Book 59 - Bret Easton Ellis "American Psycho"

[jazzy_dave]

Bret Easton Ellis "American Psycho" (Picador)






Patrick Bateman is a Wall Street yuppie in the late 1980s. He is also a brutal serial killer. There are several recurring themes here (and when I say recurring, I mean it is mentioned at least thirty times): returning video tapes, the Patty Winters Show, deciding where to have dinner, cocaine, all yuppie men are interchangeable and everyone is constantly mistaken for everybody else, women are clueless and needy, tanning, going to the gym, alcohol, decaffeinated espresso (I know - what?), excessive luxury, and brand names, brand names, brand names. And so it goes on ad nauseum.

I cannot stress that last one enough: Bateman describes every single person's outfit by brand name and sometimes even the department store where it was purchased. There are scenes of extremely graphic sex, usually followed by scenes of extremely graphic violence. It all become too tedious and nauseating. Now, there are some amusing bits. I kind of liked the overly dramatic business card comparison. The random chapters of musical critique (Whitney Houston, Huey Lewis & the News, and Genesis) were interesting but I haven't a clue why they were included.

My main issue with this book is that absolutely nothing happens. Seriously: the same thing happens chapter after chapter after chapter and there is no progression of plot, no change in any of the characters. In fact, i gave up reading it half way through. I think he is one sick pathetic puppy. Avoid.

Comments

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

I read one scene in that book in the bookstore and then felt ill. I can't imagine being able to read it through!

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

It has that affect.

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

1. Patrick Batemen is not a serial killer. It's all in his head. He's Walter Mitty. He has fantasies about serial killing because the life he's been pushed into is so repetitive and boring he needs the fantasy release.

2. This is why the same things keep happening.

3. The brands thing is a satire of a culture that can identify every detail about consumer goods but can't remember anything about actual people, including their names.

4. The whole thing is a deep satire.

5. The book gets much funnier when you realize Patrick is closet gay.

[andrewducker]

Yeah, this is much clearer in the film. Which is amazing.

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

The book is spectacular once you start looking at it from the perspective of him being just a boring dude with fucked up fantasies.

Also, once you realize it's meant to be funny.

If you read it as an accurate account it's horrifying but it makes it fairly clear it's all in his head.

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

I might search out the movie.

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

Oh. And the music bits are there to show what a complete moron loser Patrick is.

He picks the worst music of the entire era and then spends a great deal of time explaining why it's great when it's really awful.

[immemor.livejournal.com]

That was my impression of the music bits as well. It's never hip to be square. That's like saying it's wet to be dry.

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

That one girl even makes fun of him in Tower Records for the CDs he's buying.

[keiraizthebest.livejournal.com]

Patrick? American Psycho? Sounds like Fall Out Boy inspiration to me.

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

Hi welcome to my blog

[ba1126.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the warning!!Sounds quite dreadful!

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

I have not seen the film version so i am unable to compare.

[dark-phoenix54.livejournal.com]

Well, I think I can scratch that one off my TBR list. Sounds very tedious and pointless. I was thinking it would have crazy killers in it.

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

Glamoramma is the Bret Easton Ellis book with crazy killers in it.

[thespian15.livejournal.com]

decaffeinated espresso (I know - what?)
LOL....................

The random chapters of musical critique (Whitney Houston, Huey Lewis & the News, and Genesis) were interesting but I haven't a clue why they were included
LOL.............
Hugs, Jon

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

They are the funniest chapters in the book.

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

I heard it was genius. But then I heard that from a hip metro-sexual whose idea of intellectualism is the evening news (and he always considered himself smarter and better read than all of us) and found deep meaning in Clerks.

Definitely skipping.

*HUGS*

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

It is brilliant but it's not straightforward. You have to be willing to deal with an incredibly unreliable narrator. Plus you have to read it as comedy so you notice the subtle jokes. Like when he's in a posh restaurant and orders "free range squid."

Also until you realize patrick is gay you can miss the homoeroticism and not realize that the riduclous sex scenes are meant to be ridiculous because they only exist in his mind and he has no idea what heterosexual sex is like.

Plus, there may be a problem with it having some references that were clear back then but less so now. For example in the 80s closeted gay men were accused of being "serial killers" because the thought was that they were why straight women were dying of AIDS. Wall Street bankers were also being accused of being serial killers because their mergers were putting people out of work and causing people to commit suicide. Patrick is both, so even though he's not a real killer the society the book is mocking would have been accusing him of being one.

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

I see. So it is a book pointing out an illness in society while (at the time it was published) trying to shock the reader with the many 'illnesses and disorders' of this man it revolves around. Interesting.

There are a few books out there that are brilliant, but jagged and unreliable narration make them miss their true mark.

I did try to watch Clerks. It had it's clever moments. Except when it didn't.

Sounds like this book was a smart one...if the narrator could have been a little more steady (even as the unsteadiness of his subject was outlined) and the content less tongue in cheek. I don't mind subtle. But subtle mixed with sledgehammer has a tendency to throw me off.

And I admit to being snobby, so I apologize if I sounded snide. The gentleman to which I was referring was a friend for many years and we had to deal with the deluge of HIS 'intellectual snobbery' which had no real substance behind it. I might read this some day. The heads up on the wonky narration might help me enjoy what the book is SUPPOSED to be telling me, not on what the narrator is trying to tell me it tells me...if that makes sense, lol!

And thank you for the comment all around. You are marvelous. :D

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I'll be honest, not only do I love this book but by dad is a literature professor who teaches this book in a 20th century American lit class and my primary partner has hung out with Brett Easton Ellis and discussed the book with him - so I have not only a particular interest in it, but I've talked about it with her and my dad for years. Modern literature was also what I studied in college and that makes me go for some of the more challenging books from time to time (mostly because the best way for me to communicate with my dad is to debate books with him.)

American Psycho is certainly not an easy read if you go into it as a typical "start at point x go to point y" story. It can be really, really funny though once you catch on to the joke.

It's sort of like Will Self books.

And, hey, I'm a snob and have never found the term insulting.

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

This explains alot. i might give it a re-read some day.