Ellis - The Informers

The Informers. Brett Easton Ellis. Vintage. 1994.
Ellis's 'The Informers' is actually a collection of short stories, one per chapter; but he purposefully writes them all in the first person and rarely or never gives the narrator a name, so the stories blend together in an esoteric, impressionistic, crazy way. College kids talking of a dead friend, the unhappy wife of a movie mogul, a serial killer, and so on. The chapter-stories move one to the other like a prose form of an old-school punk rock performance.

Nersesian - Chinese Takeout

Chinese Takeout Arthur Nersesian, Perennial, 2003.
Orloff Trenchant is a painter living in his van, hustling paintings to art dealers, selling books at a sidewalk stand, and failing at his relationships with women.
Orloff basically has three relationships as the book progresses. The first ends quickly, the second occupies most of the book, and the third seems like a backup that is there when needed. The dialogue often sounds unnatural, and the plotting is a little shakey; Orloff's paranoia and foolish decisions seem meant as humorous and as drama at the same time, but end up being neither.
Where the book succeeds is in it's depiction of setting. The knowledge of the Chinatown area, its history, its streets and places, is colorful and thorough and always engaging. Also the small things are done well: the street of book vendors, the scene where Orloff takes down street signs and substitutes ads about himself, and so on. These portions of the book make it a good read.