Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho: A Reader's Guide (Continuum Contemporaries)

Rating:
Summary: Ellis Deserves Better
Review: American Psycho is one of the few books I have read more than once. I realized upon initially reading it that there was much going on beneath the surface that I was probably missing due not only to the extreme violence but also to the relentless focus on the superficial details that the main character, Patrick Bateman, describes. An excellent essay by Elizabeth Young in the book Shopping in Space allowed me to better appreciate the book the second time around. I was therefore excited when I saw the instant reader's guide by Murphet. Unfortunately, it was a letdown.

There are a couple of bright spots. Murphet does a fair job (but no better) of placing the book into the historical and social context in which Bateman existed. Murphet also does a good job of demonstrating that many events that are described in the book are probably occurring only within Bateman's head. Particularly noteworthy is pointing out that the real estate agent at Paul Owens' apartment, after Bateman allegedly killed him, was named Mrs. Wolfe. This is a reference to Tom Wolfe, the author of the realistic novel Bonfire of the Vanities, and provides a clue that that particular episode is "real." Combined with other clues, this calls into question the accuracy of Bateman's description of the murder itself.

Unfortunately, this reader's guide usually disappoints. As an initial matter, it is written in the pretentious language all too typical of literary criticism from people trying to show how smart they are. Such high-falutin' language does not impress me and others should not hesitate to say that the emperor has no clothes.

Murphet also strikes out frequently, as when a minor character mistakes Bateman for someone else and proceeds to describe Bateman in unflattering terms. Murphet believes this is noteworthy as it is inconsistent with the perception the reader has formed of Bateman. This is incorrect. Even a casual reader will recognize well before this episode that Bateman's inner view of himself is not matched by others' objective view of him. Check out what a fool Bateman makes of himself at McDonalds immediately after his attack on the homeless guy Al.

Murphet does little better when analyzing social critics of the novel. Bateman attacks both men and women in the novel, which Murphet acknowledges. Yet in discussing allegations of anti-woman sexism, Murphet focuses on whether this is attributable to the character Bateman or the author Ellis. How could anyone miss a softball like this? The better analysis is that the novel's violence may not be anti-woman, but critiques along such lines speak volumes about the callousness of such critics towards men. Further, Murphet's discussion questions regarding consumerism would be laughable if one could keep one's eyes from rolling at, again, the pretentiousness.

Ellis has written an important book skewering a noteable segment of our society. I have given the current reader's guide two stars, rather than only one, because of the paucity of literary criticisms of the novel and because a fan may get something out of it (though I would recommend Elizabeth Young's aforementioned essay over this). American Psycho deserves intelligent analysis. It deserves better than this.

Rating:
Summary: Ellis is a sicko, but it is great
Review: Brett Easton Ellis shows a very dark character in the book American Psycho. The movie did not even begin to scratch the surface of Patrick Bateman's "odd" personality. After reading this book, the movie adaptation is unbelieveable. You understand the pain that Bateman is going through when asking for reservations. He is so deeply disturbed that he onoly lives for outward apperances. If you only read one book this summer, and you really want to be shocked, pick up American Psycho

Rating:
Summary: Ellis is a sicko, but it is great
Review: Brett Easton Ellis shows a very dark character in the book American Psycho. The movie did not even begin to scratch the surface of Patrick Bateman's "odd" personality. After reading this book, the movie adaptation is unbelieveable. You understand the pain that Bateman is going through when asking for reservations. He is so deeply disturbed that he onoly lives for outward apperances. If you only read one book this summer, and you really want to be shocked, pick up American Psycho

Rating:
Summary: EXTRA CREDIT
Review: Having read American Psycho several times since it's release, I'm surprised that it's taken somebody (anybody) this long to put together something (anything) that delves deeper into this book. This reader's guide is broken down into 5 sections (the novelist; the novel; the novel's reception; the novel's adaptation; and further reading and discussion questions) and is followed by brief notes and bibliography pages. Like Anthony Magistrale's The Shining Reader and David Sexton's The Strange World Of Thomas Harris, I can further explore my favorite books. A little extra credit for the fans and a little insight for those who are not.

Rating:
Summary: Concise & Well Researched
Review: Ironically enough I learned about this on GQ's website. This is an excellent critical review of American Psycho. It features the same format as the rest of the Continuum essay books: a short biography of Ellis and his influences; a critique of the book; a section on how the book was recieved by the public; and finally a section about the movie adaption.
Well worth purchasing. I hope Continuum takes on the rest of Ellis' work

Rating:
Summary: Take with a chaser of common sense
Review: This isn't a terrible guide to American Psycho, and Murphet does help the reader examine some of the more subtle aspects of Ellis' satire. That said, Murphet occasionally goes off the rails and starts reading from his prepared speech on the horrors of "Reagan's 80s", which is itself such a banal cliche in lit crit that it undermines Murphet's seriousness. That said it is an acceptable enough jumping off point for a closer examination of Ellis' startling, daring novel.

