American Psycho

Book Description

Now a major motion picture from Lion's Gate Films starring Christian Bale ( Metroland), Chloe Sevigny ( The Last Days of Disco), Jared Leto ( My So Called Life), and Reese Witherspoon ( Cruel Intentions), and directed by Mary Harron ( I Shot Andy Warhol).

In American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis imaginatively explores the incomprehensible depths of madness and captures the insanity of violence in our time or any other. 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. Expressing his true self through torture and murder, Bateman prefigures an apocalyptic horror that no society could bear to confront.

Customer Reviews:

One side of the American Dream.......2007-09-22

American Psycho is easily the most graphic and disturbing novel I've ever read, not to mention a brilliant satirical romp.

The beauty of this novel is how Ellis immerses the reader into the setting, a business-frenzied Manhattan of the 1980's. This is a character study that elucidates the shallow and incorporeal existence of an elite New York businessman, Patrick Bateman, who attempts to fill this void by surrounding himself with expensive wears, eating at only the best restaurants, and killing people; mostly women. The latter was the catalyzing factor (aside from the lack of satirical imagination in Feminists) of why American Psycho was met with such strident criticism. Given the idea that the first murder does not take place until well after the first 100 pages should have been ample evidence to Feminists and Humanitarians that the book is not just a catalog of arbitrary violence.

From the get-go, the story follows Pat Bateman as he vaults from one high-class social situation to another, getting air-kisses from his almost equally shallow fiancé and checking his perfect hair and chiseled features in any reflective material available. One thing that I found repetitious, but ultimately essential to the plot, was Bateman's scrutiny of his peer's clothing; a Valentino Couture suit here, a Matsuda blouse there. Another aspect of Bateman's character (in the book and the movie), one that I find to be the most hilarious, is the way he panics when some external and completely trivial situation poses a threat to his inherent perfection: "I am certain that we will not have a good table, but we do... relief washes over me in an awesome wave."

It's apparent that Ellis wanted to exemplify the degree of apathy held by these so-called 'Masters of the Universe.' Women are referred to as 'hardbodies,' the style of business card font and color is indicative of class and ranking, and reservations at the most exclusive of restaurants are seen as the same. One subtlety that is picked up on with a close reading is how all of these New York elites are clones of one another. Not one character can remember who Jack is from Sam. This story also harbors one of my favorite quotes: "Where do you Summer?" A hilarious dichotomy occurs during an extravagant dinner (complete with sorbet, never ice cream) when these Free-Market Capitalists are conversing about massacres in Sri Lanka and how social concern needs to stand against racial bigotry, all the while the word 'nigger' is used liberally by the same characters.

As the plot progresses, Patrick slips further and further into insanity. This is creatively articulated with monologs that comprise half if not most of the book. Bateman is the type of guy whose anger can be set off by anything. The murder scenes, unlike the ones in the movie, are easily x-rated and were hard for even me to stomach. I think Ellis found this imperative in this, his most relentless attack against rich, unsympathetic yuppies.

Between the book and the movie, I found that both have their strengths and their weaknesses. The music reviews (Phil Collins, Huey Luis, etc.) that Bateman meticulously narrates are character-driven and often funny, but hold not a candle to the amount of hilarity and style as that of Christian Bale articulating to a pair of escort girls; or Paul Allen. Where the book is more descriptive and transcendental, the movie is more goofy and amusing. I think Ellis spent a little too much time and effort stressing how completely callous the rich can be at times and could have cut a number of paragraphs out of the book. That said, this is definitely a story that needed to be told.

A great book that is hard to stomach, but pass the salt.......2007-09-07

"American Psycho" is a savage vivisection of society and relationships as portrayed through the depraved exploits of Patrick Bateman. Bateman flourishes in the yuppie-driven mores of the 80's. His wealth and intelligence are the facilities of his deranged obsessions and evil compulsions. Rather than satisfy the blood-lust, Bateman's oblivious victims stoke and embolden his psychotic frenzy.

"American Psycho" is extraordinarily graphic. Sex and violence imagery explode from the pages with Bateman-like fury. However, it is the duality of the character that is truly unnerving. Bateman can be charming, can be ruthless, can be generous, can be vicious, can be insightful, can be shallow, can be elegant, can be disgusting. Bateman's character attracts you with his panache and repulses you with his horrific offensives. It is an emotionally disturbing journey where sanity has no compass.

Ultimately it is clear this Bret Ellis novel transcends time and place. It is an expose of the human condition and how it can be exploited, deceived and imperiled.

