For the first time in my reading career (and I have done a lot of reading) I not only didn't finish the book but deposited it in the wastebasket. I am not a prude but the sex really turned me off. Having been in the Marine Corps, I have seen my share of mayhem and carnage but enough was enough. I know we live in a violent era but when haven't we. I also became bored with the countless description of clothes and their manufacturers. I might just as well as have read a Sears catalog, men's section.

However, I did admire the author's writing style and his depiction of the Yuppie way of life even though it did seem over blown at times.

Can I recommend this book? I don't really know because I did not complete the book. But if you want to see the inside of cultural depravity give it a try. I'll even send you my copy free of charge. (U.S. only< please).

I do have one question. What was the symbolism of Les Miserables?

By now it should not startle me that readers and critics in America, if not worldwide, are bad. I mean, really, really bad- to the point of wretchedness. Just yesternight I saw a major network newscast decrying the fact that over 20% of college graduates in this country are functionally illiterate. Add in those people who are deliterate- i.e.- can read and understand grammar, but are clueless as to the deeper things inside a narrative, or even a sentence- and it's no wonder that Bret Easton Ellis's 1991 novel American Psycho is so abysmally misunderstood. No, it's not a great book, nor a bad one. It's a book that has moments and good points, and could have been a classic had someone with editing skills done their job. Those who condemn it for being violent miss the point- it's a fantasy. Those who praise it for being a satire miss the point- it's a fantasy. Its best predecessor is not Fyodor Dostoevsky's Notes From The Underground, but Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, another symbolic work that explores what a protagonist who feels the world shuns him will act like. I should be angrier about this book's missing the boat editorially, but I guess the fact that so many people simply do not or cannot read is more fascinating to me than why the book ultimately fails. Ellis is not like his POMo brethren- David Foster Wallace, Dave Eggers, T.C. Boyle, nor Rick Moody, to name the most infamous of that band- because he actually has a bit of an idea about what goes into plot structure, as well some talent in humor and the structure of scenes. Again, were you to read most critics you would hear the idea that the book is plotless being bandied about almost as often as the claim that it's a satire, or existential. No, again, it's a fantasy in the most obvious, non-Tolkienesque sense possible, but a fantasy it is.

You wouldn't know it from the mainstream reviews of the day, which obsessed over the supposed misogyny of the book (because women's deaths are more brutal and described longer), even though only about a dozen `murders' occur within the fantasy- far less than the typical Stallone or Schwarzenegger film that was coeval with it, and the first hundred or so pages are attacks on 1980s American culture, sans any violence. Interestingly, it was the violence against women that drew howls, not the violence the fantasies of Bateman hurled in other venues- cannibalism, racism, animal torture, necrophilia, to a point far beyond even worst known serial killers' deeds (another clue to the fantastical nature of the book).... It's far too obvious as to what's going on in American Psycho to forgive the lack of acumen by readers and critics, especially when there are so many obvious faults to the book. That all said, Ellis is clearly a cut above his published contemporaries. Yet, given the low state of modern literature, that leaves Ellis as, at best a mediocrity. Unfortunately for him and his readers, that's no fantasy.

I very seldom fault a writer (especially a published one) for what I consider a failed effort to deliver the goods. Notwithstanding the multitude of other reviewers who somehow find redeemable aspects to Mr. Ellis' "American Psycho", I regrettably consider this particular effort to be padded and pointless. To be sure, there are titillating/horrific examples of satire and cruelty that may lead some readers on to whatever conclusion they'd like to draw. However, after enduring 180 pages of monotonous narrative and dozens of "laundry lists" of fashion attire and restaurant bills of fare, I finally gave up midway through. Mr. Ellis has simply taken a potentially alluring 30-page short story and lengthened it to a 300-page plodding elephant. A more profitable use of the reader's time may be to first buy the latest copy of GQ and memorize it in its entirety. Next, obtain five or six menus from your local haute cuisine restaurants and skim those about thirty times each. Finally, read Poe's "The Telltale Heart" and there you have it--a less painful and more competently penned alternative to "American Psycho".

I have been on a kick reading the books of Ellis. I saw this movie first, which in itself was dark but great. The book, as with most books a movie is based on, delves deeper into the psyche of the main character. It also seems to give more of a history. Most of Ellis' books so far really have no beginning and end. They just seem to take a certain time line of a character or characters. Be prepared for that. Also, it is a great but graphic book, so it is not for queasy readers.

If I could rate this book a zero, I would, but the lowest I can rate it is a one. This book is horrible. However, if you are looking for a book that will disgust you, this is the book for you. If you are a reasonably intelligent person, you will hate this book. First of all, it has no point. Secondly, it is so discriptive that it becomes boring really fast. The biggest problem is that it does not make any sense. There is absolutely no psychological disorder that would cause someone to go to such extremes so fast (aside from brain damage but the book does not tell of any reason for this to have occured. A person would not just start acting this way, psychologically, this does not happen.) The person that wrote this obviously did not do any research into psychopaths or psychotic behaviour. It is clear that the purpose of the book was not to be accurate, but simply to push the limits. It is so over the top that it comes off very disorganized and, to put it plainly, poorly written. Some might argue that this is what the writer wanted to portray, but this is hard to beleive. As I said before, the person that wrote this has no idea how true psycopaths act. Therefore, writting it this way to show how psychotic Patrick Bateman is only proves just how bad the book is, because the psychosis is so incorrectly portrayed. If he was trying to be clever, he failed.
One last thing. One thing I liked about the book if the fact that he inserts quotes from real serial killers. However, when Bateman quotes "When I see a pretty girl walking down the street, two things go through my head. Part of me thinks that I would like to take her out, date her. The other part of me wonders what her head would look like on a stick." I am paraphrasing of course. Good quote, but unfortunately, Bateman attributes it to Ed Gein, but it was actually said be Edmond Kemper.

If I could rate this book a zero, I would, but the lowest I can rate it is a one. This book is horrible. However, if you are looking for a book that will disgust you, this is the book for you. If you are a reasonably intelligent person, you will hate this book. First of all, it has no point. Secondly, it is so discriptive that it becomes boring really fast. The biggest problem is that it does not make any sense. There is absolutely no psychological disorder that would cause someone to go to such extremes so fast (aside from brain damage but the book does not tell of any reason for this to have occured. A person would not just start acting this way, psychologically, this does not happen.) The person that wrote this obviously did not do any research into psychopaths or psychotic behaviour. It is clear that the purpose of the book was not to be accurate, but simply to push the limits. It is so over the top that it comes off very disorganized and, to put it plainly, poorly written. Some might argue that this is what the writer wanted to portray, but this is hard to beleive. As I said before, the person that wrote this has no idea how true psycopaths act. Therefore, writting it this way to show how psychotic Patrick Bateman is only proves just how bad the book is, because the psychosis is so incorrectly portrayed. If he was trying to be clever, he failed.

'American Psycho' is a satire of the 1980's (among other subjects) centered around narrator Patrick Bateman who is the yuppie-to-end-all-yuppies. Though the humor is as dark as possible, it's true to Ellis and true to the story. I cannot find any failure whatsoever with this book. For readers who complain parts are "boring" or "gross": I would tell you that this is not accidental. Bret Easton Ellis is such a brilliant writer, he is able to manipulate the reader with very little effort. It is a gift with which very few authors are blessed. If you're reading Ellis and you feel bored: he has duped you. If you're reading Ellis and you find a scene so gruesome you're forced to close your book: he's duped you. Let me assure you Bateman's pages-long ridiculously verbose meditations about things such as a Whitney Houston album were never intended to excite anyone. 'American Psycho' is as beautifully written as it hilarious and disturbing.

'American Psycho' is, by far, my favorite novel of all time. It's also an effective litmus book in that if someone tells me they don't like it/ didn't get it, we're probably not compatible.

American Psycho is Bret Easton Ellis' grotesque comedy about the decadent underbelly of Wall Street culture in the 1980s, as experienced firsthand through protagonist Patrick Bateman. The book is the only example I have read of controlled and literate obscenity. Few books demand their readers to both laugh and cringe in disgust. Ellis accomplishes this by combining a Zeitgeist protagonist (as Fyodor Dostoevsky does in Notes from Underground), a comedy of manners (consider a very twisted Jane Austen), and the 1980s American height of materialism and capitalism.

The novel is not as overwhelming as all of that sounds, because Ellis is a fantastic teacher. He eases you into the themes of the overall satire he is attempting to compose, so that when the first shock comes, at least you have been partially primed for the graphic imagery it conjures.

One of the novel's constant jokes concerns excruciating details about the brand names of the material possessions in Bateman's vicinity and, sometimes, his judgments of the people who own those possessions. Ellis does a great job helping the reader plow through the barrage of high-end designer labels and features of new-fangled gadgets by writing the novel in an exuberant and often manic first person, present tense narrative. Almost all fiction is written in past tense, and it's refreshing for Ellis to try something few attempt, and to do it well.

I found that reading the book out loud makes the humor rise from the page, especially during the scenes when Bateman endlessly catalogues the contents of his purchases from an upscale store or the respective entrées of his friends while they dine at a trendy restaurant. I did not read the gruesome scenes of rape, torture, and murder out loud, however. I admit that I didn't want to get too close to those words.

I initially thought that the book was too long. Almost everything that is going to happen occurs within the first 250 pages of the book, and the rest of the novel (with the exception of the final 30 pages) is comprised largely of variations on the themes. In short, I started to get slightly bored, and I thought maybe the book wasn't as well written as I had thought. Then I realized that Bateman, too, was getting bored and it hit me: I've become as desensitized as the protagonist. It's then that I understood clearly one of the novel's powerful understatements: Any of us has the potential to be Patrick Bateman. Certainly, such a notion isn't likely to be rendered real, but it does mean that Bateman is operating within the scope of humanity; granted, he's at the division between human and demon. It also means that the length of the text is perfect.

In the end, Ellis wants his readers to understand that life reduced to overpriced suits and food, designer drugs and bottled water, un-spendable amounts of wealth, ultra metrosexuality and obsessive health consciousness, and mind-numbing and soul-crushing careers are in fact the polite and fashionably correct equivalents of rape, torture, and murder. The reader is left to decide what to do about it.

I'm guessing that this book was suppose to be about Bateman living in a society where everyone is fake. But all I got out of it was whole chapters on Whintey Huston and several pages out of fashion magazines. Along with the graphic scences and odd writing style, this book is very hard to get into.

American Pycho is not your check out/super market thriller/horror. It's a thriller meant for people who seem to have a serious chip on their shoulder about the 80s and the thoughs who are young urban professionals. And it is defiantly not a book for people who have short attention spans.

Ellison writes in the form of 1920 satires, where that narrator describes things to death. Mind numbing detail about things that on the surface don't have anything to with the story of homicidal maniac Patrick Batemen, and obviously because of this type of narrative the book is extremely slowed paced.

However if one understands what Ellison is trying to do, this type of satire fits right in. Bateman is hopelessly obsessive with his appearance and is constantly measuring himself up to his peers, if he feels annoyed or extremely angry at any of them he will not hesitate to kill them. His serial rape and murder of various women has no real set pattern. The detail enriched narrative focusing on fashion and chic restaurants and clubs is right for the story about a psychopathic materialistic yuppie

Truthfully this is a brutal book about a psychopath. It is also a compulsively readable book. I find violent movies and violent books repulsive as a rule, but sometimes I come across one and give in and read it. And then put it down as unbearable because the story or the character is not good enough to outweigh my revulsion at the topic. I guess I have a nervous stomach or a vivid imagination. I know the genre has it's fans and I don't want to denigrate that.
American Psycho was an exception for me. I put it back on my wish list to remind myself that this is a book I plan to re-read. I also want to read other books by Brett Easton Ellis.

A main feature of American Psycho, is how Bret Easton Ellis is capable of including the reader as a part of the story. By his several pages descriptions of his morning dressing, exercice and make up, the dishes they get served in fancy New York Restaurants and the songs on the albums he listens to Eliis succeeds to make the reader as bored as Bateman is. Because for the first several hundred pages of the book, bored, rich and not too empathic toward people worse off than himself is what Patrick Bateman - and probably many of the readers is.

When Patrick Bateman finally puts imagination into practice and starts elimintating what he regards as the trash of society - prostitutes, beggars, black people and colleges standing in the way for him making more money, Bret Easton Ellis manages to make the observant reader to realize that the descusting monster Patrick Bateman might has more in common with the dark side of their own personality than they care about. One of the most magnificant ways that Ellis illustrates this point is by the many comments he acomplishes to make people complain about their stomach - as if they got a unsatisfactory meal in a restaurant - rather than identifying how relevant his objections really is. This projective way of writing makes Ellis a part of the inherritage of James Joyce, who in Ulysses introduced this litterary tradition of combating rather than amusing and entertain the reader, while the reader's reaction to what he reads works as an integrated part of the story the writer wants to tell.

