American Psycho
by Bret Easton Ellis
List Price:
Our Price: $7.00
You Save: $7.95 (53%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.08 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Bret Easton EllisEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1991-03-01
ISBN: 0679735771
Number of pages: 416
Publisher: Vintage
Book Reviews of American Psycho
Book Review: American Sicko
Summary: 1 Stars
This book went back and forth from being totally laughable to totally hideous. I knew it would be bad from the start, but nothing prepared me for what it ended up being.
As we all already know, Patrick Bateman is the poor little rich kid from Wall Street mostly spending his days behind his desk reading Sports Illustrated between lunch and raquet ball appointments. He happens to be completely devoid of all human feeling. His life is an obsession of designer suits, what everyone is eating, and how much money people are making. Knowing what brand of shoes one is wearing trumps remembering someone's name in Patrick's world. Patrick's life is so empty he constructs elaborate and disgusting fantasies in order to simply feel SOMETHING. Or are they fantasies? The answer is going to be up to each individual reader and I'll leave it at that since the answer really isn't that important anyway.
Aside from going back and forth from laughable to hideous, it also teetered between boring and gross. Exactly how is it interesting to know every detail of this guys morning routine and what he washes his hair with or exfoliates with? What was the point? And the diatribes about suits and exotic food in every chapter simply had to be skipped over because of the tediousness of the nonsense. For the most part, the gore I could handle more so than the repetition of this mess.
And the gore is another story. Because of the predictability of this story, one can easily forecast when it's going to be "bad." Thankfully, there were many parts I was able to skip and save myself some nightmares. For the parts I did make it through, I seriously have to wonder about this author's mental stability, and this is perhaps the most disturbing part of this book entirely. It's frightening to know this stuff is floating around in someone's mind, and this same person is wandering the same streets as unsuspecting individuals. If the writer is sane, I can only conclude this was a sick indulgence he needed to get out his system for whatever reason. Can't say I'll be reading any more of his books.
Finally, this book simply wasn't written very well.
There was no character building at all. I get that Patrick was intended to be a plastic, empty suit but there had to more in there. Ellis teased us by showing glimmers of humanity in Patrick and then snatching them away with no explanation. Expanding on this would have added so much, it seemed he took the lazy way out by simply slam dunking it. It was rambling without a resolve in many of the scenes. The painfully detailed, out of left field editorials of the music world left me hating Genesis, Hewy Lewis, Whitney Houston etc, not to mention INXS.
I'll be the first to recognize I probably was not the intended audience for this and therefore, just didn't get it.
So proceed with caution. I tend to believe everyone knows, like me, his or her limits. I know I can take a lot, but this book reached, if not exceeded my boundaries. I'm not sure I ever reached that before in a fiction read. Keep the book hidden from your kids, and don't put it on your list of things to buy for grandma. It's a harsh, difficult, painful and uncomfortable read, but also tedious and boring. I guess to each his own, but this one definitely wasn't for me.
Summary of American Psycho
The controversial novel about a handsome serial killer who moves among the young and trendy in 1980s New York.Ellis, Bret Easton Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in books for palahniuk fans
The Handmaid's Tale (Everyman's Library)by Margaret Atwood
Everyman's Library; Published: 2006-10-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops:
The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Deadby Max Brooks
Three Rivers Press; Published: 2003-09-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.00
Price in other shops:
American Psychoby Bret Easton Ellis
Vintage; Published: 1991-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.76
Price in other shops:
Dogs and Other Short Storiesby Derek Dubois
CreateSpace; Published: 2009-04-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.95
Paul Bowles: The Sheltering Sky/ Let It Come Down/ The Spider's House (Library of America)by Paul Bowles
Library of America; Published: 2002-08-26; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $16.95
Price in other shops:
House of Leavesby Mark Z. Danielewski
Pantheon; Published: 2000-03-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.86
Price in other shops:
The Contortionist's Handbookby Craig Clevenger
MacAdam/Cage; Published: 2002-09-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.64
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
A Clockwork Orangeby Anthony Burgess
W.W. Norton & Co.; Published: 1986-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.39
Price in other shops:
The Informers (Movie Tie-in Edition) (Vintage Contemporaries)by Bret Easton Ellis
Vintage; Published: 2009-03-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.73
Price in other shops:
Survivor: A Novelby Chuck Palahniuk
Anchor; Published: 2000-01-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.74
Price in other shops:
Lunar Parkby Bret Easton Ellis
Vintage; Published: 2006-08-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.85
Price in other shops:
Glamorama (Vintage Contemporaries)by Bret Easton Ellis
Vintage; Published: 2000-03-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.99
Price in other shops:
Chokeby Chuck Palahniuk
Anchor; Published: 2008-08-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.49
Price in other shops:
The Rules of Attractionby Bret Easton Ellis
Vintage; Published: 1998-06-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.50
Price in other shops:
Less Than Zeroby Bret Easton Ellis
Vintage; Published: 1998-06-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.25
Price in other shops:
Fight Club: A Novelby Chuck Palahniuk
W. W. Norton; Published: 2005-10-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.54
Price in other shops:
American Psycho (Uncut Killer Collector's Edition)Lions Gate; Release date: 2005-06-21; DVD
Best price: $7.02
Price in other shops: