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American Psycho

Bret Easton Ellis

Start date: June 21, 2022

Why we're reading this: Controversial and generally misunderstood
[close] Controversial and generally misunderstood

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Feb 18, 2011 mark monday rated it did not like it

Shelves: all-fucked-up, murdertime

ever see that video Criminal, the one where a winsome and pathetic fiona apple is surrounded by empty beer bottles & video equiment as she writhes sadly in a closet, in the backseat of a car, and in a tub as some dude rubs his feet all over her face? ugh. this book is like that shitty, creepy video, except times 100. just thinking about parts of it makes me want to take a shower and rinse the muck off. Criminal had arty direction by an interesting director that i like, Mark Romanek. American Psy ...more

94 likes · Like · see review

Mar 25, 2008 Brad rated it it was amazing

Shelves: faves, notorious, to-read-again

When a book sticks with you, you know it is powerful. It may not be entertaining, and it may be downright disturbing, but if you can't get it out of your head it is most certainly great, and that is my experience with American Psycho.

For me, it's about the music.

Bret Easton Ellis did something miraculous within Patrick Bateman's killings: he destroyed the music of Huey Lewis and the News, Genesis and Whitney Houston. Before every nasty killing, Bateman goes on a diatribe about the music of one o ...more

81 likes · Like · see review

Apr 10, 2013 Kamakana rated it it was amazing

Shelves: pomo, literature, zz1991, aa-unitedstateslit, horror, comic-satire, xxxeslit, all-five-star, bestsellers, crime

if you like this review, i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com

031118: this is a much much later addition: one of my efriends is now reading this, curious how he takes it, felt I should qualify my reaction to the prose versus the pose of the author. this work is not beautiful writing, in the sense of poetic, arresting words, but in this way is consistent with the first person narrator. this prose is deliberately comic and most effective when recounting advertising speak of his shampoo, his ...more

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Apr 06, 2020 Mark rated it really liked it

I'm sitting in an office trying to fix a computer so that someone can keep someone else alive.

On the shelf to my right sit thirty computers, that, if I'm unsuccessful, will take this broken computer's place.

And somewhere in the world someone is being born. Someone who will, should this someone else fail to live, take someone else's place. ...more

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May 28, 2011 Tom rated it it was amazing

For a period piece, especially one set in the 80s, to be more than a nostalgic "remember when" is rare. More often, they feel dated and wearying. American Psycho does both and is a stronger novel for it. Patrick Bateman's obsession with 80s materialism draws a clear parallel between the lunacy of a serial killer and that of a yuppy, blurring the lines between obsession with violence and obsession with accumulation. The message is only heightened now that the Walkman Bateman so frequently uses ha ...more

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Jun 21, 2009 Rachelle rated it liked it

I liked this book because it was so very American and so very real. What a joke people are sometimes and what danger that can culminate. I admit I did not finish it because it became too graphic. I was pregnant at the time and couldn't allow myself to have that kind of shallowness and violence seep into my soul. ...more

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