Lunar Park

Lunar Park (2006), a fictionalized memoir by Bret Easton Ellis, provides a parody-style account of Ellis’s early life and the problems he encountered when his father died. A study of grief, loss, and memory, it received a nomination for the 2006 World Fantasy Award. Ellis is best known for his debut novel, Less Than Zero, which became an international bestseller while Ellis was still a college student. He typically writes books set in dystopian versions of real cities such as New York and Los Angeles, and his characters are usually hedonistic, troubled individuals.

The narrator in this pseudo-biographical novel, also called Bret Ellis, is portrayed as a wealthy, fame-hungry novelist who spends more time drinking in high-end nightclubs than writing meaningful books. The controversy surrounding him helps to sell his books, and he thrives on sex, drugs, and alcohol.

In the book’s early chapters, Ellis details how irresponsible he is with fame and money. Whenever he receives another book advance, he wastes it on luxuries and drugs. Before long, he runs into debt. He struggles to write the books he is contracted for; in only a matter of time, the advances stop completely and he goes bankrupt.



Everything moves from bad to worse when Ellis goes on tour to promote his new book, Glamorama. His agent and publicist beg him to stay sober for the tour, but he goes on a cocaine binge, missing some tour appearances. When he does make an appearance, he is incoherent and obviously high. His reputation hanging by a thread, Ellis ends the tour humiliated and shamed.

Ellis doesn’t want to live this hedonistic lifestyle anymore. He wants to straighten out and turn his life around. He plans to retire from the public eye to focus on building a family. Ellis notes that these early chapters are a blend of fact and fiction. He leaves it up to the reader to decide what is real and what is false.

Ellis encounters Jayne Dennis, a famous actor known for her relationships with high-profile men. Ellis slept with Jayne many years ago and this is the first time they have met since then. She now has a daughter, Sarah, from a previous relationship and a son, Robby. She claims that Robby is Ellis’s son, but he doesn’t believe her until she makes him take a DNA test. Now that he knows that Robby is his son, he takes full financial responsibility for him, and he marries Jayne.



For a while, they live happily together in New York City, but after the 9/11 attacks, they move to a quiet suburb to rebuild their lives. However, odd things begin happening around the house. Objects move around and noises keep Ellis up at night. Ellis is convinced that his dead father’s ghost is somehow responsible for the happenings.

Ellis’s father, an abusive and cruel man who tormented his children, died a while ago. His memory haunts Ellis every day. Ellis based this fictional father on his real father, whom he claims was a sociopathic murderer. He even claims that the notorious lead character in American Psycho, Patrick Bateman, was inspired by his father’s personality. Again, Ellis blends fact with fiction to make readers question what is real and what is fake.

As the months go by, Jayne worries about Ellis’s mental state. Knowing that he abused drugs and alcohol for many years, she worries that he is imagining things. Ellis is the only person who thinks that the house is haunted; Jayne seriously considers leaving him if he doesn’t seek medical help. In the meantime, Ellis’s career stalls, leaving the family in financial jeopardy.



Things reach a breaking point when a series of bizarre murders rock the suburbs. The crimes remind police of the Patrick Bateman murders in American Psycho. Ellis is now utterly convinced that his dead father is wreaking havoc on the neighborhood and that only he can somehow stop him.

As the investigations continue, Ellis meets with detectives and crewmembers from the American Psycho movie. They ask Ellis if he knows anything about the killer. Ellis doesn’t tell them that he thinks a ghost is responsible, because they will laugh at him. All he can do is protect his house and his family from the ghost haunting their every move.

Ellis reveals that the ghost plot device in Lunar Park is his own way of dealing with the memories of an abusive childhood and horrible father. Just as Ellis eventually exorcises his own demons in the book, so the real Bret Ellis comes to terms with his past and how he feels about his father. Both the real and fictional Ellis find peace by the end of the book.