On this basis of this same tradition of I regard many of the objections about American Psycho - as boring, a challenge for the stomach etc as rather irrelevant. They can simply not have understood that this feelings that Ellis novel provoces in the reader, is the Writers aim. Alternatively they can not recognize that the dark side of the mind has a place in litterature. If you agree on this view, American Psycho is not a book for you. If you belive that the dark side of the mind indeed has a place in litterature, even that the dark side of the mind indeed can be the subject of some of the greatest litterature, if you are ready to spend some time on puzzeling with understanding what the writer is aiming at and may be even is ready to identify and take in that you, yourself might be a part of the problem that the book identifies, this is definately a book for you.

i really love this book. this is a very discriptive and detailed book, and not for weak stomaches. its grotesquely detailed. but wonderfully written. i highly suggest it if you can stomache it. some desctiptions are along the lines of being x-rated

What would the experience be like, if one could crawl into the mind of a madman. Meet Perfect Patrick Bateman ... perfect hair, perfect body, perfect job, and perfect fiancée. What more could a shiny shoed Wall Street up-and-comer ask for in the over-indulgent 80's. For success in the 80's was all about perfection -- who had it and who didn't. Patrick Bateman is certainly not lacking in perfection. Even the gruesome, cruel, beyond rational thought acts of violence he commits are perfectly orchestrated down the very last detail, much like his attire.

But what is a young man to do when everyone around him can distinguish the infinite subtle details of a business card, yet they cannot remember his name. When is being trendy simply not trendy enough? What does a man have to do to get noticed ... kill people? Of course, set yourself apart, get your anger out, be creative -- nail guns, chainsaws, axes, and hangers ... puppies, kittens, and rats. Now that is what Patrick is talking about ... if your life has become a chocolate covered urinal cake, make your girlfriend eat it and then go play around in someone else's blood, but be sure to nail them to the floor first, you want their undivided attention, don't you?

I won't kid you, this satirical look at the world is well beyond disturbing ... but what can you expect from a psychopathic lunatic. Patrick takes us through a day in the life -- his life, as grotesque and evil as it is. Yet, one minute, you will be falling over yourself with laughter at the trendy bar banter, and his upscale 1980's musical commentary, and the next minute, you will be walking away, hoping only to attempt to vomit what you just read out of your head, swearing you won't pick it back up again. And yet, for some reason you can't seem to help yourself, you need to keep turning those pages as Patrick takes you deeper and deeper into his nightmarish world ... and lithium will not save you.

An extraordinary work of genius. Although I have no comprehension how Mr. Ellis slept at night with Bateman at his side. And for those who spent their twenty-somethings in the 1980's, you will understand without a doubt the profound social commentary, which might even be more disturbing than Bateman himself.

After months of hesitantation, I decided that I was going to read this book many claim could not get pass 30 or so pages. I had finsihed reading a small novella by Michael Chabon before picking up Ellis' 'American Psycho'. It was already late but I wanted to break into it as much as I could. After the 30th page, I wanted so bad to continue reading. I though it great so far: intriguing, well-written (easy to follow), funny, and very, very detailed (perhaps this is what others disliked about it). I closed the book. I had to sleep to get up for work the next morning where I found myself taking it to work and reading a bit there getting more and more involved. After work I read some more at home passing the 100 page mark just like that! After two more nights, I was finished with the book, and I'm very surprised to say that I liked it a lot.

The story is about Patrick Bateman, a wall street yuppie, who may or may not be a serial murderer -that's one of the things I liked about it: it's ambiguity about if he really did kill people or not (besides Paul Owen, I think he did). The book's chapters all involve Patrick as it's told By Patrick himself at the restraunts, bars, dance clubs, the office, his apartment, etc. The reader is literally logged into his brain and eyes as we witness everything he does and thinks.

At time it can be very facinating and funny. While at other times, it can be very disturbing especially when he describes his killings -very very detailed stuff here that could make anyone cringe. However, there are a few light moments in the book that may seem tedious to some. Patrick discusses everything in detail from stereo units to the music that comes out of them. Ellis devotes 3 chapters to music artists and their records: Genises, Whitney Houston, and Huey Lewis and the News. It's all interesting, and I didn't find it distracting or uneccessary, but some might. It's all about developing the character of Patrick, who, is one of the best characters I've read about in a long time. It's also funny but while I was reading this, I couldn't help but think that in 20 years or so, this book could be considered a classic.

Firstly, this could easily have been a short story. 50 Pages would easily cover everything. The repetition in the narrative is mind-numbing and after the first 20 pages or so I was skipping paragraphs. Towards the end of the book I was skipping chapters and 50 pages from the end I gave up.
In the blurb on the back, this awful book was compared to "Bonfire of the Vanities". Tom Wolfe should have taken out a writ and prosecuted the reviewer.
I really don't know why this book was ever published. It is utter nonsense.
I can't advise others strongly enough. DON'T BUY THIS BOOK.

American Psycho is wwild-wild-wild. It's one of the best studies of a psycho killer ever written. Those other serial killer books, like Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal and even The Stranger Beside Me (Revised and Updated): 20th Anniversary do not understand how warped and twisted a serial killer is. Ellis does. He gets it. He gets that a serial killer, Patrick Bateman, is so shallow that he's the sunlight bouncing off the oil slick on a rancid puddle. Damn, but Ellis is good. He's so good that this book bounced around publishers because normal people can't believe how twisted a serial killer is. Ellis uses the serial killer to play off 1980s NYC, but that's secondary to his damn-fine characterization.

Damn, but I need a cup of coffee. This ain't coming out right.

American Psycho is American, but it's also Psycho. Read the book. It's a deep character study, and I like thost, like Rabid: A Novel or Time's Arrow.

The Bookeater!

I saw American Psycho, the movie, when it first came out with a friend of mine. i have only laughed out loud twice at the movies, and my friend and i were perhaps the only two doing so. Other people just didnt seem to understand it. so finally nearly ten years later now, i see the book at the library and decide to see how it compares. i was not disappointed. there are multiple ways of interpretting this book, all basically covered in the reviews here. this book is terribly violent, but it is not a horror in my mind. just as "City of God" was so much more than the violence that it displayed. the violence is a necessity. if that sort of thing is not your thing, then dont read the book. you can say that what the book tries to say is cliche - oppulence, bad; superficiality, bad; society going down the toilet, etc. but i look at pat bateman, either who he actually is or who he desires to be, as part of all of us. the worst of what we all are taken to the extreme to show it to us. when we can and do have it all, what's next if not more boredom. all our lives are just the search for happiness, avoiding boredom. we all either distract ourselves from this mess or avidly pursue it. both really. so what can we learn about what we are doing. that is the question that one has to ask themselves after reading this book. perhaps the theme has been used before, but i feel that this book does a fantastic job at awakening thoughts in oneself that are very important to contemplate.

also, i want to say that this book is readable not just because of the message and commentary that is thought provoking. it is the humor that makes it truely readable. i have read many a book that is supposed to be the greatest work of fiction of all time that says so many new things, bla bla bla. this book like every other book says the same thing, maybe in a new way relating to new societal situations, but the same really. it is the constant humor that makes this book special. it is funny on every page. no one knows anyone's names; people disappear but someone saw them, but not really; the obsessive detail in description of clothes, music, etc. this book is great because it is a marvelous satire filled with meaning. nothing compares to the brilliance of satire in my opinion.

