American Psycho

I had been meaning to read this book for a long time, and I must say that I am glad to have finally read it. There is horror and gore in this book, but the only purpose is not to make you sick. Pat Bateman exists in a society that most of us will never understand. His ability to keep up appearances in a world filled with designer clothes and daily facials in the face of such a psychopathic, blood-crazy mental state really makes you think. People are so caught up in their own worlds that Pat Bateman can get away with murder. If you can understand the book for what it is...I encourage you to take it on.

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 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.