Too explicit for my tastes, that's saying something........2007-09-06

I came to this book after thoroughly enjoying the movie adaptation; fantastic movie. In this case I found the book to be a little tedius and quite explicit, at times. I like to consider myself just as decensitized to violence as any North American in the 21st century, but the amount of gruesome detail Mr. Ellis goes into, is too much for tastes.

2.5 STARS

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of the 80's.......2007-09-03

I know this is a satire.
I know this is supposed to be making a point.
I know that the main character is as sad, yuppie who lives for working out, getting laid, having the best stereo system and, oh yeah, one other thing, killing people in the most sick and sadistic ways.
That being said, I really liked the character but I disliked the style.

Patrick Bateman, our lead, is a homicidal maniac who is a day trader by day and by night he is a coke sniffing, club hopping, music lover who gets off on sleeping around and killing people. To top it all off, this all happens at ground zero of the yuppie era, New York City. This alone would make the book interesting, but Ellis takes it one step further in writing the book in an almost stream of consciousness style. Not only do you know what Patrick is thinking about during conversations with his victims, but you also get a sense of who he is and what makes him tick and what makes him explode.

The character is so well written that he could be real. He is supposed to be the stereotypical yuppie, but it goes beyond that. We get a sense of Patrick with all of his weaknesses, his likes, his intelligence and his lack there of. I literally found myself laughing at some of the things he said and thought and agreeing with him at other times. That is how good the character is written.

That all said, I found the writing style difficult to follow and that is why I gave it only 3 stars. The fact that 1 1/2 pages per chapter at times would be dedicated to what everyone was wearing made for tiresome reading. I know that we are looking into the mind of someone who could stand to take some real strong medication (stronger than what was available in the 80's) but I found that it took away from some of my enjoyment.

If you are a fan of books like Fight Club you should like this book.

Gross outs from a flat dimension.......2007-08-25

I would be willing to accept the defense that Ellis's quickie squib is in fact a satire of consumerism, a literary bit of photo realism if there was compelling art here. There isn't, however, and the defense falls apart. Ellis writes as if he had to submit this against a deadline, and he'd wasted his considerable lead time by living off his hefty advance. Ellis does a good job of diagnosing the narcissism of the eighties, but that by itself does nothing for either our understanding or empathy.

Average customer rating:

I couldn't stop laughing
Somewhat Interesting I guess
An engaging social satire
Wolfe, McInerney, Dunne . . . Ellis
this book sums up a true american psycho

American Psycho
Bret Easton Ellis
Manufacturer: Picador
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 033048477X

Customer Reviews:

I couldn't stop laughing.......2007-09-23

American Psycho is one of the few books I have ever read that REALLY made me laugh out loud. Patrick Bateman is like so many people that I met whilst climbing the corporate ladder in the eighties (I even saw some sad, long forgotten reflections of myself in there). Yes it's graphic. Yes it's violent. It's also funny in a way that few other satires are. Do yourself a favour and read the book!

Somewhat Interesting I guess.......2007-08-31

I read this book a few years ago after a woman living next door recommended it to me. It starts out fairly normal, but then after about 200 pages it gets extremely disturbing. It's the most graphically violent book I've ever read. I didn't really see the purpose of some chapters. One chapter if I remember correctly was a review of a whitney houston album. I guess it was supposed to be a satire? Maybe you weren't even really supposed to read chapters like that. Not my favorite book, but maybe I just didn't get it, I don't know.

An engaging social satire.......2007-08-05

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).

Wolfe, McInerney, Dunne . . . Ellis.......2007-06-18

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, is a very well written, even clever, time capsule of affluent New York in the 80s and 90s. Ellis, clearly with his own style, will appeal to those who enjoy Tom Wolfe (especially Bonfire of the Vanities), Jay McInerney (Bright Lights, Big City), Dominick Dunne's portrayal of the wealthy in virtually all of his fiction and any writings on New York in its state of heightened self-importance (coming from a native and long time New Yorker).

Ellis's novel clearly has a twist, a psychotic murderer among its fast moving Wall Street, uptown societal crowd. The protagonist. Written in the first person. At the same time the conspicuous consumption and vacuous living is both revolting and quite funny. Really more the latter. But very realistic given the time frame. Even today, not that much has changed. So, a story within a novel that gives the reader a flavor for a world unto itself, Manhattan.

