Rating: 
Summary: Interesting...repellant...funny...sick
Review: Hard to put into concrete black and white terms. This novel was funny, (in a dry satiric way and a dark comedic way) and yet boring (Ellis sure knows how to beat a dead horse--enough with the labels, the brands, the prices, the catalog of clothing descriptions...I get it already! These are shallow vapid people--but I am not and I get the joke! Now onto something else, hmm?). Bateman is disgustingly depraved but also oddly pathetic, and thus, meriting a twinge of sympathy. Perhaps because we are treated to his thoughts exclusively in all their chaos, that he (and perhaps his secretary Jean) emmerges as the only sympathetic character in the book. Everyone is so flat, cardboardish, unlikeable, shallow, vain, stupid, such dullards, so into their own scene they have no clue about the monster lurking within that 'golden boy' Bateman.I enjoyed reading about the excesses of the 80's. I am appalled to think people spent money on $850 wallets and made reservations at trendy restaurants where they often didn't even eat what they ordered, meanwhile people are homeless and starving in the street. And the pathetic lot of the bum is often contrasted with the yuppies decadence as if we needed the author to explain even this to us. (Note to the author: most of your readers have a brain and use it--give us a little credit, ok?) The women and men were so obsessed with their looks, their health--and yet they engage in promiscuous often unsafe sex, do all kinds of drugs and drink to excess. Ironic, no? I glossed over the grosser parts, reread the funnier parts, skimmed the cltohing decriptions, and had a helluva time keeping track of who's who--they all sound the same which is the point. It wouldn't have even mattered if I finished the book--I already saw the movie and knew the ending, and was tempted often to hurl the book across the room unfinished but at $14 a pop I decided I would finish the damn thing. Out of principle. I am still distrubed. Ellis has gotten under my skin in a way even better authors haven't. This book is not easily forgotten--love it or hate it, and there is no in between really with this novel--you won't forget it. I guess that says something. i wouldn't go as far as calling it a classic or literature or anything like that. And Ellis isn't a great author, not like Hemmingway or Fitgerald or Faulkner. But he is original and there's much to be said about that. His style is unique. He breaks rules. He indulges in graphic descriptions which, though I don't always agree with them, are unusual to see in a modern novel. Part of the 'Video' generation, his books read more like movies more than like literature--this book was no doubt quite easily written into a screenplay. His books are entertaining but not in that enjoyable escapist way like most fiction is. They are evocative of a decade, the 80's, that we, in the 21st Century are beginning to feel nostalgic for--the good, the bad and the ugly, it still appeals to us. That is probably why this book is so popular now but may not be in say, 15 years from now. Then it will seem incredibly dated. So did I like the book? I liked some parts, hated others. I don't think it is destined to be a classic and I have read many better books than this so I wouldn't denigrate my good reviews of those by giving this effort more than 2 stars. One thing I am sure of...I won't be reading anymore BEE for a long long time. If ever. Now, to find myself a lighter happier book to read...
Rating: 
Summary: A Different Type of Style, It Will Stay With You For Years
Review: I read this book when it first was published and it struck me as a new style i had never read before. With the movie finally out (don't bother seeing it if you loved the book) I decided to re-read it and was not disappointed. Read slowly to understand the pschological drama you are being drawn into. It is a chilling story that forced me into reading it in one night.
Rating: 
Summary: On the most basic possible level . . .
Review: The problem isn't that this book is depraved. The problem is that it's unintelligent and boring.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a masterpiece but well worth the effort
Review: .... 1980's was the Reagan/Yuppie era. Bateman is the productof this era. The endless descriptions of clothing and possessionscoupled with the graphic descriptions of torture can be hard work but the contrast between Bateman the Yuppie and Bateman the Psycho is well presented here. He is as devoid of morals in his yuppie lifestyle as he is in his dark hidden activities. Okay, Ellis's descriptions of torture does seem gratuitous (and I believe, in most cases unnecessary) but this is an in-your-face type of book. There are no holds barred as Ellis has a go at everything which the 80's represented, unrelenting greed coupled with a complete lack of conscience. In terms of quality it does not match up to JD Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye".... .... It does not compare favourably with Tom Wolfe's excellent 'Bonfire of the Vanities ' either. Notwithstanding the above AP is well worth reading. There are some wonderful touches of dark humour which do leave you laughing aloud and certainly it's not a book you'll easily forget. I read it ten years ago and it is still pretty clear in my mind. It's not a masterpiece but I'll probably read it again before I go and see the movie, if for nothing else to see if it has the same effect on me as it had the first time I read it.
Rating:
Summary: The Great American Novel of the Eighties, like it or not
Review: I notice that most of the reviews of American Psycho are written by Americans. That's only natural on an American site. I think it's revealing, however, that non-American reviewers tend to give it high marks. Speaking as an Irish reader, I can understand why. If you think that books, even novels, should be a guide to self-improvement, don't bother to read this. If you think that writers have an obligation to transcend their circumstances and suggest a utopian possibility beyond the immediate situation, don't bother to read this. if you're looking for nice characters you can "identify with" and a "good plot" that will somehow make it all seem worthwhile in the end, forget it. I have news for you. Life isn't always like that. You may want it to be, but that's another thing. American Psycho seizes the dominant forces in western culture and society during the Eighties like no other well-balanced piece of Bellowish Updikesque meditation could ever manage. Ellis doesn't even try to suggest that this is a Realist Novel. The opening line of the book is "ABANDON HOPE ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE" and the closing line is "THIS IS NOT AN EXIT". Hellooo! Postmodernist at work! This is a Book, and the great achievement of it is the desperate energy with which Ellis tries to reconcile the blatant fictionality of it with the hyperreal attention to detail. I can remember walking to school one day, while the US Air Force was bombing Trilopi for no very good reason, and being totally convinced that a Third World War was only days away, and that I wouldn't live to be 18. American Psycho made me realise that there were Americans who may have felt something similar. The utterly insane atomisation of society that Reagan helped to globalise has never been better observed than here. It's hardly even a novel. It's an event. It wouldn't matter if Ellis never wrote anything else. I've never bothered to read anything else he's written, anyway. I might remind American readers of the numerous great American writers who've been both dystopian and misunderstood: Hawthorne and Melville being the obvious examples. American Psycho is the only book of any consequence to have been written by anyone of Ellis' generation. (David Foster Wallace being younger, of course.) In a way, you don't need to read it more than once. But it's senseless to _complain_ that after a few murders, we start to get numbed to the killing. Of course we do. Ellis is very careful to ensure that the killings don't get any less graphic as the book goes on. He doesn't numb us to the deaths. We get numbed because we've been numbed before - at the movies, during cop shows, on CNN. We expect a novelist to give us a way out, to make it mean something in the end. The great thing about this book is that Ellis won't do that. If you look for consolation or reassurance in works of fiction, there is something seriously wrong with you. If it isn't to be found in the world, it isn't to be found anywhere. American Psycho doesn't strive to be Literature, doesn't point to the Western Canon (yawn), but to a world that could produce it. A great book.
Rating:
Summary: pretty shocking....yawn
Review: Bret Easton Ellis' first novel (Less than Zero) reads like the first draft of a ninth graders book report. This novel isn't much better. Full of one-dimensional characters, empty dialog that leads nowhere and exposes nothing but the obvious, and completely unbelievable situations. Not to mention lazy writing; it's painfully obvious Ellis has absolutely no idea what goes on on a day-to-day basis on Wall Street. Or at least he didn't bother to show us -- to actually flesh out the main character so we could understand a method to his madness. Oh well. I guess if he did, he might not have room for the Genesis album reviews or to re-hash the scenes from his first novel, Less than Zero. Conclusion: Ellis just isn't ambititious or talented enough to pull something like this off with any success.
Rating:
Summary: Misunderstood Masterpiece
Review: This is a masterpiece of modern horror. I have to laugh at the reviewers here who are trying to judge this book using a typical novel as a point of reference. It's fairly obvious early on that this isn't a novel in any conventional sense of the word, and trying to review it as such is nothing short of complete idiocy. If anything, American Psycho is a diary - a look inside this guy's mind. It's written in the first person, for God's sake! How can anyone expect cohesion, a good storyline, and proper character developement when the words are coming from a guy who - among other things - drilled around one of his victim's mouth to get a wider opening? Have I mentioned that I'm wearing Armani as I write this? Granted, this isn't for everyone. But expecting American Psycho to be something it was never intended to be is silly. If you want something completely horrifying and different, this book is for you. If you don't, perhaps a good Lisa Scottoline novel....
Rating:
Summary: Here's a Note from the Underground for ya!
Review: Let's see? From what literary context should I view this novel? New Criticism? Deconstruction? Feminist criticism? Structuralism? Nope, how about post-structuralism! Maybe psychoanalytical theory? How about the theory of common sense? This novel is a failure. Stop finding spurious arguments to suggest that it isn't.
Rating:
Summary: American classic
Review: Bret Easton Ellis is one of the most intriguing writers I have read. When you read a book like American Psycho, you have to wonder what goes on in the head of the author. Granted, the book is about society and its materialism, but the way Ellis embodies it into something tangiable is incredible. The way it is written is so amazingly descriptive, I felt like I was there when he strangled people or poked their eyes out. I felt the envy of the business card and the annoyance of those superficial girls. I even started to watch people who use American Express Platinum cards and wonder what goes on in their lives. Bret Easton Ellis perfectly embodies the American materialistic society in the madness of a young American yuppie.
Rating:
Summary: Much more than "Less Than Zero."
Review: O. K. I read Less Than Zero several years ago, and as I child of the 80's, I really enjoyed it. However, American Psycho blew me away. First of all, the attention to detail, even though exactly the theme treated with cynicism by the novel, is part of what makes it so great. Even with the bloody parts (no pun intended), the detail is astounding. Secondly, Bateman's spiral into deeper pyschosis towards the end is portrayed remarkably. The author slips in little tid-bits that almost make you feel like your own sanity is slipping. You don't really understand, at first, what is going on. This serves to make the dementia all the more real. Details, such as the speaking Automated Teller, are given to the reader almost as an after-thought, and it takes a moment to realize that it really does say just that. Finally, I have just one question. . . Did the murder of Paul Owens really happen? This, only one example of the surreal yet extremely explicit quality of Bateman's crimes, make the novel all the more fascinating. In summary, I thouroughly recommend this novel to anyone, providing they have a heavy tolerance for gore, and a patience for extremely detailed wardrobes!
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