The Shards: A Novel

The novel’s many references to popular songs from 1981 and before fragment the narrative and create “shards” that poke through the story, injecting outside voices and altering the mood of the scene. Whether the songs confirm or contrast the moment, they inevitably create a narrative rupture. They’re a part of the characters’ world, but they’re also autonomous, existing in the real world as well as in the fiction.

When Bret listens to Blondie’s “Call Me,” the song pulls the reader into foreshadowing, with the title alluding to the Trawler’s silent phone calls. As “Call Me” is the theme song for the film American Gigolo, the song pushes the reader to the movie, which influences Bret and Ellis. The Doors influenced writer Joan Didion, so when Bret and his friends listen to The Doors on the beach at the Jonathan Club, the music cuts back to one of Bret and Ellis’s major influences. “Don’t Touch Me There” by the Tubes is one of Bret’s favorite songs and represents the slipperiness of intimacy and his and his friends’ reluctance to reach out and touch one another in a supportive, substantial way.