After reading his other work (less than zero, rules of attraction)I was eager to put a book to the cult classic movie. What I read was an overly descriptive and sadistic book filled with some of the most disturbing scenes I've ever read. For those considering this book, 90% of the violence is against women and involves cannibalism, removal of sex organs and inserting rodents in women while they are still alive, albeit not for long...

There are nearly eleven hundred reviews of "American Psycho" posted here, but in the spirit of '80s excess, there's always room for one more. Simply put: this is one of the funniest, bleakest, and most clever novels I've ever read. I've had copies of it since ever it first appeared at the start of the 1990s, and I've given copies to many a friend and girlfriend over the years. I always tell people that reading "American Psycho" cost be hundreds and hundreds of dollars, since I *had* to have Patrick Bateman's hair and skin care products (I could never have afforded his suits,let alone dinner at Dorsia). "American Psycho" is...well...Jane Austen with power tools: an arch and knowing riff on the opening of "Pride and Prejudice": a young gentleman with a seven-figure income must be in need of...constant social approbation and...victims. The brilliant business-card scene, the barrage of grotesque menu items, the utter indifference to individual identity as opposed to display items--- "American Psycho" is a comedy of manners better than Wilde or Wodehouse, and at least as good as Austen (and the sex scenes are...vur' hot).

Netlix and downloads have ruined Patrick's all-purpose excuse of "I have to return some videotapes", but Patrick's life and world (and even his utter lunacy) are still worth exploring through repeated readings. And how else would we learn about the wonders of Huey Lewis...or that Bono is the Devil? "American Psycho" is too hilarious and dead-on not to read again and again.

And...am I the only one who's noticed that Christian Bale's take on Bateman in the (underrated) film is an exact riff on Tim Matheson's character from "Animal House" (same voice, same inflections, same jawline)?

I believe that it is about time that critics and readers worldwide were let in on the great lie embedded in the cultural subtext of "American Psycho". This lie is perpetrated for whatever artistic reason Bret Easton Ellis has found fit. The novel has inveigled millions of readers to an interpretation of human nature as base and groundless in intrinsic value. It has furthermore convinced them of the state of nature and the true face of mankind. It attempts to pull back the veil and show human beings as baseless creatures, convinced of the power of their own egos. Patrick Bateman doesn't merely imagine killing women and street gutter hobos, the book makes-good his thoughts. Patrick Bateman brutalizes and maims people with little to no falter into the realm of realism. This is no science fiction novel of a wicked, futuristic and cannibalistic society. This book establishes the ever evolving pathos of Patrick Bateman as a wickedly remorseless and fully-self-invested id. Patrick Bateman kills people, he enjoys it, and as the book progresses he develops a pathos that is stark in its depictions of radically violent behavior. The realizations of snuff porn-like violence has a poignant and rather upsetting realism to it that describes the sexual gratification of pure violence. Both of them are equally wicked and ungratifying comments of the human being. What most of the readers, and professed fans of the novel do not focus on, is the very real possibility that Patrick Bateman is, in truth, an idiotic coward who slums about in his wicked psyche pondering various painful ways to destroy a human being. The truth is different however. Patrick does not commit any radical acts of violence, instead he merely resides in the basement of his primal bestial urges, without act. He is a powerless pervert. That this is a commentary on the uncommon power of the rich, the ability to supersede societal laws and norms, is not license to condemn general society along with the free radicals of the bunch, like Patrick Bateman. We have no more emotional connection to the persons that he kills than to the various characters that populate his life, characters better described simply as those he does not kill. Patrick Bateman's whole world is pure fantasy. What is dangerous and unbecoming to society is the interpretation that Patrick Bateman killed people, and no one cared. This dangerous emotional pivot takes the better part of mankind's positive and generous nature grinding it into a chunky bone meal of blood and ichor. This vile character is a despicable anti-hero and representative of the modern man. A being who has forsaken value and concern because the great satirist, Nietzsche chided mankind for its more puerile motivations. These are the leftover intellectual products of Nazi thinking, dressing Nietzsche up in a clown suit for the Nazi propaganda machine. Patrick Bateman, the novel professes, is the modern creature. Bret Easton Ellis is simply an iconoclast that picks off easy targets and radicalizes them without fleshing them out as interesting material. They are all impulse. It bores me and makes me vaguely ill, that such an imagination, as Ellis obviously has, may find these as important and essentially gratifying illustrations of where mankind's condition. Bret Easton Ellis, despite this, has hesitated to comment on the character or the prevailing motif of the novel. We are left in tow with an interpretation that is horribly inconsistent to general social temper. What bothers me most is the feeling that the world, as defined by Ellis, is terribly nihilistic spilling over into absolute antipathy. That critical readers embrace this interpretation with a certain type of relish, advancing it as an epiphanic statement concerning mankind, is nauseating. Ellis writes with such conviction and ardor that it appears that he wholeheartedly embraces this intellectual understanding. This is not merely social commentary, or at best, satirical dance, for Ellis, this is real sport. Sure he has caricature stuffed into almost every page of the novel, but Ellis describes everything from violence to Versace clothing with almost lavish, religious aplomb. You can feel that he enjoys writing this novel. This is frightening. I don't like Patrick anymore than I like Ellis. This is not to say that Ellis is a despicable human being for writing this novel, it just makes him a lot less relevant. Ellis owes an apology to his readers as well as to the human creature for painting it in such garishly angry tones. You can get by with a lot less cynicism in your life if you pass this novel by. If you don't, its not that you won't like the novel, you very well may, I don't know, people's tastes are peculiar. Perhaps you will get rewarded for writing a review like mine, or not, either way the novel is impressive, insofar as it is a massively negative portrayal of the human being. If you like that, get it, if you don't, don't.

