Rating: 
Summary: I didn't make it through
Review: I'm posting this as a warning The point the author makes is a valid and interesting point- selfishness, materialism etc. are the morally numbing enemies of civilization, however it's just not worth being confonted with this truly sick, disgustingly violent and disturbingly haunting imagery. This book actually made me physically ill, a first for me and the little I did read sticks in my head- a most unwelcome presence, I assure you!. Lest anyone think that it's from a weak stomach, I read the sicker sections of "Hannibal" without a problem, but this? It crossed way over the line for me. Avoid the inevitable nightmares-don't read it!
Rating: 
Summary: Not for the faint of heart
Review: This book is a profoundly haunting and poignant novel. A.P. frightened me more than any book I have ever read before. Why? Not only for the obvious reason, that Patrick Bateman is a wildly insane butcher, although that was a significant reason. One additional reason it had such an impact on me was that I actually found myself identifying with the repulsive protagonist. Perhaps it was because I was wildly angry while reading this (during a LONG flight delay). Still, as I read, I found myself recognizing the culture that plays a major role in Bateman's psychological torment, a culture to which he is enslaved. I came of age in the 80's in the USA and I observed in others the struggles of growing up in a materialistic society where to many, appearances mean more than substance, where wealth means more than happiness, where status means more than morality. I have seen people around me who have been sucked into that high-flying, shallow Wall Street lifestyle. In A.P., Bateman is so obsessive-compulsive that he can't handle the pressure of maintaining the facades necessary for that lifestyle. This is not to say that the reader is expected to sympathize with Bateman. I read the book as more of a commentary on the inevitable result of Western (American, specifically) lifestyle excesses--which, by the way, the film version of this book only marginally captures. It was scary because when I was finished reading, I understood how American society actually COULD create such a monster. Ellis accomplished this by developing an exceptionally vivid character. He choice to tell this story from the perspective of Bateman himself, complete with his disjointed thought processes and nonchalant descriptions of his bloody exploits. I think even the harshest critics of A.P. would agree that Ellis does employ this technique magnificently to create a detailed, powerful and haunting image of Bateman. At times while reading, I felt like I was reading the mind of a real-life serial killer. The excellent Hannibal Lecter series by Thomas Harris never accomplished such a stunningly dramatic characterization. For the writing style alone, I felt A.P. was an incredibly absorbing read. Be forewarned--if you find yourself losing sleep after horror films, this is NOT the book for you!
Rating: 
Summary: Bateman mania justified
Review: Patrick Bateman is 26, handsome, sophisticated, charming and intelligent. He works on Wall Street by day earning a fortune. At night he spends it in ways we cannot begin to understand. Patrick Bateman is also a psychopath. Bret Easton Ellis's bitter and aversive second novel takes us on a head-on collision with America's greatest dream - and its worst nightmares.American Psycho contains some of the most horrifying, repugnant, indeed misogynist scenes of torture and murder ever written (the monologue, however, remains aloof, cold and impartial throughout, whether describing drainpipes rammed into vaginas to allow rats access to feast inside, or the cut of a colleague's Armani suit, or the career of Whitney Houston), but they must be read in satirical context of the book as a whole: after all, the horror does not lie in the novel itself, but in the society it reflects. The book is neither pleasure reading nor pornography. Ellis is writing from the deepest, purest of motives. Not only is American Psycho a bleak, pitch-black comedy and disturbing portrait of a madman but also a serious work that exposes the blatant excesses of American vanity 'culture', 80's consumerism and Reaganism. Followed by a superior movie adaptation (2000) that raised the humour stakes and steered (due to director Mary Harron) towards feminist tract. (Note: If you enjoyed American Psycho try The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks.)
Rating:
Summary: Pitch-perfect satire; a work of genius; an American classic.
Review: I read "American Psycho" only reluctantly, having been led to believe that Bret Easton Ellis was a coked-up "fad" writer whose works were stylish trifles with little literary value. I was wrong -- I now know that Ellis is a genius and "American Psycho" is a work of disturbing brilliance. I started reading it and didn't stop until I had reached the last word on the last page. I want to point out something that I don't think many people have said -- that what is so menacing and intriguing about Patrick Bateman is that he is so seductive. Yes, of course, we are repelled by Bateman's vacuity (his love of Huey Lewis and Whitney Houston, his inability to have a meaningful relationship or even a decent conversation), but we are also SEDUCED by Bateman's enviable control over the little details of his life -- he keeps in perfect physical shape, he has encyclopedic knowledge of food, he's tremendously informed and assured about the proper attire for any occasion. I'd even venture to say that we envy, in subconscious way, how he is a paragon of grooming and restraint while at the same time giving vent to unspeakable urges. We admire the outrageously poised way in which he goes about satisfying his needs -- whether he's selecting just the right porno movie, a two-thousand-dollar suit, or his next victim. There's something strangely enchanting about his smug self-assurance, even when it's employed in such violent ways. We find ourselves entranced by this perfect, reflective surface of Bateman's life -- just as Bateman is entranced with himself, staring into the perfect surface of his life like Narcissus gazing into his own reflection in a stream. We long to have that kind of confidence and control ourselves. But this man tortures, slaughters, dismembers, and eats the people around him. The brilliance of this novel has nothing to do with the violence *as* violence, but everything to do with the way the violence is DISCLOSED by Bateman in the narrative. The way he observes and describes what he is doing is in itself an almost infinitely revealing commentary not only on Bateman, but also on a particular slice of culture that he represents -- the smug, cocky, casually violent culture of rich young professional men, their striving, achievement, and narcissistic self-cultivation. Throughout his story, there are almost laughably casual references that show us that he's killed, raped, and otherwise abused far more people than are actually depicted in the book (one of my favorite lines in the book is when he offhandedly mentions that he spent a lunch hour meeting with an attorney about some "bogus rape charges" -- that line was a stroke of genius, on Ellis's part). It's the offhandedness of these references that is so shocking. And it's the "pitch-perfect" voice of Bateman that makes me genuinely in awe of Ellis's gifts as an observer and describer of character and culture. From the way Bateman refers to all good-looking women as "hardbodies," to how the confident vacuity of his "reviews" of Huey Lewis, Whitney Houston, and Phil Collins segues surreally into scenes of human butchery, this book is a landmark of literary craft. I'm laughing at myself for saying that about a book with such wickedly extreme subject matter, but it is absolutely true. If you do not recognize this book as a work of brilliance, the kind of old-fashioned literary achievement we see far too little of these days, you're reading the book far too superficially -- if you criticize Ellis for the book's violence, you're missing the joke!
