American Psycho

American Psycho is a modern criticism of American society set in the 1980's narrated by Pat Bateman. The novel is virtually plotless, and is filled with endless monolouges on topics ranging from Fashion Designers to bands- and essentially forces us to come to terms with issues that are woven into society that many people would rather ignore.

The book starts in a taxi cab,  and is instantly narrated in a dark, satirical humorous way- almost every sentence includes a vast description of specific products or brands. As the novel continues and this doesn't cease, we begin to realize that we're viewing the novel through Pat's eyes. He sees the world in a totally consumerist way, as he is not able to relate to feelings, emotions or other people (this is due to him being a psychopath). In addition to highlighting the out of control consumerism in the 80's, Ellis shows us that Patrick, and all the people he associates with in the novel, have no empathy or compassion for anyone but themselves. All of this is highlighted when Pat and his friends go to many restaurants and spend enormous amounts of money-and barely eat any of their food, but taunt and ignore all the homeless people on the streets of New York.

The first half of the novel is funny, flawless and provides an excellent portrayal of the era, however the writing doesn't stop there- and the second half of the novel contains the most disturbing scenes I have ever read, despite being equally well written. It is not only the scenes of rape, torture and violence that are disturbing, but also Pat's internal monologues which reveal a total lack of empathy towards his victims that contributes to the scenes of horror. Although at many points in the novel it is suggested that Pat is simply hallucinating, or is delusional about the extent of his murders- none of his friends or co-workers ever suspect anything is wrong with him. He often informs them that he is a murderer, or confesses to his crimes, but they are too self centered and wrapped up in their own lives to notice (which again provides a criticism of the way society worked in the 1980's, and perhaps still is today)


The real downfall of the novel is it's lack of plot (which wouldn't be an issue if it was much shorter) and a review of the times stated "At 400 pages, American Psycho is probably unfinishable except by adolescents and sociopaths"  

 In conclusion, American Psycho was filled with racism, sexism, homophobia, materialism and was utterly narcissistic-which all perfectly conveyed the character and the criticism's the writer was trying to put across- but I would never read it twice! If you think i'm exaggerating then you could probably try it but in all honesty-some passages made me feel a little sick (and i've read plenty of violent books and seen plenty of films etc.) All in all, a mixed review but unless you have incredible patience (or only read the first half) I wouldn't reccoment it.