Buckley: The thing that really struck me was just how there is a sort of element of desperation in many of these young people, and they're at that time of just about to tip over into adulthood. I don't think Susan does any drugs except a bit of cocaine at one point at her own party. Ryan Vaughn took very good care of himself. He gets drunk in some corona's, and he leaves a party after Margarita. We were living in a world made by adults for adults. No one ever asked a child, oh, honey, what do you want for dinner? Oh, what can I get for you? Talk about being coddled? Are
Los Angeles, 1981. A group of beautiful, rich, high school students are playing adult in their absentee parents' empty mansions, fueled by lust and prescription drugs, and filled with fear and disaffection. This is the world of The Shards, Bret Easton Ellis’ first novel in 13 years, part auto-fiction, part horror. The provocative and polarising author joins Alex Preston, award-winning author and journalist, to speak about the emptiness of adolescence, the lawlessness of the 80s, and how it feels to look back at it all aged 56 in 2023.
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