American Psycho

by Bret Easton Ellis

Book Overview

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER - In this modern classic, the acclaimed author of The Shards explores the incomprehensible depths of madness and captures the insanity of violence in our time or any other. "A seminal book." --The Washington Post Patrick Bateman moves among the young and trendy in 1980s Manhattan. Young, handsome, and well educated, Bateman earns his fortune on Wall Street by day while spending his nights in ways we cannot begin to fathom...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679735771
• ISBN13: 9780679735779
• Release Date: March 1991
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 0.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Best Unreliable Narrator of All Time!

This book is great! Real tough read at moments, but I enjoyed this far more than the film. Patrick Bateman is one of the best “unreliable narrators” of all time. If you like the movie, or are a fan of true crime shows or even shows/books like Dexter; I’d pick this one up!

Definitely Psycho!

In my opinion, the movie was a very good adaptation of this novel without giving everything away. There are plenty of surprises. I enjoyed it very much! There are some “hard to get through” parts, but it is a good & fast read. Very happy with my purchase.

I loved it

I've never read anything like it before, it was amazing.

Amazing.

Great book, makes you want to continuously turn the pages.

An engaging social satire

I relaxed on my Ethan Allen couch to read Bret Easton Ellis's late-1980's Manhattan-of-yuppie-excess thriller, American Psycho. I had to put it down to dine on quail sashimi with peach ravioli and baby soft-shell crabs with grape jelly, and after dinner I noted that the Vintage Contemporary cover was a far from ideal surface to snort cocaine off. After donning my Valentino Lycra sports outfit, I resumed reading on the Lifecycle in my $500/month health club. As a whole, I found the financial district consumerist novel to be a brilliant social satire in the tradition of Swift, with lyrical genius comparable to a finely crafted Genesis song. I dropped the title in conversation over Absolut double martinis at the cigar club the following night, and I was secretly delighted that my archnemesis at the firm fumbled when trying to debate its relative merits with me. [This is where I transition back to reality as Jessica Lux-Baumann, book reviewer.] Twenty-seven year-old Patrick Bateman is a Wall Street mergers and acquisitions executive who spends a few hours a day in his stark Manhattan office and the rest of the time at his exclusive gym, in clubs, clamoring for reservations at the hottest restaurants, cheating with his friends' fiancées, and, oh, murdering socialites and the homeless. Everyone in his eighties NYC life is too self-absorbed to notice his true character (in fact, a Realtor gladly cleans up carnage to make a sale on a hot piece of property). Bateman embodies yuppie ideals while mocking the inferiority of everyone else in his circle. Girls are "hardbodies" or "bitches," reduced to physical measurements and shagability (although Bateman uses considerably less polite terminology). The book consists of short chapters--diary entries, if you will--of scenes in Bateman's life. At times, he lapses into eloquent yet fanboyish soliloquies about bands like Genesis, Huey Lewis and the News, and Whitney Houston. He thinks about mutilation and torture while debating the relative merits of different brands of sparkling water or discussing the proper way to wear a sweater vest. I've seen Mary Harron's film adaptation of the book several times, and it is a true, but condensed version of the novel. The novel is far darker, with graphic descriptions of torture and murder (eyeballs dripping like runny eggs, and so forth).

this book sums up a true american psycho

this book is a true masterpiece. this book is all about how greed can corrupt a person and what it can make them do. Patrick bateman is very offensive, crude, un-predictable and funny at the same time. Sure this book goes on a lot about the little things but that shows you what kind of person pat bateman is. I recommend this book to people over 17 because i read this book at the age of 14 and i was shocked by its content and graphic violence. I read this after seeing the movie and i personally like the book a little more than the fantastic movie. read the book first then see the movie to enjoy the experience better. This is truely an american classic

the reviewer below me is silly

How anyone who has only read 94 pages of a book that is 416 pages, and really believe that they have an accurate view of what the book is about is very, very surprising. That said, I love this book. I agree at first it is hard to get into, with the long passages about trival details, but after the first 120 pages, the passages of endless fashion detail shorten up. What comes into play when the exposition is through is quite satisfying. Back and forth Ellis takes you through pure halirity(I literally laugh out loud) straight into mind numbing scenes of torture(very graphic), and somehow manages to keep it consistent. It may take more than one attempt to read, but this book is thoroughly interesting with plenty of action, great dialogue, and a perplexing ending. Highly recommended for those who enjoy fiction on a more graphic scale.

