American Psycho

Rating:
Summary: Bad Reaction
Review: I have never reacted to a book in the manner that American Psycho caused me to. When I read that a book is being made into a movie, I usually try to read it. With Leo DeCaprio slated as the star and feminists stating their annoyance, I must admit that I was somewhat intrigued. Unfortunately, the joke was on me. I found the book to have a certain flair and difference, even though I was disgusted most of the way. I hated the non-ending, but with so many real crimes being unsolved I guess it was realistic. There were no characters to root for, but I finished it anyway. It became a faster read as I began to skim over the clothing descriptions. It was, however, a tedious read. I usually recommend books to my friends, but I cannot do that this time. I tore the book apart and shredded it. For some reason that gave me the closure that I missed at the end of the book.

Rating:
Summary: The archetype of feverishly unacceptable literature.
Review: Perhaps the most faulted reasoning applied to American Psycho is attributing brilliance to what is a rather banal, and a most far from sly, commentary on the "Me" generation. In defense of the novel, Ellis' intentions are collectively regarded as somewhat understandable. It is thus lamentable the approach taken was most leaden handed. Ellis threw parsimony out of the window for an overly generous 400 pages in order to drag out, bludgeon, and ultimately dash his overwrought point against the reader. I am able to see that excess is the very impoverished nature of the novel but unable to define exactly why the reader must be so harshly incriminated by the author. Such base contrivances as lengthy passages concerning the seminal musical artists of the '80s only contribute to the completely political muddle of said text. The book is a torturous read, as it was intended to be, though something must be said about introducing an element of grace into, at the very least, the writing; Ellis' prose reads like that of a very poor translation. In the end, the book is nothing more than fire and brimstone aimed directly at a very tentative generation. Many readers will ultimately forget about the novel; it is the salacious, Dr. Frankenstein author that will forever be crippled by his own misguided attempt. It is fair game to be attacked by a novel, not judged.

Rating:
Summary: All around "ok" book, not a great find
Review: I bought this book because of the reviews it got on Amazon. The book isent even really that great, I mean its a fun read and all, but nothing great. Its preaty funny how the violence is obviosuly just put in there for people like me to buy it, i mean, sometimes he just describes stuff so much it just makes you laugh, while you get sick. Get it if you just feal like reading something sick, the only reason people give it rave reviews is because there is really nothing out there that is as easy to come by as this book that is this "sick"..

Rating:
Summary: Look deep into this analysis of capitalistic commercialism
Review: My father and I have shared books since I was eleven years old. He's always treated me like an adult when it came to reading, handing me everything from classic works of literature to what he called "junk food" bestsellers of our times. He didn't try to censor, and was always ready to discuss the books when I finished. I usually learned more from our discussions than the book itself. When he first began American Psycho, he called me up every couple of days to discuss how intense it was, saying I should read it when he was finished. By the time he finished, he nearly retracted his invitation to loan out the book, saying he hesitated to recommend something so graphic as to be pornographic. In fact, if the wrong people knew what was in it, it would probably be illegal in our state. I was worried when I began it. I am hard- core anti-censorship, and an avid feminist, though I don't believe that pornography is inherently degrading to women. What worried me was the proported sexual violence. NOW had once banned this book. What worried me was the idea that my beliefs would be put into cross-purposes. But I had to know. I wasn't going to let my father, NOW, the state of Oklahoma, or anyone else decide for me. After finishing the novel, which sucked me in so I consumed it in all its horrific revelations, I have to say that, more than ever, this is a book that SHOULD NOT BE BANNED (if indeed there is such a book that should be). The violence is so explicit that a few times I had to look up and away from the book-- as if it were a movie I could look away from-- just to break the flow of the narrative for a second and get the terrible image out of my head. Yet, everything else in the book is explicit as well, from the descriptions of New York to meaningless conversations to clothing to music. If Ellis had left out the details in his character's murders, I know I would have felt slighted, as if I was being protected from the violence and the book would have lost its! depth. It is because the details are so explicit and shocking that the book feels like a much-needed slap in the face. Is the book misogynistic? Yes and no. Yes, because the main character kills women in a much more colorful, sexualized and dehumanizing way than he kills others in the novel. No, because I don't think Ellis, as the author is advocating it or blindly incorporating it because our culture is misogynistic. I think it's part of his point of wealth and class. Patrick (the main character) harms not only women, but animals, foreigners, the poor, and even a child. It is more of a statement of Patrick harming those whom he feels he is superior to. Because he chooses to SEXUALLY torture and degrade the women in the book, I think Ellis is making a statement on the accepted level of violence towards women. Overall, I think everyone should read this book. Yet, I'm also realistic enough to realize that not everyone can handle it. Its existential nature lends itself to any study of the effects of capitalism on humanity, at least by the 1980s. Sure, this is an extreme example, a very extreme example, but there are truths to be unearthed in the text if one is willing to plunge into the novel open-mindedly, keeping their biases at home. By the way, I am a former high school English teacher, who is now a sociology graduate student studying gender and sexuality. I am still learning to leave MY biases at home. I thank my father for helping to teach me that.

