If there is a single grating habit that has afflicted young writers of the past decade, it is a tendency to define characters not necessarily by their histories or heartaches or small triumphs but, more economically, as a sum of their pop-cultural tastes. Want to show that someone is vacuous? Put him in Gucci loafers. Want to convey sophistication? Mention a character's love of Godard. Want to suggest that a person has developed unrealistic notions of familial closeness? Have her reminisce about watching The Brady Bunch.
The Pulitzer Prize for referencing goes to Bret Easton Ellis, whose famously lazy prose has...