Rating:
Summary: Opinion on Ellis's American Psycho: A Reader's Guide
Review: Very good analysis of Ellis' work American Psycho. Particularly interesting is the way the author, Julian Murphet, focuses on the historical and social conditions of American Psycho. The author puts it back in a class context, Bateman being representative of a yuppie class, issued from the Reagan's era: republican, racist, classist, hating the working class victim of Reagan's measures in the frame of the application of an extreme neoliberal economic program. In this study, the reader will find a very good interpretation of the symbolism used by Ellis, particularly in the scene confronting two entities of the capital's representatives as rivals: The world of Finance and the one of Real Estate, both serving the same objective: accumulating surplus-value, one through Wall Street and the Stock-exchange and the other one, through an exacerbated valorization of real estate. In this time of history, consequences of a time of severe crisis of mass production, both fields are becoming the core of a renewed form of accumulation of capital. As a matter of fact, we will witness in the 1990's the crushing negative impact of financial globalization on low and middle classes, that is identical to premeditated human slaughter, together with the strengthening of the pitiless real estate's power, ready to chase people from their home to use the premises as grounds for speculation.
Bateman's robot-like attitude, his behavior directed by clichés and brands that are indispensable criteria to his meaningless and dead boring life are typical of those emerging classes, products of a world without transcendental ideal, reduced to obey the imperatives of money and of a consumerist society, where killing becomes one of the favorite leisure and gives the one that assassinates the feeling of "acting", "being someone", token of sick societies enslaved by the pursuing of money.
This kind of critical analysis published by Continuum Contemporary is indispensable to anyone who wants to heighten one's level of reading and pass from passive to active reading, i.e. not only getting to know the story in itself as a pastime, but also the author, his motivations and the social and political context that determined the writing of the book.

Rating:
Summary: American Pyscho: Uncovered
Review: We have been in need of a series like Continuum Contemporaries for a long time. Unlike the watered-down reader's guides produced by York Notes (and in the US `Cliff's Notes') these little books tackle text's which have gained something of a cult status in the late twentieth century, and do so from a perspective which is at once approachable enough for the recreational reader, and rigorous enough for the advanced student. It is therefore fitting that a text so widely, and wildly, misunderstood as Bret Easton Ellis's `American Psycho'. should be included amongst the Continuum survey.

Julian Murphet is one of the foremost critics of Ellis's work, and what you get here are all the benefits of the breadth and depth of his knowledge, boiled down into a slim and precise volume. He provides us with a short biography of the author; an exploration of the narrative voice at work within the text; a discussion of the themes of alienation and reification and a survey of critical responses. He is, however, at his most engaging in his discussion of violence and politics, the real heart of the novel itself.

He tackles the central, consuming question of whether the protagonist Patrick Bateman ever actually commits the murders so graphically rendered in the text's pages, in a manner that is exploratory and revelatory without ever being proscriptive. Thus we see an argument develop from the tentative suggestion that `everything could well be contained to the level of fantasy,' to the final assertion that the violence within `American Psycho' is `an act of language' and never really happens at all. He ties this argument in very neatly with an understanding of the text in its political context, seeing Bateman as a `pin-up boy for the establishment Right' during the Reagan era, and reading the real `murder' within the novel, not as that projected by Bateman, but rather as the `murder of the real' the erasure of all social difference and threat - what he terms `the gentrification of the city.'

Murphet rounds this off with a great critique of the film version of the novel, his genuine academic appreciation of cinema in general, making this more than just a fan's opinion.

No reader of `American Psycho' will ever wholly agree with any one theory, and indeed it is the paradoxical beauty of the novel that is never really gives you a definitive answer either way. Murphet's argument is one reading, but it is a very convincing one, and this text is a must for anyone who remains challenged by, and curious about, this work.

Rating:
Summary: American Pyscho: Uncovered
Review: We have been in need of a series like Continuum Contemporaries for a long time. Unlike the watered-down reader's guides produced by York Notes (and in the US 'Cliff's Notes') these little books tackle text's which have gained something of a cult status in the late twentieth century, and do so from a perspective which is at once approachable enough for the recreational reader, and rigorous enough for the advanced student. It is therefore fitting that a text so widely, and wildly, misunderstood as Bret Easton Ellis's 'American Psycho'. should be included amongst the Continuum survey.

Julian Murphet is one of the foremost critics of Ellis's work, and what you get here are all the benefits of the breadth and depth of his knowledge, boiled down into a slim and precise volume. He provides us with a short biography of the author; an exploration of the narrative voice at work within the text; a discussion of the themes of alienation and reification and a survey of critical responses. He is, however, at his most engaging in his discussion of violence and politics, the real heart of the novel itself.

He tackles the central, consuming question of whether the protagonist Patrick Bateman ever actually commits the murders so graphically rendered in the text's pages, in a manner that is exploratory and revelatory without ever being proscriptive. Thus we see an argument develop from the tentative suggestion that 'everything could well be contained to the level of fantasy,' to the final assertion that the violence within 'American Psycho' is 'an act of language' and never really happens at all. He ties this argument in very neatly with an understanding of the text in its political context, seeing Bateman as a 'pin-up boy for the establishment Right' during the Reagan era, and reading the real 'murder' within the novel, not as that projected by Bateman, but rather as the 'murder of the real' the erasure of all social difference and threat - what he terms 'the gentrification of the city.'

Murphet rounds this off with a great critique of the film version of the novel, his genuine academic appreciation of cinema in general, making this more than just a fan's opinion.

No reader of 'American Psycho' will ever wholly agree with any one theory, and indeed it is the paradoxical beauty of the novel that is never really gives you a definitive answer either way. Murphet's argument is one reading, but it is a very convincing one, and this text is a must for anyone who remains challenged by, and curious about, this work.