Bret Easton Ellis attacks 'overrated' Nobel Prize in Literature winner Alice Munro

The American Psycho author says the award is a 'joke'

Bret Easton Ellis isn't a fan of Nobel laureate Alice Munro (Getty Images)

The Swedish Academy's decision to award the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature to Alice Munro was welcomed by writers including AS Byatt, Margaret Atwood and Jeffrey Eugenides.

But perhaps unsurprisingly, American Psycho author Bret Easton Ellis took to Twitter this morning to make it clear that he isn't a fan of the 82-year-old Canadian.

"Alice Munro is so completely overrated," he wrote. "Alice Munro was always an overrated writer and now that she's won the Nobel she always will be. The Nobel is a joke and has been for ages."

In agreement with Ellis was Christian Lorentzen, a writer who penned a savage review of Munro's last short story collection, Dear Life, for the London Review of Books.

He tweeted Ellis, saying: "Amen." Lorentzen did, however, personally benefit from Munro's win to the tune of £400 after placing a bet.

In the review, Lorentzen wrote: "Over a career now in its sixth decade, she's rehearsed the same themes again and again, but that's because she’s a master of variation. She has preternatural powers of sympathy and empathy, but she’s never sentimental."

Ellis's objection to Munro is not unexpected. He previously described rival author David Foster Wallace as "the most tedious, overrated, tortured, pretentious writer of my generation."

Known for taking a contrary stance on many cultural issues, he recently described the widely acclaimed Gravity as "totally boring", and claimed the blind auditions of singing contest The Voice are “probably the most emotionally stirring and suspenseful episodes on television right now”.