Rating:
Summary: fascinating yet with obvious flaws
Review: Granted, this is not a masterpiece. There are many problems with the story, the plot, the presentation, I could go on and on with tame literary terms to pan certain aspects of this book. But you can't stop reading. It is such a plunge down deep into horrific psychosis, into numb indifference, into wonderfully creative scenes of endless violence, that there's no real reason to give this book a bad review. It is a cruel and heartless satire of those who would give this book a bad review. Of their uptight, stuffed-shirt condesention. There are rather profound depictions of the utter shallowness that passed for 1980s hipster pop culture. Those three chapters on Patrick's musical tastes are a fine example. Genesis better after Peter Gabriel? Huey Lewis and the News as the stars of our generation? These are jokes. Obviously, only the most vapid of people would agree with these assessments, and further, they are wirtten like reviews of albums out of shallow magazines like Spin or Rolling Stone. The further one gets into this book, the more we get the joke. It is all a joke. The 1980s were a cutthroat, savage time of greed and self-absorbsion. Patrick Bateman is the 80s everyman. Sure, not too many of us fed starving rats up cheese smeared tubes inside handcuffed prisoners, but the idea of the dog-eat-dog cruelty is the point. Sure, the book gets dull in stretches, but the time was dull, shroaded as it was in endless shallowness and stupidity. The music of the time, captured for what is was so well in all of Ellis' books, is a valid summation of what this book is about. The over-the-top violence forms into a cadence of emotional neglegence and inability to express one's self. This is what happens, this is what goes on inside our minds in this desperate effort to get ahead, to smash the competetion, to destroy everything in your path because you want something and you want it now. Don't condemn this book because of the violence or the cold, indifferent writing. It is not meant to offend! you or scare you or say women are bad and we should kill them. This was a typical knee-jerk 80s inspired reaction to this book that certain social interest groups latched onto in a hardly veiled effort to censor someone. Moreover, this book is a reflection of America in the time it depicts. No one has the right to deny this. No one has the right to censor it. Avoid the book by all costs if you have a weak stomach or like to read more pleasent things--but, if you are one of those awful people who would rather see this book burned, banned, pulled from the shelves, forgotten and condemned, well then, how are you really any different from Patrick Bateman?

Rating:
Summary: Psudeo-social commentary for the one-dimensional thinker
Review: I can't believe the number of people who have fallen for Ellis' (and his opportunistic publisher's) ploy. Comparison's to the "Great Gatsby" and the "Catcher In The Rye" are a real hoot, but only as a defense against the depression one feels at the realization of how many pathologically stupid and gullible people there are in the world. Critical comments on Ellis' rote, mechanical, college-lit, horror style (some of it lifted "word for word" from Ellis' earlier work as has been pointed out) have been made. Whats really hilarious (or disgusting), however, is the way a ruthless, unethical, snobbish, materialistic, cut-throat yuppie swine can manipulate public debate and create a "controversy" about writing a book about a ruthless, unethical, snobbish, materialistic, cut-throat, yuppie swine who is also a psychotic killer. Hyperbole is always the tool of the tasteless and untalented--looking at the number of rock groups with "shocking" names and behavior-- will people be buying their albums a decade from now? Ellis goes into far too much grisly detail in describing the murders than was necessary to make his point. He could have done this much more powerfully by making chilling references and allusions to the murders instead of rubbing the readers face in sadistic perversion and defending it as "cultural condemnation." Yes, we know yuppies are the scum of the earth, but is this the same thing as being sadistic murderers? Is a greedy, wealthy snob who helps manipulate the wealth of the world into his own bank account while producing nothing of value the moral equivalent of Vlad the Impaler? Perhaps in the Karmic sense some would say, but we have to ask how many one-dimensional yuppie caricatures are actually alive and operating in the world, let alone yuppie psycho killers. Yet Ellis and his defenders know what to say. You dare not citicize Ellis, otherwise you are "unhip," "uptight," "missing the point" o! r even (heaven forbid!) supporting censhorship!! Yeah right! Ellis prefers to sicken and disgust, instead of provoking reflection, thinking this is a way to demonstrate his own alleged "sickness" and "disgust" with evil people like his character--wow, thats profound and deep man!! One even begins to wonder about the real attitude of Ellis towards women when he uses such minute and "loving" detail to describe the torture and mutilation of them by his character-- he seems more engaged here than in any other part of the novel. In the process of allegedly condemning the misogynistic and misanthropic "psycho," perhaps Ellis is covertly allowing his own real sentiments to take flight. Its kind of like Oliver Stone making "Natural Born Killers" as a film that was supposed to be a condmenation of the cynical media exploitation of violence. In the processs, however, Stone does such an intense and expert cinematic job of focusing on the violence itself, that he ends up glamorizing and golorifying the very thing he purports to condemn. Criticising media violence is as insightful and profound as saying that murder and rape ought to be illegal (two cross-country murder sprees occured just after the release of this movie; an artist can't be entirely responsible for stupidity and evil, but must take some responsibility for influencing cultural attitudes). But I think Stone made the mistake out of his own arrogance and stupidity, not as a deliberately cynical ploy to gain more publicity and make a buck, as does Ellis with "American Psycho." And Ellis has made a buck, and will, make even more, as pretty-boy Leonardo DiCaprio, attempting to ditch his maudlin romantic image from "Titantic" (and his "Teen Beat" teenage fans) and the Hollywood image mill bring "Psycho" to the big screen. Since they cannot show the grisly murders in detail as in the novel, perhaps a more subtle, subtext allusion to the yuppie psycho's contextual sym! bolism in American culture will be done in the movie-- something that Ellis was too greedy, untalented and cynical to do. But do we really think Hollywood, the celluloid supporter of pulp-fiction could or would make something better out of garbage like "American Psycho"? Naaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!! You gotta be kidding!!

Rating:
Summary: LAME...PLOTLESS...BORING!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: I wish I would have checked this one out from the library instead of spending real money for it!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Disturbing but I loved it
Review: I'm on my second or third copy of this novel (they keep disappearing) and I think it is absolutely a hoot. It's extremely disturbing the first time you read it, but I recommend reading it more than once, just skip the gory parts if necessary. It is very New York with its extremely classist society and the ability of certain people to behave beyond the law. Did anyone else catch the overlap with the characters from Jay McInerney's _Story of My Life_? (Bateman runs into them at Nell's.)

Rating:
Summary: The most shocking novel I've ever read
Review: To anyone who is contemplating reading this novel don't wait, read it right away. This was engrossing, disgusting, hilarious and almost a little too relatable, scary. I loved it, Ellis should write another novel soon.

Rating:
Summary: Am I the only sane person left?
Review: I remember when all the hoopla surrounding American Psycho started, a few months before the book actually came out. I was curious so I bought it. I can sum up my review in three words; "What A Joke." The writing is comical, not to be confused with comic. There are entire sections that are lifted word-for-word from some of Ellis' other works. The "gross" parts are disgusting for disgusting's sake, and nothing more. The book is a farce of literature, and anyone that actually enjoys this book needs to go back to high school and re-learn what seperates a good book from toilet paper. The only reason I rated this book with 1 star is because I couldn't give it 0.