I’m on the verge of tears by the time we arrive at Espace, since I’m positive we won’t have a decent table. But we do, and relief washes over me in an awesome wave.

American Psycho is a book about Patrick Bateman, a vice president at Pierce & Pierce on Wall Street. He is a handsome, sophisticated, and charming man, but there is something that others don’t know about him - that he is a brutal serial killer. It is novel written by Bret Easton Ellis, and was notoriously taken down from his original publisher for its violence.

I would never recommend this book to anyone. It has a weird flow, full of long meaningless dialogues and has a stream of consciousness narration style that makes it a difficult read at times. It’s also filled with the most horrible schemes and murders that made my stomach turn. As far as plot, there is very little - after the first 100 pages of the book, there is little point in reading on, as it just seems to be the same thing over and over again (with increasing violence and madness).

So, what makes this book interesting? Patrick is a textbook example of a psychopath, and his thought process that is revealed through the narration, is immensely interesting to dissect. His reactions to small things, his inner dialogue of how he wants to kill people, and the way he treats others, all seem to point to a deeper problem within him. Through the book, I felt that his actions all had deeper meanings and intents.

One thing I also really enjoyed was that the narration was extremely inconsistent. The author himself stated that he was not sure if Patrick really committed the murders, or simply thought them out in his mind. There seems to be no consequences for the murders that he acts out, which may hint that they were never actually committed. There are bits of clues that Patrick leaves behind, but in the end, the author really leaves it up to the reader to decide.

Bret Easton Ellis also has a brilliant way of pointing out the flaws of this society and time period. There are many hilarious and satirical moments between the characters, and at a certain point, you start to feel bad for the bankers, because their lives are completely meaningless. Their happiness is what brand their suit is, where they are able to get dinner reservations, and how much their annual bonus comes out to be. They are defined by the jewels that they wear and the yachts that they party on. Class is essentially a competition, a sport-like system, reflective of Thorstein Veblen’s theory of the “leisure class”. Ellis criticizes mass consumerism in the United States in a very elegant way, and points out how damaging a lack of individuality can be to society overall.

In conclusion, I never want to read this again, but I have to admit it was pretty interesting read. I ended up reading the whole book in just two days, not because it was particularly great, but because each page left me in a state of suspense. I might check out the movie because it stars Christian Bale.

Overall Rating: 7/10