Ellis's writing is, quite often, crisp, erudite and superb. ". . . there is an idea of a Patrick Bateman, some kind of abstraction, but there is no real me, only an entity, something illusory, and though I can hide my cold gaze and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable: I simply am not there. It is hard for me to make sense on any given level. Myself is fabricated, an aberration. I am a noncontingent human being. My personality is sketchy and unformed, my heartlessness goes deep and is persistent. My conscience, my pity, my hopes disappeared a long time ago (probably at Harvard) if they ever did exist. There are no more barriers to cross. All I have in common with the uncontrollable and the insane, the vicious and the evil, and all the mayhem I have caused and my utter indifference toward it, I have no surpassed. I still, though, hold on to one single bleak truth: no one is safe, nothing is redeemed. Yet I am blameless."

While much of the writing is more of the New Journalistic variety of Wolfe, the above describes the author's protagonist superbly well. The introspection of Bateman there, while deeply flawed, is at the same time, strangely true. All the warnings about the graphic nature of this book not withstanding, it is brilliantly written and a great and disturbingly funny read. It was, strangely, my first read of Ellis, it will not be my last.

this book sums up a true american psycho.......2007-06-06

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

Average customer rating:

Extremely "Hip"
Found it on the bargain table...
I just loved it!
Entertaining Look At a Modern Romance
So Much Fun!

The Psycho Ex Game: A Novel
Merrill Markoe , and Andy Prieboy
Manufacturer: Villard
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0812969057
Release Date: 2005-07-12

Book Description

Lisa Roberty is a successful screenwriter with an impoverished social life who’s enduring a demoralizing job at the mind-numbing sitcom You Go, Girl. Grant Repka is an obscure indie rock musician who, in his forties, finds his career surprisingly resurrected with the success of his comic operetta about the doomed romance of Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson. When Grant and Lisa meet after one of his shows, sparks don’t immediately fly—but e-mail addresses are exchanged. A my-book-for-your-CD trade and a couple of e-mails later, Lisa tells Grant that she enjoys his song “My Psycho Ex,” but warns him that where psycho-exes are concerned, she’s pretty sure she “could drink him under the table.”

Little does she know that this will become the opening salvo in an epic e-mail battle dubbed the Psycho Ex Game, a storytelling competition in which horrific tales of dysfunctional love and living with lunatics are volleyed with glee. The rules are simple; the point system, unique: the experiences that would normally leave someone running for the therapist’s office (humiliation, degradation, and complicity in psychotic behavior) just might win match point in the Psycho Ex Game. Now it’s Grant vs. Lisa as the wretched tales of his ex, the Junkie Queen of Darkness, vie with the woe inflicted by her ex, a tantrum-throwing actor/director widely known as Mr. Summer Box Office Record-Holder.

As the correspondence evolves, it surprises Lisa by offering her the kind of intimacy she has never shared with a man in the same room. Before long, what started as a friendly competition becomes a road map to an unlikely couple’s growing involvement, leaving both Grant and Lisa secretly wondering, “If we were to get involved, which one of us is potentially the next Psycho Ex?”

Written in alternating he said/she said chapters, The Psycho Ex Game is shot through with the acerbic humor of Merrill Markoe and the mordant observations that have made Andy Prieboy a literate voice in rock. The Psycho Ex Game is a hilarious dissection of injuries sustained on the front lines of romance—and the careful nursing that gets us battleready once again.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

Extremely "Hip".......2007-01-14

Stylish and unique. A different view of a love story. I see this becoming a cult classic.

Found it on the bargain table..........2006-05-29

And now I know why. It wasn't a horrible book, but it just couldn't keep me interested. I didn't LIKE the characters and I couldn't connect with them in any way. Some of the psycho ex stories were entertaining but most of them were just flat out scary. Maybe I've lived a sheltered life?

I just loved it!.......2005-12-03

characters were totally lovable and relatable; I have been that girl(and actually the female version of Grant too). The only thing I didn't love was how quickly I finished it!

Entertaining Look At a Modern Romance.......2005-11-12

One would think that the subjects of love and relationships have been thoroughly explored, given the number of fiction and non-fiction books that have been written about them. But, the topics can still be fertile ground in the hands of a skilled writer (or writers in this instance). Such is the case with The Psycho Ex Game. Markoe and Prieboy do an admirable job of depicting the ups and downs inherent in any romance. They are particularly effective in depicting two aspects: the astonishing manner with which e-mail can build intimacy, and the poignancy that comes from taking one's share of responsibility for a failed relationship. The manner with which they spotlight these aspects elevates The Psycho Ex Game above the standard relationship novel. All in all, The Psycho Ex Game shows there's still a lot of ground yet to cover in describing matters of the heart.