I believe that it is about time that critics and readers worldwide were let in on the great lie embedded in the cultural subtext of "American Psycho". This lie is perpetrated for whatever artistic reason Bret Easton Ellis has found fit. The novel has inveigled millions of readers to an interpretation of human nature as base and groundless in intrinsic value. It has furthermore convinced them of the state of nature and the true face of mankind. It attempts to pull back the veil and show human beings as baseless creatures, convinced of the power of their own egos. Patrick Bateman doesn't merely imagine killing women and street gutter hobos, the book makes-good his thoughts. Patrick Bateman brutalizes and maims people with little to no falter into the realm of realism. This is no science fiction novel of a wicked, futuristic and cannibalistic society. This book establishes the ever evolving pathos of Patrick Bateman as a wickedly remorseless and fully-self-invested id. Patrick Bateman kills people, he enjoys it, and as the book progresses he develops a pathos that is stark in its depictions of radically violent behavior. The realizations of snuff porn-like violence has a poignant and rather upsetting realism to it that describes the sexual gratification of pure violence. Both of them are equally wicked and ungratifying comments of the human being. What most of the readers, and professed fans of the novel do not focus on, is the very real possibility that Patrick Bateman is, in truth, an idiotic coward who slums about in his wicked psyche pondering various painful ways to destroy a human being. The truth is different however. Patrick does not commit any radical acts of violence, instead he merely resides in the basement of his primal bestial urges, without act. He is a powerless pervert. That this is a commentary on the uncommon power of the rich, the ability to supersede societal laws and norms, is not license to condemn general society along with the free radicals of the bunch, like Patrick Bateman. We have no more emotional connection to the persons that he kills than to the various characters that populate his life, characters better described simply as those he does not kill. Patrick Bateman's whole world is pure fantasy. What is dangerous and unbecoming to society is the interpretation that Patrick Bateman killed people, and no one cared. This dangerous emotional pivot takes the better part of mankind's positive and generous nature grinding it into a chunky bone meal of blood and ichor. This vile character is a despicable anti-hero and representative of the modern man. A being who has forsaken value and concern because the great satirist, Nietzsche chided mankind for its more puerile motivations. These are the leftover intellectual products of Nazi thinking, dressing Nietzsche up in a clown suit for the Nazi propaganda machine. Patrick Bateman, the novel professes, is the modern creature. Bret Easton Ellis is simply an iconoclast that picks off easy targets and radicalizes them without fleshing them out as interesting material. They are all impulse. It bores me and makes me vaguely ill, that such an imagination, as Ellis obviously has, may find these as important and essentially gratifying illustrations of where mankind's condition. Bret Easton Ellis, despite this, has hesitated to comment on the character or the prevailing motif of the novel. We are left in tow with an interpretation that is horribly inconsistent to general social temper. What bothers me most is the feeling that the world, as defined by Ellis, is terribly nihilistic spilling over into absolute antipathy. That critical readers embrace this interpretation with a certain type of relish, advancing it as an epiphanic statement concerning mankind, is nauseating. Ellis writes with such conviction and ardor that it appears that he wholeheartedly embraces this intellectual understanding. This is not merely social commentary, or at best, satirical dance, for Ellis, this is real sport. Sure he has caricature stuffed into almost every page of the novel, but Ellis describes everything from violence to Versace clothing with almost lavish, religious aplomb. You can feel that he enjoys writing this novel. This is frightening. I don't like Patrick anymore than I like Ellis. This is not to say that Ellis is a despicable human being for writing this novel, it just makes him a lot less relevant. Ellis owes an apology to his readers as well as to the human creature for painting it in such garishly angry tones. You can get by with a lot less cynicism in your life if you pass this novel by. If you don't, its not that you won't like the novel, you very well may, I don't know, people's tastes are peculiar. Perhaps you will get rewarded for writing a review like mine, or not, either way the novel is impressive, insofar as it is a massively negative portrayal of the human being. If you like that, get it, if you don't, don't.

Repetition of boring or dusgusting scenes come after each other in this "literary" work. The writer was clearly out of ideas and stuck to the formula "gore+boredom+fashion tips from eighties (really?)" I only started to read this book because friend of mine said that's it's the only book that he could not finish because of gore and another one said that he couldn't finish it because it was so boring.
seriously, don't waste your time, whatever the autor was "trying" to say can be paraphrased "I was a yuppy and I hated it," spend the 10 dollars on ice-cream.

Horrifying book. Mr. Ellis has a masterpiece, the original book. Thank you: Ronnie Reagan, Wall Street, New York, Materialism, Racquet Clubs, Phil Collins, and of course Huey Lewis and The News. Great book and also a fantastic film. Christian Bale cut his "American" cinema teeth off of this book. The film & book do differ greatly. READ THE BOOK FIRST. If you a film addict and literate then watch the movie.

I don't even know where to start in describing this horrific, terrifying, wonderfully written novel. Well, I guess I just have.
I started and finished this book in August of this year, and it was a very rewarding experience. It really brought me into the horror genre, a genre I really had no interest in before.
Patrick Bateman is an amazing character, his dialog and his thoughts and dreams are funny, horrific, and just plain witty. It's tremendously fun to sit behind Bateman's eyes and read his day-to-day activities.
Nothing really happens for the first half of the book, most of the time Bateman is just hanging out with "friends" or watching porn, but even in these seemingly bland sections Ellis' writing really draws you in.
An amazing book by an equally amazing author, but not for the faint of heart.

American Psycho satirizes the status-obsessed designer-label contemporary American consumer culture at the same time that it does a better job than any horror novel of depicting the personality of a psychopath. Sadly, we realize that Patrick Bateman's killings are his only way to retain a connection to human life and to an individual identity, and in the end we aren't even sure he has managed to maintain that. This is a great book to read only if you have the stomach to wade through the many incredibly gruesome sex and death scenes.

AP is hardly Ellis' better work. The idea behind the satire is brilliant, but 400 + pages is just aggrivating. One thing the length accomplishes is it completes the "emptiness of excess" theme; but is that really worth the aggrivating length. So much of the dialogue and the narration seems repetitive. If you jump around in the book you'll find a lot of chapters that are just like ones you have already read. Pretty lame. Also, a lot of chapters take scenes right of Less Than Zero and simply slap new names on the characters, who are in indeed flat and fungible... Very, very lame.

Ellis got so much right with Less Than Zero; the stripped down minimalism, the metonymy, the irony and black humor. AP just rants. It isn't even the violence of the book that bothers me, it is just the endless emphasis on pointless minutia. If you really think critically about the book's satire it makes an interesting statement, albeit tired and cliche by now, but it really doesn't all say that much - materialism is bad, corporate domination breeds institutional violence, the elite are often elite out of privilege and not because they are actually intilligent, moral human beings. This is not a new idea.

Still, the book is funny, and has its moments. The movie, however, and I rarely say this, is immeasurably better.

American Pyscho is terrific horror. This classic book is set in Manhattan 1980's. The author Bret Easton Ellis goes deep into the pyche of an inhumane serial killer.
Back from the Bardo: Three Short Stories by James Cage

American Pyscho is terrific horror. This classic book is set in Manhattan 1980's. The author Bret Easton Ellis goes deep into the pyche of an inhumane serial killer.
Back from the Bardo: Three Short Stories by James Cage

American Psycho is easily the most graphic and disturbing novel I've ever read, not to mention a brilliant satirical romp.

The beauty of this novel is how Ellis immerses the reader into the setting, a business-frenzied Manhattan of the 1980's. This is a character study that elucidates the shallow and incorporeal existence of an elite New York businessman, Patrick Bateman, who attempts to fill this void by surrounding himself with expensive wears, eating at only the best restaurants, and killing people; mostly women. The latter was the catalyzing factor (aside from the lack of satirical imagination in Feminists) of why American Psycho was met with such strident criticism. Given the idea that the first murder does not take place until well after the first 100 pages should have been ample evidence to Feminists and Humanitarians that the book is not just a catalog of arbitrary violence.


From the get-go, the story follows Pat Bateman as he vaults from one high-class social situation to another, getting air-kisses from his almost equally shallow fiancé and checking his perfect hair and chiseled features in any reflective material available. One thing that I found repetitious, but ultimately essential to the plot, was Bateman's scrutiny of his peer's clothing; a Valentino Couture suit here, a Matsuda blouse there. Another aspect of Bateman's character (in the book and the movie), one that I find to be the most hilarious, is the way he panics when some external and completely trivial situation poses a threat to his inherent perfection: "I am certain that we will not have a good table, but we do... relief washes over me in an awesome wave."


It's apparent that Ellis wanted to exemplify the degree of apathy held by these so-called 'Masters of the Universe.' Women are referred to as 'hardbodies,' the style of business card font and color is indicative of class and ranking, and reservations at the most exclusive of restaurants are seen as the same. One subtlety that is picked up on with a close reading is how all of these New York elites are clones of one another. Not one character can remember who Jack is from Sam. This story also harbors one of my favorite quotes: "Where do you Summer?" A hilarious dichotomy occurs during an extravagant dinner (complete with sorbet, never ice cream) when these Free-Market Capitalists are conversing about massacres in Sri Lanka and how social concern needs to stand against racial bigotry, all the while the word 'nigger' is used liberally by the same characters.


As the plot progresses, Patrick slips further and further into insanity. This is creatively articulated with monologs that comprise half if not most of the book. Bateman is the type of guy whose anger can be set off by anything. The murder scenes, unlike the ones in the movie, are easily x-rated and were hard for even me to stomach. I think Ellis found this imperative in this, his most relentless attack against rich, unsympathetic yuppies.


Between the book and the movie, I found that both have their strengths and their weaknesses. The music reviews (Phil Collins, Huey Luis, etc.) that Bateman meticulously narrates are character-driven and often funny, but hold not a candle to the amount of hilarity and style as that of Christian Bale articulating to a pair of escort girls; or Paul Allen. Where the book is more descriptive and transcendental, the movie is more goofy and amusing. I think Ellis spent a little too much time and effort stressing how completely callous the rich can be at times and could have cut a number of paragraphs out of the book. That said, this is definitely a story that needed to be told.

"American Psycho" is a savage vivisection of society and relationships as portrayed through the depraved exploits of Patrick Bateman. Bateman flourishes in the yuppie-driven mores of the 80's. His wealth and intelligence are the facilities of his deranged obsessions and evil compulsions. Rather than satisfy the blood-lust, Bateman's oblivious victims stoke and embolden his psychotic frenzy.

"American Psycho" is extraordinarily graphic. Sex and violence imagery explode from the pages with Bateman-like fury. However, it is the duality of the character that is truly unnerving. Bateman can be charming, can be ruthless, can be generous, can be vicious, can be insightful, can be shallow, can be elegant, can be disgusting. Bateman's character attracts you with his panache and repulses you with his horrific offensives. It is an emotionally disturbing journey where sanity has no compass.

Ultimately it is clear this Bret Ellis novel transcends time and place. It is an expose of the human condition and how it can be exploited, deceived and imperiled.

"American Psycho" is a savage vivisection of society and relationships as portrayed through the depraved exploits of Patrick Bateman. Bateman flourishes in the yuppie-driven mores of the 80's. His wealth and intelligence are the facilities to shroud his deranged obsessions and evil compulsions. Rather than satisfy the blood-lust, Bateman's oblivious victims stoke and embolden his psychotic frenzy.

"American Psycho" is extraordinarily graphic. Sex and violence imagery explode from the pages with Bateman-like fury. However, it is the duality of the character that is truly unnerving. Bateman can be charming, can be ruthless, can be generous, can be vicious, can be insightful, can be shallow, can be elegant, can be disgusting. Bateman's character attracts you with his panache and repulses you with his horrific offensives. It is an emotionally disturbing journey.

Ultimately it is clear this Bret Ellis novel transcends time and place. It is an expose of the human condition and how it can be exploited, deceived and imperiled.

I came to this book after thoroughly enjoying the movie adaptation; fantastic movie. In this case I found the book to be a little tedius and quite explicit, at times. I like to consider myself just as decensitized to violence as any North American in the 21st century, but the amount of gruesome detail Mr. Ellis goes into, is too much for tastes.

2.5 STARS

I know this is a satire.
I know this is supposed to be making a point.
I know that the main character is as sad, yuppie who lives for working out, getting laid, having the best stereo system and, oh yeah, one other thing, killing people in the most sick and sadistic ways.
That being said, I really liked the character but I disliked the style.

Patrick Bateman, our lead, is a homicidal maniac who is a day trader by day and by night he is a coke sniffing, club hopping, music lover who gets off on sleeping around and killing people. To top it all off, this all happens at ground zero of the yuppie era, New York City. This alone would make the book interesting, but Ellis takes it one step further in writing the book in an almost stream of consciousness style. Not only do you know what Patrick is thinking about during conversations with his victims, but you also get a sense of who he is and what makes him tick and what makes him explode.

