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American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
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American Psycho (original 1991; edition 1991)

by Bret Easton Ellis

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13,865289419 (3.71)350
In a black satire of the eighties, a decade of naked greed and unparalleled callousness, a successful Wall Street yuppie cannot get enough of anything, including murder. In American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis imaginatively explores the incomprehensible depths of madness and captures the insanity of violence in our time or any other. Patrick Bateman moves among the young and trendy in 1980s Manhattan. Young, handsome, and well educated, Bateman earns his fortune on Wall Street by day, while spending his nights in ways we cannot begin to fathom. Expressing his true self through torture and murder, Bateman prefigures an apocalyptic horror that no society could bear to confront.… (more)
Member:posssy
Title:American Psycho
Authors:Bret Easton Ellis
Info:Vintage (1991), Edition: 1st, Paperback, 416 pages
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Work Information

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis (1991)

  1. 153
    Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk (sacredheartofthescen)
    sacredheartofthescen: Both about bored men in American society that found odd ways to fill their time and become what they want to be.
  2. 30
    The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson (gtross)
    gtross: I would be very much surprised if Bret Easton Ellis hadn't been influenced by Jim Thompson's first person narrative of a psychopathic mind.
  3. 30
    In the Miso Soup by Ryū Murakami (TheRavenking)
  4. 10
    Killer on the Road by James Ellroy (yokai)
  5. 10
    The Maimed by Hermann Ungar (askthedust)
  6. 00
    People Live Still in Cashtown Corners by Tony Burgess (ShelfMonkey)
  7. 00
    Crash by J. G. Ballard (amanda4242)
  8. 00
    Like Me: A Novel by Hayley Phelan (readingtangent)
  9. 00
    Zombie by Joyce Carol Oates (Aug3Zimm)
  10. 01
    The Seven Days of Peter Crumb: A Novel (P.S.) by Jonny Glynn (gooneruk)
    gooneruk: Peter Crumb is more intense, shorter, and more schizophrenic, but Bateman is a good cross-Atlantic mirror for him.
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» See also 350 mentions

English (261)  French (10)  Dutch (4)  Danish (3)  German (2)  Swedish (2)  Italian (2)  Portuguese (Brazil) (1)  Catalan (1)  Spanish (1)  All languages (287)
Showing 1-5 of 261 (next | show all)
Patrick Bateman is one of the most intersting characters I've read in a novel, and even after reading him mentally deteriorate as the novel progresses, I still can't exactly explain his character. His actions are precarious, and some of his most heinous acts have no rational behind them or are from trivial matters. For those wanting to give this a read, bear with the first couple 100-150 pages, as those are the slowest pages. The book really picks up pace after then. If you're coming from the movie, know that the movie was essentially a heavily-censored version of the novel. The kills are graphic and may make you feel queasy, especially since no demographic is safe (kids and animals included). The clothing descriptions and scenes are superfluous and can be difficult to read. The chapters on Whitney Houston, Phil Collins, Huey Lewis, etc. help accentuate his character, but they are skippable chapters.

Some things I noted
-Way too much cleansing and exfoliating, but he doesn't have time to floss?? Also no sun screen but uses anti aging products. He also says to shave the sideburns and chin for last, but upon further research you should shave your upper lip and chin for last.
-Classic business card scene
-Classic dry cleaning scene
-Patty Winters Show reflects his mental state in each chapter
-Christmas Party chapter and Bethany chapter were awesome
-His brother bagged Dorsia first attempt
-The death of the 2 girls in Paul Owen's place were brutal
-The rat scene
-Killing the 5 year old boy was so bleak ( )
  siamm | Jan 5, 2024 |
For the most part, this book is a classic satire on toxic masculinity, white privilege, and economic inequality. It is so well written that at times I wondered if Ellis was doing a damning condemnation on these things, or if he was admitting what was going on in the inner recesses of his own id. Obviously, the film, which was written to be a feminist criticism of various structures, has a much better P.O.V. that doesn't force you to wonder if you should be laughing with it or at it.

However, my big problem is the length of the book. He really needed an editor to cut down on some things. It starts out okay; with an understanding of Patrick's psyche, snapshots of his life, and the eventual murders. But it becomes far too repetitive in the middle sections. The ending is fine, especially as the writing style--like the voice change and Patty Winters Show--evolve into surrealism. But the repetitiveness, especially on the sex and murder descriptions become a bit too much. The film fixes this however, by having the Psycho style thrills of witnessing a killer being chased after.

Still, as we continue to live in a world where social inequalities along gender, race, class, and consumerism continue to upset people's fragile grasp on reality, this holds up as a great book. Recommended. ( )
  JuntaKinte1968 | Dec 6, 2023 |
Reread, after over a decade and remembered why I love this book. ( )
  ElektraBurgos | Oct 23, 2023 |
This is a great satire where the bouts of shallow, tedious and uninformed conversation serves to hypnotize you and let the shock and gore come on through with the detached, non-sequitur quality that makes it work. It also has some wonderfully absurd and comedic moments. Unfortunately it really outstays its welcome by hammering the same chord for 400 pages. At 300 this would be a really great, tight novel. Unfortunately you're saying "yeah I get it" a lot before the yup, yup, yup of the end. Very similar to Funny Games. ( )
  A.Godhelm | Oct 20, 2023 |
A full third of the way into this novel I was thinking it couldn’t stay this quiet much longer; even with nothing happening though, it was still like sitting watching a loudly ticking unexploded bomb. The author was clearly doing something right, whatever it was, and doing it brilliantly…
    We’re in the 1980s, Manhattan’s financial district, and the 26-year-old Patrick Bateman works on Wall Street—or at least, he has an office he goes to, because there are no descriptions of actual work. Instead, his life is an endless round of fashionable restaurants and bars; of manicures, facials and work-outs at the gym. It’s not just a particular time and place being described here though—̕80s music, yuppies, the Walkman, the Filofax—because there have always been people in the world like Bateman. To sum him up in a single word: contempt. He has contempt for the homeless begging on New York’s streets every day, contempt for cab drivers and waiters, contempt for anyone who doesn’t share his meticulously detailed eye for designer clothes and accessories, for his obsession with grooming, with style. Because that’s what he is: style with nothing substantial behind it. I’ve heard this novel described as a Clockwork Orange for the 1980s, but it’s nothing like it: there, Alex takes real pleasure in things—in Beethoven’s music, in ultra-violence—while here, Bateman seems incapable of pleasure. He has everything material (looks, money, the freedom to indulge himself any way he pleases) but enjoys none of it. Does he even really do any of the things he eventually describes, the tortures and the murders (they don’t quite add up and he seems to get away with it all far too easily)? Or are these his fantasies of what he’d like to do to the people around him?
    This isn’t about “the 1980s culture of greed”. What it does do, in razor-sharp prose, is bring to life some of the people who have existed in every decade, in every city, and are still running things now. At one point Bateman says to himself, “It would make absolutely no difference if I was an automaton” and maybe that’s the fascination of this novel. The scenes for which it’s notorious are in fact a very small part of it; my own horrified fascination came from spending a few days inside Bateman’s good-looking, well-groomed but utterly empty, head. ( )
  justlurking | Oct 19, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 261 (next | show all)
"American Psycho" von Bret Easton Ellis ist ein kontroverser Roman aus dem Jahr 1991. Die Geschichte spielt im Manhattan der späten 1980er Jahre und wird von Patrick Bateman, einem wohlhabenden und erfolgreichen Investmentbanker, erzählt. Oberflächlich betrachtet scheint Bateman ein typischer Yuppie zu sein, doch unter seinem polierten Äußeren verbirgt sich eine dunkle und gestörte Persönlichkeit.

Im Laufe der Geschichte wird klar, dass Bateman ein psychopathischer Mörder ist, der brutale und sadistische Taten begeht. Der Roman befasst sich mit den Exzessen der materialistischen und hedonistischen Kultur dieser Zeit, wobei Bateman zwanghaft auf Konsum, Mode und die Oberflächlichkeit seines sozialen Umfelds fixiert ist.

In der Erzählung verschwimmen die Grenzen zwischen der Realität und Batemans zunehmend aus den Fugen geratenem Geist, so dass der Leser den Wahrheitsgehalt der Ereignisse in Frage stellt. Der Roman erforscht Themen wie Entfremdung, Nihilismus und die entmenschlichenden Auswirkungen einer Gesellschaft, die vom Schein besessen ist.

