American Psycho

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Summary: American Psycho
Review: This book is not for everybody. The plot of the book is excellent, and the details are spectacular. Patrick Bateman is a man of class, who tortures society, one by one. The suspense of wanting to know if Patrick gets caught for his actions is unbearable. This book will give you nightmares and instill fear within you, that you will walk around with for a while. It was an excellent book and it is definatly worth reading.

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Summary: American Satire
Review: This is the story of Patrick Bateman, a very wealthy, narcissistic, psychotic banker living in New York City in the late Eighties. Well, it's not so much a story (in that it has no structured sequence of events), as a stream of Bateman's consciousness. It chronicles various events in his life...Dinner in restaurants that are hard to get into with materialistic, stupid, debutantes; comparing suits and business cards with his vapid, cigar-chomping associates; torturing prostitutes to death; and working out. The strength of Ellis' writing is that it is excruciatingly vivid; from descriptions of designer suits to reviews of his favorite albums (by Phil Collins, Whitney Houston, and Huey Lewis) and descriptions of his murders. These scenes are among the most harrowing I've ever read. This vividity is sometimes difficult to get through, but contrasts nicely with Patrick's occasional lapses into severe madness, at which point the writing becomes fast with little punctuation and sometimes cuts off in mid-sentence. Another especially effective ploy is the brief, nonchalant references Patrick makes (either in his monologue or out loud to his "friends) to his varied crimes (For example, the quick mention of torturing a small dog to death in the middle of a description of the day's shopping). The real weakness in this work is that, again, there is no story, per se. There's no real beginning or end, no sort of spiritual growth by the protaganist, and no resolution or closure. The book is a free-wheeling commentary on a priviledged group of people too concerned with themselves to notice a lunatic in their midst. Other characters come and go, or are murdered, with no real consequence other than Bateman's (imagined?) reflections on them. The other major problem is that nobody in this book is likeable. Bateman's secretary, Jean, is the moral figure these other monsters are weighed against, but her presence is not strong. The murders are awful and grotesque, but the characters being murdered are just nobodies or cutouts, there's no real sorrow in their deaths. All in all, requires patience and an appreciation for satire. Also, if extreme and repugnant scences of violence (all described vividly) are not for you, than neither is this book.

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Summary: A Canadian Bore
Review: This guy's an American psycho? More like a shock-dork from the Edmonton Starbuck's. Another lame example of American escapism. You have to reach real hard, like, say that it's all satire, to find anything worthwhile in this book, although the movie is better. For real American escapism from post-Reagan hell, I prefered The Exile Sex, Drugs book about a couple of messed up Americans who went to Russia and took real psychotic chances. Ellis's book is for phonies.

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Summary: Warning: This Isn't Anne of Green Gables
Review: Granted, this book is not for the faint-hearted, easily-agitated or closed minded (and the latter probably wouldn't get it anyway), but that doesn't mean it should be totally overlooked.

Those people who are under the impression that American Psycho is simply a novel about violence and gore are missing out on a very important message. It was not written for shock value, it was written to convey the selfishness that defined the eighties (why stop with the eighties?)and the lengths human beings can go to in order to fill the void that results from that selfishness. Patrick Bateman is everyone to the extreme. His actions are our actions, taken to the highest possible level.

Of course, there IS a lot of blood, and there IS a lot of violence, and often while I was reading it I wanted to chuck it across the room. But come on, aren't the greatest books the ones that make you red in the face every once in a while?

Rating:
Summary: American Psycho
Review: I found the the 1st 2/3 of the book an interesting look at the culture of the 80's and didn't mind the violence content. But the last 1/3 of the book can only be described at vile and disgusting with no connection to the other parts of the book. I am not sure what the author is trying to state with the very graphic and violent last 100 pages. Author never gets into why this person is so violent and why his behavior was so. After reading the book I don't have much interest in seeing the film version.

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Summary: VERY FUNNY, WELL WRITTEN, AND UTTERLY HAUNTING.
Review: I recently read the novel, AMERICAN PSYCHO penned by Bret Easton Ellis. I'll admit I was sucked in by the media frenzy surrounding the story and the film, and how a lot of the graphic violence and sex had to be cut out of the film. But will be available, at least the lesbian/three way sex scenes will be, to view on the DVD. I think I wanted to read this book because it had extremely graphic violence. I was curious to know how a book, paper with words, could be so violent. Then I read it.

Patrick Bateman is a Yuppie. This guy is a cross of Jason/Hannibal "the Cannibal" Lector, and Michael Douglas' character in Wall Street. He works on Wall Street and at night, his other side, the psychopathic serial killer, comes out. He has a sense of humor about it too. This guy is a real sicko, and he also very humorous. I probably sound like a sicko saying that. But there are a lot of things he says throughout the book that struck me as very humorous. When he isn't killing or naming off the fancy brand names of everyone's wardrobe, Patrick speaks of the music of the 1980s. Genesis, Huey Lewis and the News, Whitney Houston get a chapter a piece in which our main character rambles on about his love for the rock and roll of the 80s, and the jazziness of whitney.

The first half of the book didn't really have much violence. It was easy to read, until I got to the nasty chapters where the AMERICAN PSYCHO himself, Patrick Bateman, kills, mutilates, and totally makes his victims bodies into mincemeat. There is one chapter in particular,(i don't want to ruin it for those who haven't read it yet), that totally gave me the chills. I felt as if I was walking through a very scary haunted house. I wanted to hide, but at the same time wanted to see what was ahead.

Patrick also has a very sexually perverted nature of him, but i don't think any of the other characters(his friends, girlfriend) see this side at all. He hides it well at least til the night comes.

I can't say this book has any moral. I have been trying to figure that out for quite sometime now. It's sometimes quite shocking, often humerous, and is very original. I finished this book 3 weeks ago, and it has taken me awhile to really think about what i want to say to those comtemplating buying or just reading the book. I got it out of the library, but if i had bought it, i wouldn't be disappointed. AMERICAN PSYCHO is certainly not for everyone -- If you are very squeamish, and abhorr violence of any kind, you best skip it. But if you can withstand the grisliness just to read what i consider to be some of the best writing in the 20th century, by all means read it!

This is one of the most original books I have read. If you are going to read AMERICAN PSYCHO, remember this is a book about a serial killer, there may be some violence, and grisly killings. This book is also very graphic -- sexually, and violently. just psyche yourself up for it, be ready, and you may just make it through the book AMERICAN PSYCHO.

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Summary: It's a statement on an empty life, and I laughed out loud
Review: As I followed Patrick Bateman's downward spiral, I laughed quite a few times. Sometimes it was a laugh of incredulity. It's not the murderous rampage which I found funny (in fact, some of the details, especially when animals were involved, sickened me), but the fact that everyone in Bateman's life is so caught up with making money, having no body fat, wearing the proper attire, eating the right course at the right restaurant, etc., that they don't even notice that Patrick is a killer among them. Even when he slips it into conversation! The fact that the characters fight over what "GQ" would say about a piece of clothng or the crust on a pizza at the "in" restaurant (and MEAN it) is hysterical. I looked forward to the quips about the morning show with which he is obsessed. It's a classic spoof of the eighties!

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Summary: most gruesome book i have ever read!
Review: american psycho is a very conttroversial book that no publishing company wanted to pick up.i can see why.the book is about a young rich guy named patrick batemane who works in wall street.the story takes place in the 80's so all the characters talk about designer clothes,fancy restaurants,and exercise regiments.the one character patrick bateman,is a yuppie who tortures and kills,preferably woman,and sometimes eats their body parts.sometimes the killings seem unnecessary mentions of kinds of products but the story is well written and it makes you remember the 80's.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting Look in the Mind of a Psychopath
Review: Sure it was violent. Sure it was like porn in most spots. It may nothave been the best-written book on Earth, but it wasn't meant to be classic literature. It actually seemed to be Bateman speaking, as evidenced by the run-on sentences and sudden stops in sentences at the ends of certain chapters. The book wasn't meant to be a happy, fluffy Disney movie. It is more true-to-life than anything I've ever read.

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Summary: i'm sorry you did not understand it
Review: this is a parody; satire is subtle (pronounce the 'b' please). if you did not understand that Janowitz borrowed scenes from older works or that five pages on shaving were not anything but five pages on shaving then i congratulate you - on having good SAT scores but no ability. Your gentleman's C AWAITS: bon appetit.