Not for the faint hearted (American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis)

Member Name: Zenith

Product:	American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis
Date:	08/07/00 (25 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: As a satire it is brilliant

Disadvantages: Very, very violent

This is a book that divides opinion – you either get it or you don’t. It’s not really about a serial killer – it’s about 80/90’s greed and the blandness of the Wall Street traders who ran rampant during that era. Our narrator is Patrick Bateman, a successful trader with a secret – he kills people for fun. As it is the killer who is our guide there is no condemnation of his actions, nor is there any explanation. Bateman is obsessed with appearances – each character is described in incredible detail but they all seem to have the same face. Who they are is unimportant – it’s what they are wearing that matters. It’s all about surface. Nobody seems to care when Bateman admits to his crimes – as long as he is looking good and going to the right places to eat he is accepted. The parallel with the 80’s money markets is obvious – it didn’t matter who you were shafting so long as you were making money. These guys were held up to us as something to admire and all the while they were exploiting the market for personal gain. The message seems to be – as long as you are making money you can do anything. Bateman is the ultimate expression of this.

As a piece of writing it’s a bit uneven – there are some outstanding chapters ( the sections on Bateman’s musical tastes are great ) but there is a gaping hole were the plot should be. There is no character development – nobody changes or grows throughout the story. It is more a series of individual scenes roped together to form the allegory that Ellis intended. The end is particularly weak.

I guess you can’t comment on this book without discussing the accusations of pornography and misogyny. Well I have to be honest and say I found parts of it very, very unsettling – some scenes were just too graphic in my opinion. This is the only book that has ever made me flinch. I also felt a bit unco
mfortable reading it in public. Maybe that’s just me. The attacks on women are explained in far too much detail but perhaps this is down to the fact that Bateman is the narrator. Personally I think one graphic scene would have been sufficient to understand just how blandly evil the main character is.

Overall I think it is a book that deserves to be read – it is a brilliant satire of Wall Street and the City of London. Unfortunately it does go a wee bit too far in parts.

Summary: