsessed with American Psycho for years.

First, let me say. It takes some serious onions to be so honest nowadays and I think Ellis really nailed the way a lot of us out there feel.

Straight, gay, white, black, liberal, conservative. Doesn’t matter, there are a large number of us that are just tired of victim culture and everybody having to apologize for absolutely everything they say and do. Mind you, he is only speaking on his own personal experience and his feelings related to these things, but it is refreshing to have an author of his caliber be so human and level headed.

There are a lot of little facts and insights about where Ellis was in his life as well as his mindset while writing some of his greats, American Psycho, Less than Zero, etc.

Listened to it 3 times.

It’s hard to describe Interesting and clever as he always is. I will prolly listen again. Great narration

A fun labyrinthine escape

He’s a difficult narrator, not giving space between words in a classical narration, but the story and the content warps and weaves through junctions of matters of importance. Well worth the time and very easy to take.

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I will always owe Bret Easton Ellis a great debt in that he saved a part of my life. I was never a reader growing up. I simply could not bring myself to concentrate long enough and had to listen to books read to me or just read synopses, and I resented the activity and the people who enjoyed it because I just couldn’t bring myself to focus. And then one day during my freshman year in college, I picked up Rules of Attraction and it changed my life. Ever since I have loved reading, and further, began writing myself. It is my new preferential creative outlet, and to this, I owe BEE everything. And about ten years ago, I definitely enjoyed him as a personality. All these years later, this has changed quite a bit. He is libertarian. And proudly so. And so he is, like all libertarians, a funny and occasionally provocative asshole. Constantly posturing. A troll. He spends much of his time ranting about millennials bitching or how they cope with their lot in life, yet seems blissfully ignorant of the fact that he was incredibly fortunate and privileged to be young in a time when he could get one book published and never have to work again if he didn’t want to. It can be grating, but what kept me listening to his podcast before it was stuck behind a paywall, was that he is just so well spoken and is very versed in putting forward his opinion. The Trump apathy and Kanye apologism I can almost abide, but once he literally starts talking about Candace Owens with any real dignity, Ok BEE we onto you.

So I listened to him read WHITE, knowing this would be a pretty annoying, but hopefully insightful or at least thought provoking read like his rants on his podcast were every now and then. And it kind of is. When he isn’t just complaining about young people complaining, he is giving us stuff to chew on, like how horror prepares young minds for the world. That’s not a new take, but the way in which he portrays it is very relatable. It’s also pretty fun to listen to him dish on drama behind the scenes of his celebrity interviews on his podcast. He also airs a lot of he and his “millennial boyfriend’s” dirty laundry, to the point where it’s just uncomfortable at this point. There’s a part at which he is describing a dinner he’s having with another middle aged white dude, and they’re talking about how Black Lives Matter lacks an aesthetic and how it is an example of why Trump won, and I’m just getting douche chills thinking about how it reminds me of every obnoxiously loud conversation I hear drunk White people having in public.

This book is basically just the equivalent of a Michael Moore movies for liberals, or Fox News for conservatives; basically just a clap on the back from a contrarian to contrarians stuck in their own bubble, under the impression that they are the only ones who see things clearly.

I wanted to read/listen to this to come full circle with one of my first literary inspirations. As a member of “Generation Wuss” I’m proud to say I came out the other side unscathed. No, BEE, I didn’t find your book “offensive”, just kind of annoying.

What I’ve been feeling but couldn’t articulate...

A magnificent set of ruminations on the feckless, fascist excesses of PC culture, identity politics, and Trump Derangement Syndrome from a pop-culture commentator par excellence. Thinking lefties would do themselves inestimable service by choking down this jagged pill.

the greatest book of the new millennium!

this book is about his views on modern society and the scary truth that many of us are afraid to see. I highly recommend this book to everyone of every political view.

white gay liberal pops the liberal bubble

will it make any difference? forget it, the cancer has spread beyond hope ... unless the Dems, switch to diversity of opinion and get rid of id politics, it going downhill.