The character is so well written that he could be real. He is supposed to be the stereotypical yuppie, but it goes beyond that. We get a sense of Patrick with all of his weaknesses, his likes, his intelligence and his lack there of. I literally found myself laughing at some of the things he said and thought and agreeing with him at other times. That is how good the character is written.

That all said, I found the writing style difficult to follow and that is why I gave it only 3 stars. The fact that 1 1/2 pages per chapter at times would be dedicated to what everyone was wearing made for tiresome reading. I know that we are looking into the mind of someone who could stand to take some real strong medication (stronger than what was available in the 80's) but I found that it took away from some of my enjoyment.

If you are a fan of books like Fight Club you should like this book.

I know this is a satire.
I know this is supposed to be making a point.
I know that the main character is as sad, yuppie who lives for working out, getting laid, having the best stereo system and, oh yeah, one other thing, killing people in the most sick and sadistic ways.
That being said, I really liked the character but I disliked the style.

Patrick Bateman, our lead, is a homicidal maniac who is a day trader by day and by night he is a coke sniffing, club hopping, music lover who gets off on sleeping around and killing people. To top it all off, this all happens at ground zero of the yuppie era, New York City. This alone would make the book interesting, but Ellis takes it one step further in writing the book in an almost stream of consciousness style. Not only do you know what Patrick is thinking about during conversations with his victims, but you also get a sense of who he is and what makes him tick and what makes him explode.

The character is so well written that he could be real. He is supposed to be the stereotypical yuppie, but it goes beyond that. We get a sense of Patrick with all of his weaknesses, his likes, his intelligence and his lack there of. I literally found myself laughing at some of the things he said and thought and agreeing with him at other times. That is how good the character is written.

That all said, I found the writing style difficult to follow and that is why I gave it only 3 stars. The fact that 1 1/2 pages per chapter at times would be dedicated to what everyone was wearing made for tiresome reading. I know that we are looking into the mind of someone who could stand to take some real strong medication (stronger than what was available in the 80's) but I found that it took away from some of my enjoyment.

If you are a fan of books like Fight Club you should like this book.

This book is written very well. The message is haunting throughout the entire book (yuppies always confusing people because everyone looks the same, super insecurity, and brutal insane killing). The only problem I had to overcome when reading this is Ellis' need to describe everyone's attire. That was a bit over done, but I understand he was reinforcing a valid point of vainess throughout the novel. All and all the book was both scary and compelling; It made you sometimes feel sorry for Patrick (the main character)for his downward spiral into madness.

I would be willing to accept the defense that Ellis's quickie squib is in fact a satire of consumerism, a literary bit of photo realism if there was compelling art here. There isn't, however, and the defense falls apart. Ellis writes as if he had to submit this against a deadline, and he'd wasted his considerable lead time by living off his hefty advance. Ellis does a good job of diagnosing the narcissism of the eighties, but that by itself does nothing for either our understanding or empathy.

but this book is utterly astounding. I'm only a 14 year old girl, and yet I feel like this book has become somewhat of a part of me and our culture. I don't think anything's wrong with that, considering this book is hilarious, witty, and downright frightening most of the time. But what amazes me most about it is that it is not for one second daunting or patronizing; Patrick Bateman is a total a-hole, but he expresses it with the good grace and complete awareness. Most a-holes live their entire lives not realizing how they've hurt the world with their mannerisms and temperament, but Patrick, inside, knows he is a total monster. And most monsters, even when they've had mirrors shoved into their face multiple times, still can't see what lies in front of it.

This "novel" is utterly dull and poorly written. I could write this garbage. There is no finesse, just the same, boring ideas regurgitated over and over. If you seriously think this is satire, you clearly don't know what that means. This is a sexual violence thriller. But if you hate women and hate original writers, you'll probably love this.

I loved this book!!!!! it is so god damn funny!! the things that Pat Bates thinks while commiting the many sadistic murders and tortures on the weakest of people (6 year old child at the zoo and the homeless to name a couple). i would recommend this book to anyone that loves black comedies and has a stomach for hearing about sadistic torture (i can't stress sadistic enough!!!!). a good imagination(like any book is suppose but more stressed for this one) helps in bringing this story truly alive.

i did not like it. too much icky stuff.

I ordered this book, excited to read it. I had heard many good things about this novel, and began reading as soon as I received it.

I was incredibly disappointed. This book was filled with narcissistic ramblings and obsessive details which matter little to the story itself. The gore, though extensive, ends up being boring. There is gratuitious sex, which is also boring in its detail and violence. Every time Patrick bateman feels dread, it is "nameless." The story did not progress, and in the end, there was no resolution. In fact, i felt the book fell apart at its end.

This book is not an American classic, nor was it worth reading. Once I finished it, I felt I had wasted my time.

OK, so it's not really the greatest book ever written. But its my favorite, so in my little self-centered world, it is the best book ever written. It does start out a bit slow, but stick with it, because "American Psycho" does speed up and become - well - the greatest book ever written.

Readers who enjoy Chuck Palahuniuk (sp?), Kurt Vonnegut, Hunter S Thompson, A Clockwork Orange, pointless violence and other fun stuff will LOVE this book.

What would the experience be like, if one could crawl into the mind of a madman. Meet Perfect Patrick Bateman ... perfect hair, perfect body, perfect job, and perfect fiancée. What more could a shiny shoed Wall Street up-and-comer ask for in the over-indulgent 80's. For success in the 80's was all about perfection -- who had it and who didn't. Patrick Bateman is certainly not lacking in perfection. Even the gruesome, cruel, beyond rational thought acts of violence he commits are perfectly orchestrated down the very last detail, much like his attire.

I won't kid you, this book is well beyond disturbing ... but what can you expect from a psychopathic lunatic. Patrick takes us through a day in the life -- his life, as grotesque and evil as it is. Yet, one minute, you will be falling over yourself with laughter at the trendy bar banter, and his upscale 1980's musical commentary, and the next minute, you will be walking away, hoping only to attempt to vomit what you just read out of your head, swearing you won't pick it back up again. And yet, for some reason you can't seem to help yourself.

An extraordinary work of genius. Although I have no comprehension how Mr. Ellis slept at night with Bateman at his side. And for those who spent their twenty-somethings in the 1980's, you will understand without a doubt the profound social commentary, which might even be more disturbing than Bateman himself.

