American Psycho
(Brett Easton Ellis)
In this novel Brett Easton Ellis shows a unique and relentless talent for observation, offering every minute detail of his characters clothing, from their designer shoes, to the features of their brand new hi-fi system. American Psycho is a sophisticated and unnerving retrospective examination of the 1980s and the coke fuelled, self obsessed, mercilessly greedy, materialist Yuppies who have come to symbolise the era of obscene wealth and conservative nationalist rule and its consequences.
Essentially the novel explores a simple idea, belonging. It?s written in the first person and the reader is left to ponder how much of the writer is inherent in his creation. Patrick Bateman is a psychopath who not only kills his many victims but experiments with their corpses. He is numb to the outside world. Sex, love and a sense of belonging have no meaning to him. The only way he can feel emotion, any emotion, is to kill people and to do the vilest things to their corpses. Anyone who dislikes violence within the media (in this case a novel) should stay well clear of American Psycho. The extreme and graphic sexual violence features such deplorable and grotesque acts as dying women having a very much alive, and hungry, rat inserted into her vagina.
Ellis asks many questions in this book about the nature of life in the big cities of America. He offers no easy answers and expertly juxtaposes the relentless violence with moments of unequalled comic genius. His ability to play on words leads to moments of sublime enjoyment:
?I?m into murders and executions? can become ?Mergers and acquisitions? in the blink of an eye.
None of the many supporting characters in the novel suspect that their friend, co-worker and lover could lead a double life as a mass murderer. The reader is led down a dead end alley of disbelief as we observe Bateman, fear him and eventually, unbelievably, grow to like him. American Psycho is a harrowing experience. But its comic moments, unique narrative structure, deft and humorous dialogue and its ability to make the reader think is more than enough to redeem its shocking, yet necessary, violent content.
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