So Much Fun!.......2005-10-25

I was so excited about this book I went to the book's website hoping to find MORE. This story was just so well told by two incredible authors. And if you ask me, Lisa had nothing on Grant. He won by a long shot! His psycho stories had me aching for him. Lisa's ex was just a psycho, where Grant's had so many more issues. In fact, you'd have to think that Grant was psycho just for staying...actually, they both were. I wanted these two to live happily ever after together, but I think after knowing their patterns in relationships, they'd never make it...not with each other, or anyone else for that matter! You have GOT to read this book.

Tale of the Allergist's Wife and Other Plays: The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, Psycho Beach Party, The Lady in Question, Red Scare on Sunset

Average customer rating:

histerical
Very Funny Book

Tale of the Allergist's Wife and Other Plays: The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, Psycho Beach Party, The Lady in Question, Red Scare on Sunset
Charles Busch
Manufacturer: Grove Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

United States | Drama | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Drama | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0802137857

Book Description

Charles Busch is renowned for weaving popular culture, wicked camp humor, and biting social satire into an unusual and uproarious theatrical signature that has earned him the Outer Critics' John Gassner Award for Playwrighting and a Drama Desk Award for Best Play nomination. Of his latest play, The New York Times has written, "Uproarious ... wall-to-wall laughs ... Mr. Busch has swum straight into the mainstream and stays comfortably afloat there." Busch is the author of such plays as Vampire Lesbians of Sodom -- one of the longest-running plays in Off-Broadway history -- and Psycho Beach Party, a cross between Gidget and Spellbound. After a successful Off-Broadway run at New York City's Manhattan Theater Club, Busch moves to Broadway with The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, a hilarious comedy about a self-absorbed Upper West Side doctor's wife whose life is devoted to mornings at the Whitney, afternoons at the Museum of Modern Art, and evenings at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Her world is shaken and transformed when a childhood friend makes an unexpected visit.

Customer Reviews:

histerical.......2002-09-25

Charles Busch had my attention from the very start and he never let me down. Tale of the Allergests Wife as well as Psycho Beach Party were honestly 2 of the funniest plays i have ever read. his satire is astounding and yet makes perfect sense. anyone. who knew that a cross dresser could provide so much fun!

Very Funny Book.......2001-03-18

Even though the category is "Gay & Lesbian", these plays do not fit the category all that well...so if you are looking for gay or lesbian plays, this probably isn't the book for you. If you are looking for funny plays, this is the book for you. All of the plays in this book are good, though some can get a wee bit boring at parts. I especially like TALE OF THE ALLERGIST'S WIFE and PSYCHO BEACH PARTY, though all of them are great.

Average customer rating:

African Psycho
Alain Mabanckou
Manufacturer: Soft Skull Press, Transition Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1933368500

Book Description

Its title recalls Bret Easton Ellis’s infamous book, but while Ellis’s narrator was a blank slate, African Psycho’s protagonist is a quivering mass of lies, neuroses, and relentless internal chatter. Gregoire Nakobomayo, a petty criminal, has decided to kill his girlfriend Germaine. He’s planned the crime for some time, but still, the act of murder requires a bit of psychological and logistical preparation. Luckily, he has a mentor to call on, the far more accomplished serial killer Angoualima. The fact that Angoualima is dead doesn’t prevent Gregoire from holding lengthy conversations with him. Little by little, Gregoire interweaves Angoualima’s life and criminal exploits with his own. Continuing with the plan despite a string of botched attempts, Gregoire’s final shot at offing Germaine leads to an abrupt unraveling. Lauded in France for its fresh and witty style, African Psycho’s inventive use of language surprises and relieves the reader by injecting humor into this disturbing subject.

Average customer rating:

Not Free SF Reader
A Gem in Psychological Thrillers
Make no moistake: It's definitely pulp fiction
a classic
Pretty good. Just like the movie

Psycho
Robert Bloch
Manufacturer: I Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0743459075

Book Description

When the Bates Motel loomed up out of the storm, Mary Craine thought it was her salvation. The rooms were musty but clean, and the manager, Norman Bates, seemed like a nice enough fellow, if a little strange... .

Then Mary met Norman's mother. And the butcher knife.

The nightmare had just begun... .

Customer Reviews:

Not Free SF Reader.......2007-09-25

Mummy's boy murderer.

If you ever suspect that you might be in a horror movie scenario, don't stop at a dodgy looking creepy motel, with a rather creepy guy giving off some bad vibes. If you are stuck in the sixties, I guess you have some more excuse at not being au fait with what not to do to avoid the slaughterer in this scenario. Anyway, definitely a good book.

A Gem in Psychological Thrillers.......2007-04-06

This book leans more towards being a psychological read, rather than pure blood splattering horror.