Sadly, An American Classic

Bret Easton Ellis, more than once, captured the essence of America in the 1980's. In his books, most notably "Less Than Zero," Ellis codified the look, sound, and feel of the Ronald Reagan, MTV watching, Yuppie 1980's. Ellis was not nearly as interested in showing the flashy glitter of that time as he was in revealing the dark side of excess in an America spiraling into total chaos. In "American Psycho," Ellis attains the rank of a master satirist, viciously skewering a culture that reduces life to power lunches, Armani suits, personal hygiene, and video stores. Ellis is an American Dickens, holding a mirror up to the face of America and daring us to look deep into its depths. Needless to say, the reflection is not pretty.Ellis's protagonist in "American Psycho" is one Patrick Bateman. Patrick is at the pinnacle of power: he is young, buff, tan, and filthy rich. He works, when he feels like it, at a powerhouse Wall Street firm. Most of his days are filled with parties, dating, dining out, renting videotapes, and buying the best of everything. Why not? Patrick can afford to do whatever he wants in an America that not only approves of his behavior, but ardently wants to emulate it as well. There is one slight quirk in Bateman's well coiffed persona, one small, minutely unpleasant ritual he feels he must engage in from time to time: Patrick likes to rape, torture, and murder people. His usual victims are prostitutes and homeless people, although he isn't above killing an occasional cop or child. That Patrick is, inside, a raving lunatic of epic proportions doesn't matter as long as he can maintain surface appearances. This he manages to do by keeping up on all the latest fads, doling out fashion tips to those less fortunate, and hanging out with the guys and gals on a regular basis.The book alternates between power lunches at trendy New York restaurants and stomach churning scenes of murder and mayhem. There is a link between two such disparate activities, and a close reading reveals these links. In essence, Bateman is caught up in an empty, soul crushing existence. The people he knows and the places he populates are devoid of any deep feelings. In order to feel, to experience life, Bateman must kill (or at least fantasize about killing). Murder is his release from the daily banalities of Yuppie life, the only time when he feels as though he is participating in a life activity. The violence may be extended even further, beyond the confines of Bateman's character, to show the results of a materialist culture on the human spirit. Does the best of everything always result in happy, well adjusted human beings? Are those who have great wealth automatically deserving of our respect because they are wealthy? Are these wealthy denizens guaranteed happiness because they can buy the best bottled water, the best stereo system, the best clothing? Ellis's answer is a resounding, and blood drenched, no. Bateman is not happy with his possessions (at least not beyo

Read this book if you dare

As I browse through the reviews posted here I am not surprised to see that Bret Easton Ellis's novel, American Psycho, is either loved or loathed. I truly loved it. From the very first pages you read it becomes obvious that you ARE reading a comedy. American Psycho, no matter how sick, perverse or disgusting it may be, is undoubtedly a comedy. And a funny one it is. The humor comes mostly from the fact that we are reading what the main character, Patrick Bateman, is thinking. In the torture-chapters we get straight-out descriptions of what is happening. Ellis wastes no time like King or Koontz in creating eerie atmosphere because he does not have to - this is not a horror novel. It may be horrific but it is not horror. As I was saying, the humor comes from Bateman's completely uncaring thoughts towards his victims. He knows they are persons, that they have lives, backgrounds and families (in one chapter he even regrets killing one victim because it had so little effect on society in whole) but he still does not care. He's living in a world where clothes and restaurants have more value than human beings. The people who say they hate this book are obviously blinded by the violence in it and fail to see its significance; Bateman kills because his life is so painful that he needs to inflict his pain to others. And the fact that his killings are so brutal only shows us how painful his life is. This book represents just how bad one man's life can get. But that does not mean that everyone should read this book. I would only recommend it to people who think they can deal with reading chapters and chapters of unbelievable cruelty (not to mention graphic sexual descriptions), and to get the point - the humor - of the book, you need to read those chapters. After I told a friend of mine that this book was seriously disgusting he asked if I could give him an example and I did. I let him read little less than two pages. After reading half a page he put it down and said that this book couldn't possibly be good. That it was only an excuse for the author to paint from his mind mindless acts of violence. This book was disgusting and nothing else.There are a lot of you who are going to think exactly this about the book, but I still think that every serious book-enthusiast should read it. It is an important piece of modern literature that will live on as a monumental of just how bad the materialism of 80s America was.