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Brett Easton Ellis established a reputation as the enfant terrible of American fiction in the 1980s with his controversial novel Less than Zero, but with the publication of American Psycho he became established as one of the most notorious and reviled novelists currently writing. American Psycho deserves its controversy. The novel opens with a sign scrawled above a New York subway station: "Abandon hope all ye who enter". So begins a hellish descent into the world of Patrick Bateman, the novel's protagonist. Bateman is a handsome 26-year-old Wall Street yuppie, who spends his days listening to Whitney Houston and working out which exclusive restaurant to eat in and what clothes to wear in a dizzying parody of 1980s consumerism run mad. However, Bateman also has a darker side; he is a psychopathic serial killer, with a penchant for torturing and sexually abusing young women before killing them in the most gruesome and explicit fashion. The novel contains little actual plot, and consists of extended descriptions of exclusive restaurants, designer clothes, TV shows and the minutiae of Bateman's vacuous world, relieved only by clinically described scenes of torture and mutilation which are not for the faint-hearted. Bateman makes little attempt to justify his actions, merely claiming that "this is the way the world--my world--moves". As a satire on the bankrupt, money-driven world of the 1980s, American Psycho is a successful, if rather heavy-handed piece of fiction, whose controversy seems only set to increase. --Jerry Brotton
tough read
| Customer Rating:   | | This book will take you from horror to blandness in the turn of a page. It is possibly one of the hardest books I've ever read, but in turn one of the most well constructed. Obviously some reviewers on Amazon consider the writing poor, as well as the structure, but it seems like they have not just missed the point of the books structure, more like taken a thousand mile detour around it. It's a brave book and Ellis deserves praise for his uncompromising approach in every area of the storyline. I must admit I found it more than I could handle, more than I could take in. However as a satire on a self-obsessed, shallow and money orientated society it is flawless. |
Better than the film...
| Customer Rating: | I'd seen the film already and had been intrigued as everyone said the film was incredibly graphic, but I didn't find it all that viscerally visual, although I'd been told the book was more descriptive in its violent scenes. This was absolutely correct.
From the outset, Patrick Bateman is a meticulous person who obsessively lists a person's attributes - in his world, a person's job, possessions, politics and how he presents himself is who he is. He's a mass of contradictions, expressed both in his politics and his lifestyle, for example, he takes good care of himself, exercises regularly, has a rigid skincare regime and worries about such things as the sodium content of soy sauce, yet takes drugs at every opportunity.
In typical "serial killer" style, he is repeatedly described as "the boy next door", despite the fact that he continually tries to convince people otherwise, even whispering under his breath, "No I'm not, I'm a fucking evil psychopath," almost as if his murderous impulses are caused by his desire to distinguish himself from others (who all seem to be identikit versions of the stereotypical yuppie and are continually mistaken for each other - they are interchangeable non-entities).
Bateman is primarily a visually stimulated person, whether it's taking note of the minute differences between the various business cards, or getting off on a scene in a movie where a woman is drilled to death. He seems to be a stickler for time - he is almost reduced to tears when he thinks he and his colleagues won't get a good seat in the restaurant due to taking so long to decide on a destination. I found I could empathise with him on this aspect of his character, as I often get very frustrated when trying to arrange something like that although I promise I'm not a psychopathic killer!)
A man of extremes, Bateman has a very short fuse over the most inane things (such as pizza), yet can instantly switch back to a calm, commanding persona, resuming control of a situation. His appeal is quite disturbing - I found myself, on occasion, actually liking him, despite his homicidal tendencies, and loved that he was so brazen and bold in taking his bloodied sheets and clothes to a cleaner.
The mention that he reads the biographies of serial killers wouldn't ordinarily cause concern, but in this case, knowing that he's psychotically violent, it's rather disturbing that he admires them so much and is emulating, possibly trying to surpass, them. He also objectifies women (referring to them as "hardbodies" - as do all his friends), keeping them anonymous.
There's an interesting section near the end (don't worry, I won't divulge any major plot details) where Bateman briefly refers to himself in the third person which is rather surreal - he really is losing the plot at that point. I also wonder how much of the narrative only takes place inside his drug-crazed mind, and how much actually happens.
This was a very interesting read and I rather enjoyed parts of this descent into utter psychotic madness... |
Better than the film, sometimes quite bizarre
| Customer Rating: | | Okay so it is better than the film, the books usually are, it is packed with extra happenings which are well described. I must admit to finding it a little hard to follow, perhaps it was the writing style. However if you're into a little gore this book is for you, you'll enjoy it. |
So misunderstood that it's comical.
| Customer Rating: | | 'American Psycho' is, above anything else, a post-modern novel about the problems with post-modernism. I feel like I should address one particular issue, or I could go on for pages. Does Bateman actually murder anyone; how much of his life is a fantasy? Every review I have read here seems to suggest that he either DID or DID NOT commit these acts. However, this is to miss the point entirely. Easton Ellis has clearly read 'L'etranger' and 'Notes from Underground' because the existential subtext is clear. On a rudimentary level, it can be said the the existential philosophy refuses to accept any objective 'truth'. The only 'truth' is that of individual experience. Thus Bateman's description of murder and rape cannot be presumed to be either true or false. Patrick has depersonalised himself, in the existential style, in order to find a way of dealing with the horror of eighties corporate and social materialism. He is a 'noncontingent human being' - utterly without a personality. Thus he 'absorbs' all that is around him - he IS the eighties. Nothing is solved at the end of the book because he refuses to give in to any spiritual enlightenment, such is the extent of his perdition. Hence 'THIS IS NOT AN EXIT'. I'll leave it there; suffice to say that to argue over whether the protagonist actually murdered anyone, or bought anything, or went to any fancy restaurants ... is totally besides the point. |
Laugh till you cry
| Customer Rating: | Yes, it's gratuitously violent and disgusting, yadda, yadda, yadda. But 'American Psycho' is also one of the funniest and most brilliant works of satire you will every read. I laughed so much and so loud I startled people on planes.
Dissects the dark underbelly of New York capitalism in the 1990s just as sharply as Bateman's knife. A true classic from the first word to the last. |
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