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A review by gmackie04
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This is a really hard book to rate. If it was about how I view it as a piece of literary art then I’d probably give it a 4/5. It does a fantastic job at what it’s trying to achieve. The repetitive, shallow, fake, lazy and jumped up day to day activities of these Wall Street yuppies is perfectly displayed throughout the descriptions, plot, characters and particularly in the recurring motifs of characters referring to each other with the wrong name, caring a huge amount about the minutiae of what clothing matches, and not caring/mishearing Bateman when he says things about being murderous. The sex and violence are also incredibly vivid and grotesque. For all of this Brett Easton Ellis has done a great job.
However in terms of personal enjoyment I’d probably give the book closer to a 2/5. It can be incredibly repetitive and straight up boring for long bouts where the entire plot feels like lunch-dinner-drinks-club with the occasional murder of a homeless man or prostitute tossed in without much development. The incessant describing of every piece of clothing each character is wearing no matter how long they’re interacting with Bateman for also got pretty boring. But I can appreciate that things like that are largely down to my own lack of knowledge or interest in designer clothing or, for example, restaurants and bars in New York.
A caveat to that which was pretty funny was the section in which Bateman talked about working out and I knew exactly the companies and types of machinery he was talking about, was interested in the style of his workout and agreed with his opinion on forms of cardio. So maybe I would enjoy the book more if I could understand the more complex undertones of insanity I’ve heard are implied by the parts of it I’m not knowledgable on.
Finally the sex and violence made me seriously uncomfortable. I know that that’s the point but it’s so overly graphic and although i wouldn’t call myself a squeamish person it often made me want to put down the book.
The plot itself is pretty solid if a bit artsy. The development Bateman goes through is interesting if not quite nonlinear in a sometimes slightly jarring way.
However in terms of personal enjoyment I’d probably give the book closer to a 2/5. It can be incredibly repetitive and straight up boring for long bouts where the entire plot feels like lunch-dinner-drinks-club with the occasional murder of a homeless man or prostitute tossed in without much development. The incessant describing of every piece of clothing each character is wearing no matter how long they’re interacting with Bateman for also got pretty boring. But I can appreciate that things like that are largely down to my own lack of knowledge or interest in designer clothing or, for example, restaurants and bars in New York.
A caveat to that which was pretty funny was the section in which Bateman talked about working out and I knew exactly the companies and types of machinery he was talking about, was interested in the style of his workout and agreed with his opinion on forms of cardio. So maybe I would enjoy the book more if I could understand the more complex undertones of insanity I’ve heard are implied by the parts of it I’m not knowledgable on.
Finally the sex and violence made me seriously uncomfortable. I know that that’s the point but it’s so overly graphic and although i wouldn’t call myself a squeamish person it often made me want to put down the book.
The plot itself is pretty solid if a bit artsy. The development Bateman goes through is interesting if not quite nonlinear in a sometimes slightly jarring way.