Bret Easton Ellis: Underwriting the Contemporary is an accomplished and challenging book that, through a close reading of Ellis s oeuvre to date, attempts to correlate political and literary value in order to extract a new politics of literature. It is a timely and serious work on a very important author whose reputation is overshadowed by the celebrity of his debut novel and the infamy of American Psycho. - Scott Wilson, Professor in the School of Humanities, London Graduate School, Kingston University
Colby provides a path-breaking reading and re-situation of Bret Easton Ellis s work, elegantly written and attentive to the rich paradoxes of his authorial persona and literary stance.With her elaboration of the underwritten as double-voiced critique, she moves us away from the cliches of the Blank Generation and gives us tools for an understanding of the slippery politics of contemporary fiction. Ellis emerges as a better and more dangerous writer than we know. - Tim Armstrong, Professor of Modern English and American Literature, Royal Holloway, University of London
