American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
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Book Reviews of American Psycho
Book Review: A Review and a Criticism
Summary: 3 Stars
I believe that it is about time that critics and readers worldwide were let in on the great lie embedded in the cultural subtext of "American Psycho". This lie is perpetrated for whatever artistic reason Bret Easton Ellis has found fit. The novel has inveigled millions of readers to an interpretation of human nature as base and groundless in intrinsic value. It has furthermore convinced them of the state of nature and the true face of mankind. It attempts to pull back the veil and show human beings as baseless creatures, convinced of the power of their own egos. Patrick Bateman doesn't merely imagine killing women and street gutter hobos, the book makes-good his thoughts. Patrick Bateman brutalizes and maims people with little to no falter into the realm of realism. This is no science fiction novel of a wicked, futuristic and cannibalistic society. This book establishes the ever evolving pathos of Patrick Bateman as a wickedly remorseless and fully-self-invested id. Patrick Bateman kills people, he enjoys it, and as the book progresses he develops a pathos that is stark in its depictions of radically violent behavior. The realizations of snuff porn-like violence has a poignant and rather upsetting realism to it that describes the sexual gratification of pure violence. Both of them are equally wicked and ungratifying comments of the human being. What most of the readers, and professed fans of the novel do not focus on, is the very real possibility that Patrick Bateman is, in truth, an idiotic coward who slums about in his wicked psyche pondering various painful ways to destroy a human being. The truth is different however. Patrick does not commit any radical acts of violence, instead he merely resides in the basement of his primal bestial urges, without act. He is a powerless pervert. That this is a commentary on the uncommon power of the rich, the ability to supersede societal laws and norms, is not license to condemn general society along with the free radicals of the bunch, like Patrick Bateman. We have no more emotional connection to the persons that he kills than to the various characters that populate his life, characters better described simply as those he does not kill. Patrick Bateman's whole world is pure fantasy. What is dangerous and unbecoming to society is the interpretation that Patrick Bateman killed people, and no one cared. This dangerous emotional pivot takes the better part of mankind's positive and generous nature grinding it into a chunky bone meal of blood and ichor. This vile character is a despicable anti-hero and representative of the modern man. A being who has forsaken value and concern because the great satirist, Nietzsche chided mankind for its more puerile motivations. These are the leftover intellectual products of Nazi thinking, dressing Nietzsche up in a clown suit for the Nazi propaganda machine. Patrick Bateman, the novel professes, is the modern creature. Bret Easton Ellis is simply an iconoclast that picks off easy targets and radicalizes them without fleshing them out as interesting material. They are all impulse. It bores me and makes me vaguely ill, that such an imagination, as Ellis obviously has, may find these as important and essentially gratifying illustrations of where mankind's condition. Bret Easton Ellis, despite this, has hesitated to comment on the character or the prevailing motif of the novel. We are left in tow with an interpretation that is horribly inconsistent to general social temper. What bothers me most is the feeling that the world, as defined by Ellis, is terribly nihilistic spilling over into absolute antipathy. That critical readers embrace this interpretation with a certain type of relish, advancing it as an epiphanic statement concerning mankind, is nauseating. Ellis writes with such conviction and ardor that it appears that he wholeheartedly embraces this intellectual understanding. This is not merely social commentary, or at best, satirical dance, for Ellis, this is real sport. Sure he has caricature stuffed into almost every page of the novel, but Ellis describes everything from violence to Versace clothing with almost lavish, religious aplomb. You can feel that he enjoys writing this novel. This is frightening. I don't like Patrick anymore than I like Ellis. This is not to say that Ellis is a despicable human being for writing this novel, it just makes him a lot less relevant. Ellis owes an apology to his readers as well as to the human creature for painting it in such garishly angry tones. You can get by with a lot less cynicism in your life if you pass this novel by. If you don't, its not that you won't like the novel, you very well may, I don't know, people's tastes are peculiar. Perhaps you will get rewarded for writing a review like mine, or not, either way the novel is impressive, insofar as it is a massively negative portrayal of the human being. If you like that, get it, if you don't, don't.
Book Review: What do you when you have to write a book and you are out of ideas?
Summary: 1 Stars
Repetition of boring or dusgusting scenes come after each other in this "literary" work. The writer was clearly out of ideas and stuck to the formula "gore+boredom+fashion tips from eighties (really?)" I only started to read this book because friend of mine said that's it's the only book that he could not finish because of gore and another one said that he couldn't finish it because it was so boring.
seriously, don't waste your time, whatever the autor was "trying" to say can be paraphrased "I was a yuppy and I hated it," spend the 10 dollars on ice-cream.
Book Review: Bless you, Wall Street...
Summary: 5 Stars
Horrifying book. Mr. Ellis has a masterpiece, the original book. Thank you: Ronnie Reagan, Wall Street, New York, Materialism, Racquet Clubs, Phil Collins, and of course Huey Lewis and The News. Great book and also a fantastic film. Christian Bale cut his "American" cinema teeth off of this book. The film & book do differ greatly. READ THE BOOK FIRST. If you a film addict and literate then watch the movie.Book Review: Amazing
Summary: 5 Stars
I don't even know where to start in describing this horrific, terrifying, wonderfully written novel. Well, I guess I just have.
I started and finished this book in August of this year, and it was a very rewarding experience. It really brought me into the horror genre, a genre I really had no interest in before.
Patrick Bateman is an amazing character, his dialog and his thoughts and dreams are funny, horrific, and just plain witty. It's tremendously fun to sit behind Bateman's eyes and read his day-to-day activities.
Nothing really happens for the first half of the book, most of the time Bateman is just hanging out with "friends" or watching porn, but even in these seemingly bland sections Ellis' writing really draws you in.
An amazing book by an equally amazing author, but not for the faint of heart.
Book Review: Brilliantly frightening satire
Summary: 5 Stars
American Psycho satirizes the status-obsessed designer-label contemporary American consumer culture at the same time that it does a better job than any horror novel of depicting the personality of a psychopath. Sadly, we realize that Patrick Bateman's killings are his only way to retain a connection to human life and to an individual identity, and in the end we aren't even sure he has managed to maintain that. This is a great book to read only if you have the stomach to wade through the many incredibly gruesome sex and death scenes.