"American Psycho" ist bekannt für seine expliziten und anschaulichen Gewaltdarstellungen, die bei seinem Erscheinen sowohl Beifall als auch Kontroversen auslösten. Ellis' Werk wird oft als satirische Kritik am Exzess der 1980er Jahre und als Kommentar zur moralischen Leere einer Kultur gesehen, die materiellen Reichtum und Oberflächlichkeit in den Vordergrund stellt. Der Roman ist inzwischen zu einem Kultklassiker geworden und hat Diskussionen über die Art seiner Erzählung und die darin enthaltene Gesellschaftskritik ausgelöst.
added by vibesandall | editLove Books Review (2023)
 
I read “American Psycho” for the first time recently, and this is certain: This novel was ahead of its time.

added by vibesandall | editThe New York Times, DWIGHT GARNER (Mar 24, 2016)
 
What’s rarely said in all the furor over this novel is that it’s a satire, a hilarious, repulsive, boring, seductive, deadpan satire of what we now call--as if it were something in the past--the Age of Reagan.
added by vibesandall | editLos Angeles Times, Henry Bean (Mar 17, 1991)
 
That was its point, argues Irvine Welsh – it is a brilliant depiction of the savage society we’ve created
added by vibesandall | editThe Guardian, Irvine Welsh
 
The first novel to come along in years that takes on deep and Dostoyevskian themes…. [Ellis] is showing older authors where the hands come to on the clock.
added by vibesandall | editVanity Fair, Norman Mailer
 

» Add other authors (45 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Ellis, Bret Eastonprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Culicchia, GiuseppeTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Lenders, BaltTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
Information from the French Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
L'auteur de ce journal et le journal lui-même appartiennent évidemment au domaine de la fiction. Et pourtant, si l'on considère les circonstances sous l'action desquelles s'est formée notre société, il apparaît qu'il peut, qu'il doit exister parmi nous des êtres semblables à l'auteur de ce journal. J'ai voulu montrer au public, en en soulignant quelque peu les traits, un des personnages de l'époque qui vient de s'écouler, un des représentants de la génération qui s'éteint actuellement. Dans ce premier fragment, intitulé Le Sous-Sol, le personnage se présente au lecteur, il expose ses idées et semble vouloir expliquer les causes qui l'ont fait naître dans notre société. Dans le second fragment, il relate certains évènements de son existence.

Fedor Dostoïevski
Le Sous-Sol
Une des grandes erreurs que l'on peut commetre est de croire que les bonnes manières ne sont que l'expression d'une pensée heureuse. Les bonnes manières peuvent être l'expression d'un large éventail d'attitudes. Voici le but essentiel de la civilisation : exprimer de façon élégante et non pas agressive. Une de ces errances est le mouvement naturiste, rousseauiste des années soixante où l'on disait : "Pourquoi ne pas dire tout simplement ce que l'on pense ?" La civilisation ne peut exister sans quelques contraintes. Si nous suivions toutes nos impulsions, nous nous entretuerions.

Miss Manners (Judith Martin)
And a thing fell apart
Nobody paid much attention


Talking Heads
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for Bruce Taylor
First words
ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE, is scrawled in blood red lettering on the side of the Chemical Bank near the corner of Eleventh and First and is in print large enough to be seen from the backseat of the cab as it lurches forward in the traffic leaving Wall Street and just as Timothy Price notices the words a bus pulls up, the advertisement for Les Misérables on its side blocking the view, but Price who is with Pierce & Pierce and twenty-six doesn't seem to care because he tells the driver he will give him five dollars to turn up the radio, "Be My Baby" on WYNN, and the driver, black, not American, does so.
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And if another round of Bellinis comes within a twenty-foot radius of this table we are going to set the maitre d' on fire. So you know, warn him. - Timothy Price
"Beat the shit out of him," the girl suggests, pointing at me. "Oh honey," I say, shaking my head, "the things I could do to you with a coat hanger."
"Blitzen was a reindeer"
"The only Jewish one," Peterson reminds us.
...McDermott, in a state of total frustration, asked the girls if they knew the names of any of the nine planets. Libby and Caron guessed the moon. Daisy wasn't sure but she actually guessed...Comet. Daisy thought that Comet was a planet. Dumbfounded, McDermott, Taylor and I all assured her that it was.
"Lobster to start with? And for an entrée?"
"What do you want me to order? The Pringle Potato Chip appetizer?"
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In a black satire of the eighties, a decade of naked greed and unparalleled callousness, a successful Wall Street yuppie cannot get enough of anything, including murder. In American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis imaginatively explores the incomprehensible depths of madness and captures the insanity of violence in our time or any other. Patrick Bateman moves among the young and trendy in 1980s Manhattan. Young, handsome, and well educated, Bateman earns his fortune on Wall Street by day, while spending his nights in ways we cannot begin to fathom. Expressing his true self through torture and murder, Bateman prefigures an apocalyptic horror that no society could bear to confront.

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