It's 2006 all over again, and I've placed my first ever pre-orders. I'm equally excited about both Alan Warner's 'The Stars in the Bright Sky', and Bret Easton Ellis' 'Imperial Bedrooms'. Not only are these two of the finest writers alive (alongside Pynchon and William T Vollmann, for me,) but they're also very different. Perhaps the only similarity is that both novels are reprises of the casts of previous books. In Warner's case, the teenage girls of the Sopranos, and in Ellis' the teenage rich kids of Less Than Zero. Otherwise, Warner's lyrical, affectionate, darkness-and-light prose couldn't be further from Bret Easton Ellis' unflinching, stripped down writing. It's very exciting that there'll be two (hopefully) masterful books in two different styles this year.
In particular, it'll be interesting to see how Warner's book goes down. There was a little sniping and disappointment around the reception of The Worms Can Carry Me to Heaven in 2006, despite it being up to his usual standard (if not a huge step up.) BEE. on the other hand, published what I think is his best book that year - Lunar Park.
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