Yes, Mary gets murdered and the same theme you have witnessed in the movie unfold here. She steals money, goes on the run, wrestles her inner demons and decides to go back home and face the music. The book shadows her life as she takes this path but takes an entirely different direction when she innocently meets Norman Bates - not knowing that her agonised self analysis and contemplations will be cut short as will her life.

Here you enter the mind of Norman Bates... the mental tortue... the feelings of inadequacies... the manifested fear... the sense of not belonging, but achingly, wanting to. Although Norman himself knows he does not belong to the 'normal' realm of society, he lacks courage and does nothing to change his life. Afterall, the comfort of what you have always known is a lesser evil to the comparative effort it would take to rebel - to have a family, friends, "be a man". And it also eliminates the harsh truth of society shunning you, deeming you unworthy.

The writing is very simple and easy to follow yet the simple thought processes of Norman are gripping. Overall, the atmosphere is one of subtle yet mounting sheer 'creepiness'. You cannot wait to turn a page, learn more of delusional Norman, what makes him do what he does and bring us right into what he has become. Which is, delightfully, one of the most complex psychopaths i have ever read about. A thoroughly thrilling psychological study with a well devised plot to keep the pages turning!

Make no moistake: It's definitely pulp fiction.......2006-02-16

And that makes it squarely average. Bloch was never a great, but always good writer, and Psycho as a book is simply a semi-interestingly told story. Yes, the film was fairly faithful, but the book had its differences. Worth reading if yoiur interest is there. Perhaps the most interesting thing about Psycho is that it was the first work of fiction, written or filmed, based on Eddie Gein's sick handiwork....

a classic.......2005-12-29

Screw those guys who did the two star reviews, I read this book in two days when I picked it up when I was living in Iowa. The differences between the novel and book are slight -- the way that Crane dies in the book is a lot more gruesome than in the movie. Bates in the book is an overweight momma's boy who dressed up in his mother's clothing and spoke in his mother's voice. Very chilling stuff when you think about it, Bloch wrote this novel in 1959 and before this one he was doing short stories for Weird Tales and wrote in the Cthulhu Mythos. What H.P. Lovecraft did for the supernatural genre, Robert Bloch did for the psychological. What you see with Psycho is something that hasn't really been done before in Gothic Horror, and with the film version this is evident. This is one of those books I can agree with Hitchcock on when it came to the screen. I picked this book up in 1998, and it is still one of those that can scare the crap out of the reader after it is long been read. The sequel is just as good as novel.

Pretty good. Just like the movie.......2004-11-16

I really enjoyed the book Psycho! It was highly shockin and the ending was awesome. I would recommend this book to kids 12+ but it was a good read!

Hip-Hop vs MAAT : A Psycho/Social Analysis of Values

Average customer rating:

First Comparative Analysis of Hip-Hop Culture

Hip-Hop vs MAAT : A Psycho/Social Analysis of Values
Jawanza Kunjufu
Manufacturer: African American Images
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0913543322

Book Description

This book ask and answers the questions What are Values? Where do we learn them? How do our values affect our decisions regarding abortion or adoption, marriage or "shacking", gun control and other controversial issues?

Customer Reviews:

First Comparative Analysis of Hip-Hop Culture.......2002-04-24

At the time this book came out, Hip-Hop was much more diverse than it was today. Jawanza analyzed how hip-hop effected African-American youth nationwide. He also compared it to Traditional African and American culture. This book is good for those who are learning about hip-hop culture

Average customer rating:

Horrifically disturbing, a classic example of what real talent can produce...
Simply Awful!
Don't look at it through your own eyes.
Nobody should LIKE this book.

American Psycho
Bret Easton Ellis
Manufacturer: MacMillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Action & Adventure | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Spanish | Foreign Language Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0330319922

Customer Reviews:

Horrifically disturbing, a classic example of what real talent can produce..........2007-06-15

When first skimming through or even reading in entirety the novel `American Psycho' one can made the assumption, wrong as it may be, that it's nothing more than a perverse catalog of sadistic events. Like I said, that assumption is wrong. Bret Easton Ellis is and will always be one of the most intriguing authors of our generation for he knows how to probe the mind with the things we often repel, satisfying our sense with his perversion while telling a story that, if stripped bare of it's disturbing gloss coating would resemble a detailed study on what makes us as a society so horrifying. `American Psycho' is no more a story of a serial killer than it is a story of a lost generation of self absorbed zombies who find more satisfaction and or horror in the detail of a co-workers business card than they do in a meaningful relationship or, yes, a sadistic murder.

The novel succeeds in being utterly spine-tingly due to Ellis' decision to make our psycho, Patrick Bateman (just me or was Ellis going for the obvious `Psycho' throwback...Norman Bates/Patrick Bateman), a first person narrator. In this way the reader not only knows the acts of this man but knows his feelings on the subject. The murders are all horrifying, gut-wrenching and not for the squeamish, but it's really the way in which Patrick recounts the events that are truly repulsive. As has been mentioned, he states everything in a blunt, matter-of-fact type dialog that portrays an air of corrupt morality, as if none of this even matters.

As the reader gets through the bulk of the novel he's forced to question how much of this is reality and how much of this is all in Patrick's head, and that for one is what makes this novel so brilliant. The answers are there but the reader will have to find them on his or her own. Bret refuses to answer the question for us in any point-blank fashion but leaves it to our own imagination and or astute deciphering to uncover the truth in it all. What this allows the reader to do is really probe into the mind of this man and discover he's not so different than us all. It's in this discovery that I was able to truly appreciate Ellis' madness/genius for he was able to take a prose that could and should repulse us all and make it relatable and very close to home. Patrick is a man so absorbed in the media, the pop-obsessed culture we live in that his whole life and purpose can be summed up in a `People Magazine' article. He's so impressed and influenced by what is pressed upon him by television and magazine advertisements that he's become dulled to the reality of the world around him. After reading this novel one is forced to face the idea that we're all just one designer pair of underwear away from slitting someone's throat.

Ellis' use of detailed description has turned some away from this novel. The fact that an entire chapter is devoted to the products he uses to clean himself may appear as needless and redundant but in actuality it proves to be a brilliant way to unravel this mans madness before the brutality of his crimes ensues. This mans mental soundness is brought into question every time he converses with his friends about mundane things such as brands of water and or the font of a specified business card. These men are so dulled as to the real issues at stake that the brutal slaying of a child gets nothing more than a passing remark. It's because of this void of any real feeling that Patrick finds murder and torture so essential for it's the only way he can feel anything. His life would have no meaning otherwise.

Underneath the gritty exterior lies the story of a man not unlike the rest of us. What Ellis has accomplished here is not something to be taken lightly or disregarded as trash for it's far from it. It may take more than the average reader to sit through and uncover what really lies within these pages for this is far from leisure reading. This is above all else a study of human interaction and human relations with each other but more importantly with ones self, and it exposes the power that society and culture impresses on an individual, good and bad. Ellis is in my book a literary genius and has given us one of the most powerful displays of raw talent available in your local bookstore.

Simply Awful!.......2007-01-27

I cannot believe how bad this book is, and I am only on page 94! It is a pointless, rambling piece of garbage. There is no point. Nothing. I am such a huge fan of the movie that I decided to read the book, and I am sorry I did. The movie moved along at a good pace and was fascinating to watch. It was funny, depraved, interesting and horrorfic. The book just rambles along. If you want something that gives ou information on name-brand clothes, restaurants, perfumes, colognes and hair gels and interesting places to visit, this is the book for you. If you are intetested in reading an interesting story, don't waste your time. This book sucks. Go see the movie. Nine out of ten times, the book is always better than the movie - not this one! The book cannot even compare to it.

.......2006-10-25

I don't think this book can be categorised - it is a cruel look at the yuppies of the late 1980's, with big bucks at an early age and a sense that everything is due to them. They are a disrespectful, arrogant and completely out of touch bunch. Just like everyone else they have their darker side, but some take it much further than others, as is the case with fitness/appearances-obsessed Patrick Bateman. At some point I wondered whether his violent outbursts were just a product of his imagination, a sign of his insanity. I found him a weak character despite his status and success - he fails at the most basic human relationships and has lost all sense of touch with reality - I think his violent deliriums are just a way to boost his massive ego and insanity.

Don't look at it through your own eyes........2006-07-20

I've read various Amazon readers' American Psycho reviews over the past couple years and find that most of them either loved or hated the book. Most of them get that the author is using satire and most of them can describe for you a nice summary, including the crux of the work: are those murders real or imagined; that is, is Bateman really a psychotic killer, or is he a harmless loser who takes out his angst against those around him in fantasy? Unless the author one day announces which side Patrick Bateman really falls on, there is plenty of evidence in the book to justify anyone finding reason to believe he indeed was a murderer or a dreamer. All this can be deduced by any reader.