This book was the most disturbing book I have ever read.
I'm pretty thick skinned but this one had me reading during the day, it was too disturbing to read before bed, just couldn't handle those images dancing around my head before going to sleep. Despite that, I read this book from start to finish.
I have heard this book described as a black comedy, if this is the case, it's blacker than any black I've ever encountered. Though I have to admit, that Patrick Bateman's (our main psycho) obsessiveness in his personal hygiene routine, business cards and favourite musical artists, was both amusing and tiresome, with pages and pages dedicated to describing these things.
In the end I was glad to give this book back to it's owner, and hope that the images it left me with will fade in time.

It's been a long time since I read a book that really freaked me out, and made my skin crawl. But this one did it. From living through the 80s, I understand the AMEX/business card obsession all to well. This book is not for the faint of heart. It's a creepy, disturbing look at someone who is almost all the way undone, and is only hanging on by a loose thread.

It's been a long time since I read a book that really freaked me out, and made my skin crawl. But this one did it. From living through the 80s, I understand the AMEX/business card obsession all to well. This book is not for the faint of heart. It's a creepy, disturbing look at someone who is almost all the way undone, and is only hanging on by a loose thread.

Pat Bateman, a product of Exeter and Harvard living in Manhattan and working on Wall Street, backed up by a trust fund, is an "arbiter elegantiarum" of the most refined taste in clothes and food, with a side hobby of grisly serial murder. He narrates the whole story in the first person and present tense.
There are some nice take-offs on competitive modish consumerism. In one scene the juenesse doree compete for the most fashionable and stylish business cards. I enjoyed the satire on fancy food in the scene where "for an appetizer I ordered radicchio with some kind of free-range squid. Anne and Scott had the [sic] monkfish ragout with violets." (In spite of his sophistication Bateman is one of those who think that restaurant food has to be preceded by "the.")
One of his idiosyncrasies is long-winded and detailed descriptions of clothes and cosmetics, not only his own but of every character he meets. Sometimes this was effective but often it was repetitious and became exactly like reading a Jos. A Bank catalog. The same applies to the splatterpunk, Books about nasty people doing nasty things are not necessarily bad. It's an old literary tradition (think of Macbeth, King David, Raskolnikov, and the cannibalistic goings on in the House of Atreus) but if gore bores then what's the point?
I had enjoyed "Less Than Zero" which used the same gimmick, schtick, trope, or whatever, of describing the casual amorality of rich people with a weird set of values, but this disappointed me.

I've just finished reading American Psycho. I'd have to say this was the most disturbing book I've ever read, and yet it was compellingly readable.

Ellis is brilliant in not depicting the first graphic murder until 150 or so pages into the book. This gives the reader a chance to be completely wrapped up in the novel's social satire, with only a few glimpses of the horrors to come. If Ellis had started with the gore from the first chapter, I would have flung down the book as unreadable. (As it is, I had to skim the most graphic scenes in shock, because I knew I couldn't tolerate all the details.)

For example, the scene in which Bateman takes his blood-soaked sheets to a Chinese laundry was both hilarious and (bearably) shocking. We are gradually made to realize how many people are complicit in Bateman's murders, from the maids who silently clean up the gore to the co-workers who hear his confessions and laugh them off as a joke.

I loved how the novel never showed any of the Wall Streeters doing a lick of work. It seemed Bateman's major occupations were renting and watching videotapes (why didn't he just buy Body Double, for God's sake?) and listening to vapid pop music. I personally loved the irony of the "music" chapters, in that they are clearly written by a psychotic who doesn't understand that the banal songs he is painstakingly explicating have no emotional content at all. Bateman's pseudo-understanding of human emotion is just as studied and hollow as his obsessive-compulsive fashion expertise.

The long descriptions of fashion details which have struck some reviewers as boring seem to me intrinsic to both the characterization and the social commentary. No person in this book seems to be described by how they look in terms of hair, face, expressions, emotions, or other personalizing characteristics; Bateman sees only clothes and hardbodies. Bateman's perception of every character only in terms of what he/she is wearing--as if clothes could be distinguishing characteristics--leads to the constant cases of mistaken identity. If you only look at clothes, haircuts, and identical (nonprescription) eyeglasses, how can anyone tell anyone apart?

The interchangeableness of one person for another sparks most of the humor as well as the deep sadness in this book. For Bateman, there is nothing inside any interchangeable suit except equally interchangeable meat and bones. He never connects with any of the girlfriends, who are only greedy for his looks and wealth anyway--his image. Luis and Jean are tiny, inconsequential exceptions--not strong enough to break through or fill Bateman's inner void. I was impressed that Luis was the one person Bateman started to kill but then didn't--but only because he was momentarily stunned by Luis's feelings for him. Incredibly, Luis actually seemed to see someone in Bateman! And Bateman's subsequent disorientation seems to have been the only thing that momentarily saved his life.

All in all, I'm in awe of this book for its depiction of a descent into madness--even though I'm not the book's ideal reader, and had to wimp out when it came to some of the gore.

Ellis paints a portrait of a man called Patrick Bateman, who lives in the materialistic New York City in the 80s.

In his third novel, Ellis creates a world where everyone is exceedingly narcissistic and self absorbed; characters in the novel don't hear or see each other. They are however concerned with where they are seated at a restaurant, and with all the designer labels they are wearing. Friendship is reduced to comparing designer clothes, business cards and contemplating the differences between different brands of bottled water together. Seduction and romance are nonexistant, and as for sex, in the novel Patrick has sex with many women, and each scene is as unmemorable as the last, often resulting in boredom on the part of the participants.

In this materialistic sphere everyone is equally rich, equally in designer fashion and equally superficial, making them interchangeable (Patrick and others in his circle of "friends" are often mistaken for one another), and this makes it uncertain as to whether Patrick actually committed his gory crimes only in his imagination. But does it even matter? Even the heinous crimes he theoretically commits result in nothing; there is no recognition, no consequence, no missing of any of his `victims'.

Ellis flawlessly satirizes modern consumerism, exposing its redundancy through his unique prose; gaining personal wealth, a perfect body, designer clothes, designer girls, no longer makes a person stand out. In Bateman, he creates a character that is so caught up in his materialisic world that he is not free to have whatever he wants and be happy; on the contrary, he is trapped in a rigid, monotonous existance, and he loses his identity, and control over himself.

Ellis' novel embodies the makings of a true contemporary tragedy. Patrick Bateman is a man with everything, and nothing. Ellis uses this vapid character to portray the growing lack of emotion and rise in a purely consumer society. Bateman is perhaps one of the most crucial characters in 20th century literature, and Ellis is definitely one of the most important authors.

Yes, I warn you that the violence is graphic and horrifying. But don't get stuck inside that. Look further. Don't miss this book!!!!