Rating: 
Summary: Who is the American Psycho?
Review: Amid the clamor of bright lights, designer names, the latest in stereophonic equipment, and the hottest new Manhattan clubs, Patrick Bateman swirls and tumbles into the abysmal depths of his mind, the depravity that it seems he and all of his clones on Wall Street are capable of. The monotony, the blandness of throwing around cash and Gold Cards is enough to drive anyone to execution. Midway through this book, stunned into uncaring by Ellis's repetitive style, boring like a drill into my skull, I was ready to tear the book into strips and go on a rampage. No wonder Bateman feels so compelled to maim and kill. His unrelentingly boring rich lifestyle demands it. Read this book if you want. Ignore the hype, and take the book for what it is, a commentary on excess and homogeneity, and one man's perhaps unguided efforts to bust out of his coffinlike existence.
Rating:
Summary: LOVED IT
Review: I just finished reading the book and i'd have to say that it is one of the finest books i have ever read. it took me less than a couple of days to finish it. i was a littel confused of why he went on and on about huey lweis and the news and he others. was he mocking them or was he really serious? but anyway...it took me a while to get past the killings. they were too much for me. if i understand correctly, the author referred to actual police reports as inspiration. if anyone has any comments about the book, just email me.
Rating:
Summary: American Psycho
Review: This book is an incredibly calculated attack on the plastic culture of American businessmen, who has lost touch with reality. The pro(ant?)agonist, Patrick, has excelled at so much at a high cost to his sanity that only murder and vile rape seem to give him a sense of achievement. A good look at how Americans are expected to excel and suceed at any cost, even to their own minds...
Rating: 
Summary: Not even for the open minded.....
Review: I first read the reviews of American Psycho several months ago and was intrigued by the mixed reactions. I was curious as to which side I would find myself on and began it with a very open mind. The first third of the book seemed to be building up an interesting character study with Patrick's obsession with designer clothing, restaurants and possessions and an occasional flash of his perversities. But when Ellis begins with the gratuitous sex and violence, he lost every bit of my support in his endeavor. I am not surprised that publishers backed out in putting this book on the market. There is nothing redeeming about this book and while I respect an author's delving into their imagination for a unique storyline, this truly crosses the line. Anyone who has these kinds of scenerios in their imagination to begin with borders on the psychotic themselves. If you are debating about reading this book you should definately pass on it. I wish I had.
Rating:
Summary: See the movie first!
Review: I agree with some of the other reviewers who suggest seeing the movie based on this novel first...I'm certainly glad I did. The movie "tightens up" some of the book's sprawling prose (events and characters are combined or excised completely to make the story more coherent). That being said, the book is also more graphic that the movie, but it is also quite a bit funnier. The six-page exposition of Patrick Bateman's daily grooming routine near the opening is a riot (and, for me, is actually reminiscent of a passage from Huck Finn where Huck takes pages descibing every last detail of a home he's entered). The book also is strangely forumlaic-- lond passages occur that are virtually identical in form to other passages in the book (i.e. what the main character is wearing, the designer of each piece of clothing, and what the topic was on that morning's talk show). The repetitive nature works to the author's advantage though, as a formal device intended to reveal the stiff formulas by which his "protagonist" survives. As for the violence, it is rather extreme-- yet somehow predictable at the same time. After 300 pages, the violence (along with the sex) becomes just another catalog of atrocities and body parts, not unlike Patrick's catalog of designers, restaurants, and food. If the movie piques your interest, try reading the book for a broader experience that will certainly have an impact.
Rating:
Summary: Bateman is one sick puppy!
Review: As social commentary about the emptiness of soul, shallow commercialism and utter lack of morals that marked much of the 1980s (and aspects of all civilizations), this book did an ok job. Bateman's obsession with labels and name brands, able to figure out the designers of just about every article of clothing worn by just about every character in the novel, certainly illustrates this shallowness. I also found it amusing no one could remember their friends' names (not to mention which friends were dead!). However, the torture scenes were just too disgusting to be believed. Bateman has to be the most morally represensible anti-hero in modern fiction. I am almost afraid to ask where Ellis got the ideas for some of these horrible tortures and mutilations Bateman afflicts on these hapless characters. Surely, one can find books detailing the social wasteland of the 1980s (like "Bonfire of the Vanities," for example) without having to read descriptions that will give you nightmares for weeks.
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