The Informers

The Informers

First edition cover
Author	Bret Easton Ellis
Country	United States
Language	English
Publisher	Alfred A. Knopf
Publication date	August 28, 1994
Media type	Print
Pages	0-679-43587-5
Preceded by	American Psycho
Followed by	Glamorama

The Informers is a collection of short stories, seemingly linked by the same continuity, authored by American author Bret Easton Ellis. It was first published as a whole in 1994. Chapters 6 and 7, "Water from the Sun" and "Discovering Japan", were published separately in the UK by Picador in 2007. It displays attributes similar to Ellis' novels Less Than Zero, The Rules of Attraction, and, to a lesser extent, American Psycho. Like the first novel, the stories here are set in California.

Nameless protagonist receives a phone call from Bruce, who apologizes for not being in New Hampshire, but in Los Angeles. It has been two months since the last time he contacted her. Bruce mentions how things have deteriorated ever since sleeping with Lauren, the girlfriend of his wealthy roommate, Robert. The affair between the two lasted a week before she moved on to someone wealthier than Robert. Bruce then had an affair with Lauren's brother, Marshall, which lasted longer than his affair with Lauren only because Marshall stayed in the apartment for a week and a half before moving back in with his ex-boyfriend. Bruce ends up moving out of Robert's apartment and into Reynold's due to some of Robert's expensive pet lizards dying, but this is a feeble excuse.

She thinks back to the past summer, when she met Bruce at a workshop, but has few memories of the time spent together. Bruce inquires about an event during that summer that she cannot remember. After the phone call, she meets up with Reynolds for dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Although Reynolds makes conversation, all the protagonist can think about is Bruce, Lauren and Arizona.

This chapter is narrated by Tim. This may possibly be Tim Price from the novel American Psycho, because as mentioned in American Psycho Tim is from California, where he went to school at UCLA before dropping out and going to Stanford.

Tim and his friends Raymond, Dirk, and Graham gather at Mario's restaurant, where Raymond recalls that it is the one-year-anniversary of the death of Jamie, a mutual acquaintance of the boys'. Emotions run high as Dirk denies remembering that it is the anniversary, ultimately breaking down and recalling Jamie's death in graphic detail: Dirk was following Jamie's car through the desert when Jamie crashed it, and Dirk pulled Jamie's body from the wreck and waited with it until help arrived.