What sets apart, I think, those readers who enjoy the read versus they who loathe it (aside, of course, from they who are simply offended by the graphic violence) is the (lack of) appreciation of point of view. I've heard and read many times that people find the book too distracted by or devoted to abstract and meaningless descriptions of periphery items or situations and by way of monotony. I argue that is the essential element that makes this book work, makes it real. If the objective of any author writing this book were to be simply submit a biographical piece, then he would do what many critics say and supplied just enough arbitrarily descriptive monotony to make the point clear that Bateman is void of real human emotion and moved on with the plot from there. That's not the objective though. The entire point of this book is that you are reading the thoughts, you are inside the mind of a psychotic individual. It is written as a psycopath would write it.

Personally, I am not that bothered by the graphic violence, but I don't care for it either. I think that is all noise. The cream of this book is in the trueness of the point of view (Bateman's narrative, that of a psychopath) Ellis maintains through this endless and seemingly meaningless monotonous descriptions of people, music, products, and paisley ties coupled with Bateman's equal parts insecurity --masked by vanity-- and disgust for his peers, superiors, and inferiors.

Nobody should LIKE this book........2006-07-11

American Psycho is a harsh commentary upon a society dominated by materialism and devoid of emotion, passion, caring or love.

Pat Bateman, the anti-hero of the book, is a suave, sophisticated Wall Street Yuppie. He seems to have it all, the good school, Harvard, the right job, plenty of money, great clothes, a beautiful apartment. He is handsome, fit, rich and is courted by beautiful women.

But from the opening of the book you realise that here is a man who is not living. He exists. And he exists vicariously through brand names, expensive restaurants, personal products. His life is simply a litany of consumption. He is in fact a non-person. Frequently his associates mistake him for other people, and he has trouble telling his associates apart. They are all a homogeneous and indistinguishable set of "in" people.

Bateman describes the murder of a prostitute in the same clinical voice as he uses when he describes the records of Genesis, or the features of his VCR, or how he makes love to his girlfriend, or the clothes and food in the local restaurant. All life is lived in a cold passionless clinical state of semi-awareness.

The lack of a real life is tearing Bateman apart. He searches for a passion, a reality of some kind. In his mind he plays out the murder of beggars, prostitutes and colleagues in vivid detail. But the lines blur. How much is played out in his head and how much is in his mind. Is the Chinese Laundry washing his blood soaked shirts? If not why does he still see stains? At times his violent fantasy world seems to be crossing the border into his daily reality. But how far is this happening?

The only times you see real emotion appear are when Bateman has to interact at a real level with others. He hates live music, why? Live music is emotional in a way records can never be. He is consumed by getting restaurant reservations. He fears having to stand in a crowded restaurant lobby, subject to the vagaries of random people, a situation where he has no control. He is far more comfortable dissecting bodies in his apartment.

So. Is he a murderer, or is it all in his head. At some point are we all a bit like Bateman?

Psycho Paths: Tracking the Serial Killer Through Contemporary American Film and Fiction

Average customer rating:

COULD HAVE BEEN A KILLER

Psycho Paths: Tracking the Serial Killer Through Contemporary American Film and Fiction
Philip Simpson
Manufacturer: Southern Illinois University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

History & Criticism | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Criminology | Crime & Criminals | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Books | The Simpsons | Amazon.com Stores | us-stores
ASIN: 0809323281

Book Description

Philip L. Simpson provides an original and broad overview of the evolving serial killer genre in the two media most responsible for its popularity: literature and cinema of the 1980s and 1990s.

The fictional serial killer, with a motiveless, highly individualized modus operandi, is the latest manifestation of the multiple murderers and homicidal maniacs that haunt American literature and, particularly, visual media such as cinema and television. Simpson theorizes that the serial killer genre results from a combination of earlier genre depictions of multiple murderers, inherited Gothic storytelling conventions, and threatening folkloric figures reworked over the years into a contemporary mythology of violence. Updated and repackaged for mass consumption, the Gothic villains, the monsters, the vampires, and the werewolves of the past have evolved into the fictional serial killer, who clearly reflects American cultural anxieties at the start of the twenty-first century.

Citing numerous sources, Simpson argues that serial killers’ recent popularity as genre monsters owes much to their pliability to any number of authorial ideological agendas from both the left and the right ends of the political spectrum. Serial killers in fiction are a kind of debased and traumatized visionary, whose murders privately and publicly re-empower them with a pseudo-divine aura in the contemporary political moment. The current fascination with serial killer narratives can thus be explained as the latest manifestation of the ongoing human fascination with tales of gruesome murders and mythic villains finding a receptive audience in a nation galvanized by the increasingly apocalyptic tension between the extremist philosophies of both the New Right and the anti-New Right.

