A Psychopath in Pinstripes! (American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis)

Member Name: northernlovely

Product:	American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis
Date:	13/11/09 (25 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Well written and enaging

Disadvantages: Very graphic!

It's 1980. It's America - Wall Street - and the Yuppie is king. Double breasted power suits, slicked-back hair, leather briefcases and executive toys - in the land of the highly-paid, workshy executive, image is everything.

The image Patick Bateman give off is a professional - he has the designer underwear, the des res, the expensive artwork and the six figure salary. He's a guy who eats a three hundred dollar meal and thinks it's cheap and has a gaggle of cronies. He has a girlfriend (and a mistress, and any woman he wants). He has power.

Of course this image papers over the cracks which betray the real Patrick Bateman - paranoid, schizophrenic, addicted to drugs...and a homicidal maniac. Patrick mainly murders women, usually of a lower status than him (prostitutes, models, ordinary people) but also murders people on the street, beggars, people he's jealous of...and, shockingly, and disturbingly, a child.

Throughout the book, Patrick becomes more and more deluded and more unable to keep his mask in place, and the reader is constantly thinking 'is he going to be caught?'. I won't spoil it, but I personally love the end.

In fact, I love this book. It's not for the faint-hearted - the murder scenes are as gross, disgusting, violent and perverted as you'd expect - but it's so well written, so eloquent, that you can't, in part, help liking, sympathising with even, Patrick's obvious to fit in, desire to be normal, and hatred of his obvious mental illness. It's not an easy read - the best books never are - and it's one of those books that I personally love reading and re-reading.

I would recommend this book, but only if you have a strong stomach!

Summary: Not for the faint hearted!