Set in affluent Los Angeles, it is a raw and powerful portrayal of a generation of young people who have experienced sex, drugs and disaffection at too early an age. Clay, coming home to Los Angeles for Christmas vacation following his first semester at an Eastern college, tries to make sense of the life he left behind. Clay’s holiday turns into a dizzying spiral of desperation that takes him through the rich suburban homes, the relentless parties, the seedy bars, and glitzy rock clubs. A shocking coming-of-age novel about the casual nihilism that comes with youth and money, Less Than Zero marked the stunning debut of the first voice of a new generation, Bret Easton Ellis. It was also adapted into a movie in 1987, starring Andrew McCarthy, Robert Downey Jr., Jami Gertz, and James Spader.