Faced with a blizzard of works of varying quality dealing with the serial killer, Simpson has ruled out the catalog approach in this study in favor of in-depth an analysis of the best American work in the genre. He has chosen novels and films that have at least some degree of public name-recognition or notoriety, including Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris, Manhunter directed by Michael Mann, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer directed by John McNaughton, Seven directed by David Fincher, Natural Born Killers directed by Oliver Stone, Zombie by Joyce Carol Oates, and American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.

Customer Reviews:

COULD HAVE BEEN A KILLER.......2001-04-07

THE AUTHOR HAD A GREAT IDEA TO WRITE A BOOK ABOUT THE RISE OF THE SERIAL KILLER IN RECENT ('80s AND '90s) POP CULTURE, MOST NOTIBLY IN LITERATURE AND THE CINEMA. THE BOOKS HE CITES ARE THE RED DRAGON, THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (BOTH BY HARRIS), AMERICAN PSYCHO (ELLIS), THE ALIENIST (CARR), AND ZOMBIE (OATES). ON THE VISUAL SIDE, HE DISCUSSES MANHUNTER (MANN), TSOTL (DEMME), SEVEN (FINCHER), NATURAL BORN KILLERS (STONE), KISS THE GIRLS (FLEDERS), AND HENRY:PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER (McNAUGHTON). THIS IS A GREAT SELECTION OF WORKS TO USE TO ILLUSTRATE THE RISE IN POPULARITY OF THIS UNIQUE GENRE AS EACH HAS SOME NAME RECOGNITION OR NOTORIETY TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC. WHY THEN DO I ONLY REWARD THE AUTHOR'S WORK WITH 3 STARS? WHILE READING THE BOOK, I GOT THE DISTINCT FEELING THAT SIMPSON WAS TRYING TO IMPRESS ME WITH HIS DEGREES. TO COMPOUND MATTERS, HE MAKES IT HARD TO FOLLOW HIS DISCUSSION ON A CERTAIN NOVEL OR FILM IF YOU HAVEN'T READ OR SEEN IT. THE WORST PART WAS HAVING TO SLOG THROUGH 8 PAGES OF PREFACE AND THEN 25 (!) PAGES OF INTRODUCTION. I'M NOT ONE TO PUT DOWN A BOOK WITHOUT COMPLETING IT BUT IN THIS CASE I WAS SORELY TEMPTED BEFORE THE FIRST CHAPTER. HAVING SAID THAT, I'M GLAD THAT I PERSEVERED TO GLEAN THE GOOD PARTS OF THE BOOK. IT'S NOT OFTEN THAT I FIND SOMETHING ON MY FAVORITES (THE RED DRAGON, AMERICAN PSYCHO, AND MANHUNTER). THE OTHER BRIGHT SPOTS IN THE BOOK WERE THE 15 PAGES OF NOTES AND 10 PAGES OF WORKS CITED. WHILE NOT FOR MASS CONSUMPTION, THIS BOOK WILL REWARD THE PERSISTENT READER WITH SOME OF WHAT YOU'RE SEARCHING FOR ABOUT THIS GENRE.

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

Average customer rating:

Ellis Deserves Better
American Pyscho: Uncovered
EXTRA CREDIT
Ellis is a sicko, but it is great
Opinion on Ellis's American Psycho: A Reader's Guide

Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho: A Reader's Guide (Continuum Contemporaries)
Julian Murphet
Manufacturer: Continuum International Publishing Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Book Notes | Education | Reference | Subjects | Books

Study Guides | Reference | Subjects | Books

Study Guides | Reference | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Literature & Fiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Reference | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0826452450

Book Description

This is part of a new series of guides to contemporary novels. The aim of the series is to give readers accessible and informative introductions to some of the most popular, most acclaimed and most influential novels of recent years - from `The Remains of the Day' to `White Teeth'. A team of contemporary fiction scholars from both sides of the Atlantic has been assembled to provide a thorough and readable analysis of each of the novels in question.

Customer Reviews:

Ellis Deserves Better.......2004-08-24

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.

American Pyscho: Uncovered.......2003-04-23

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.

EXTRA CREDIT.......2003-02-24

Having read American Psycho several times since it's release, I'm surprised that it's taken somebody this long to put together something 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, this book allows me to further explore one of my favorite books and it's author. A little extra credit for the fans and a little insight for those who are not.

Ellis is a sicko, but it is great.......2002-06-17

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

Opinion on Ellis's American Psycho: A Reader's Guide.......2002-06-10

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.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books