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Product Description
From Library Journal
- Nora Rawlinson, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
“A masterful satire and a ferocious, hilarious, ambitious, inspiring piece of writing, which has large elements of Jane Austen at her vitriolic best. An important book.” —Katherine Dunn
“A great novel. What Emerson said about genius, that it’s the return of one’s rejected thoughts with an alienated majesty, holds true for American Psycho…. There is a fever to the life of this book that is, in my reading, unknown in American literature.” —Michael Tolkin
“The first novel to come along in years that takes on deep and Dostoyevskian themes…. [Ellis] is showing older authors where the hands come to on the clock.” —Norman Mailer, Vanity Fair
ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE is scrawled in blood red lettering on the side of the Chemical Bank near the corner of Eleventh and First and is in print large enough to be seen from the backseat of the cab as it lurches forward in the traffic leaving Wall Street and just as Timothy Price notices the words a bus pulls up, the advertisement for Les Miserables on its side blocking his view, but Price who is with Pierce & Pierce and twenty-six doesn't seem to care because he tells the driver he will give him five dollars to turn up the radio, "Be My Baby" on WYNN, and the driver, black, not American, does so. Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
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Most helpful customer reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Make Up Your OWN Mind,
By Karl Kilian (Barre, VT) - See all my reviews
This review is from: American Psycho (Paperback)
I decided to read American Psycho after hearing the title whispered in social circles. It's so violent. Too graphic. What's the point? Comments only fueled my desire to read the novel Bret Easton Ellis tried to get published in 1992, without great success, for some time.No matter the genre, a novel is successful if it makes the reader think, pause and reassess the world. Ellis' novel offers a satirical look into the pampered New York elite through the eyes of an original and sociopath main character. What Works: Narration: The first-person narration captures the reader instantly, introducing Patrick's innermost thoughts and fastidious rituals, such as cleaning his body with more products than your local Rite-Aid. Patrick takes the reader along to trendy, $25-cover clubs, scouting for "hardbodies" and lamenting about cheap drugs sold on the dance floor. Ellis has made a wise choice using Patrick as the narrator. As you read, you are engaged, participating. What is interesting is how the reader is both involved, and detached simultaneously (bringing me to the next point...) Characters: Are sufficiently flat and underdeveloped, working both to keep the reader from empathizing too greatly with a victim, while also serving to support the satirical edge that in life, nobody gets too close. Patrick's monotonous lifestyle of work, working out, renting videos and spotting Les Miserables posters is all too familiar. He (as so many other characters in the book) cannot tell one acquaintance from another. Everyone in Patrick's world looks alike, corporate paper dolls with trophy wives/ lovers. Structure: Easton uses run-on sentences and fragments to simulate the breakdown of Bateman's mind. Some chapters will end with an incomplete thought, others will explode with angry stream-of-consciousness. Satire: The violence in the novel is not simply a gruesome, gratuitous tool. Granted, Bateman conceives of some of the most "innovative" murder scenes around, yet Bateman is raging against his deadened society, trying to "feel something." Bateman's actions mock everything our capitalistic society holds dear--wealth, status, the rat race, the American dream. What Doesn't Work: Real or Illusion? Readers wonder if Ellis has created a scenario where all of the events are completely fabricated in Bateman's mind. Some ambiguity in the plot leads to this conclusion--a maid cleaning his apartment after a slaughter and "not noticing anything," dry cleaners ignoring repeated bloodstains on dress shirts, a realtor selling an acquaintance's apartment after Bateman left a grisly tableau behind (which is later inexplicably cleaned & unreported to police--by whom?) This uncertainty may frustrate you. So now when I hear "It's so violent, too graphic, what's the point?" I wonder if it refers to the innovative novel, American Psycho, or perhaps life itself? You decide. Pick up a copy! Another book I need to recommend -- completely unrelated to Ellis, but very much on my mind since I purchased it off Amazon is "The Losers' Club: Complete Restored Edition" by Richard Perez, an exceptional, highly entertaining little novel I can't stop thinking about.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Though Ellis isn't great, this book is,
By
This review is from: American Psycho (Paperback)
'American Psycho' is a truly great book. Extremely witty, dark and well written. Easily his best book. In fact, none of his others really compare...at all. Not an enlightening read, but very fun.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not for the faint hearted,
By Warren P.B. (Montreal) - See all my reviews
This review is from: American Psycho (Paperback)
American Psycho is a literary masterpiece. The story goes from hilarious situation and does a 180 degree turn right into the morbidly disturbing. Nonetheless it is hard to put this down, even though some of the parts can be a tad bit tough to swallow. This book will make your skin crawl. But it will also make you stop and think. Personally I don't believe Ellis intended it to target just the yuppies of the 1980's. I believe the point is a serial killer could be anyone you know. The descriptions of Bateman and his cronies are very much the same. Bateman is exactly like everyone else. As a matter of fact throughout the entire book he is mistakenly identified as other yuppie men. Likewise, his buddies are always arguing as to who is sitting at the end of the bar. If you're not faint-of-heart and like a riveting read, try American Psycho along with McCrae's "Katzenjammer" which is not about what it sounds like, but rather a complex psychological look at corporate greed, bad art, New York, and dysfunction. It's the flip side of "Psycho."
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