There are most likely a thousand different blog posts, videos and articles talking about this book and the film that was adapted from the text. A cursory glance shows me that many people are discussing the ending, mainly, due to its vague and open nature. I’m sure if I dug a little deeper I would find people picking apart every character, nuance, affectation and, of course, murder. I’m only going to assume these things because, to be honest, I’m happy with how I felt at the end of the book and I don’t really want to delve too far into Bateman and the ensemble cast.
I’d avoided American Psycho for the longest time. I’d seen the film which only half impressed me – Bale is brilliant, the direction is great, but it never gripped me. The story comes to life in the book for one reason and that’s that we’re inside Bateman’s mind. We’re his direct audience and the film isn’t truly able to capture that. I have to wonder, if the book was adapted today whether the creative team would be able to take more chances and risk more. The book, contrastingly to many other novels, is about telling rather than showing. We hear Patrick talk about each murder, each act of depravity and how they make him feel. Ellis doesn’t show us the murder of the bum, the escorts, etc… Patrick tells us, as if we were sat with him in the Dorsia enjoying a five course meal.
I’d avoided the book because I didn’t think it could possibly live up to the hype that surrounds it. People had dropped hints about scenes, mainly the ones that differed between the book and the film. I’d heard talk of rats, coathangers, drugs and I suppose I’d already constructed so many of the scenes in my head. It was a lazy excuse because the book was certainly something that’s in my ‘wheel house’ – I like fiction that is surreal, dark and subversive. The only reason I picked it up to read it was because I’d be stuck in town for two hours with no book (rookie mistake) and happened to walk past it on a shelf.
This isn’t a review per se, despite what the tags and categories on this post say. I find it difficult to review a book that has been out in the world for so long. Many others before me have done them better, plus most, like me, have already made up their mind about whether or not they want to read the book. I wanted to write about how reading it made me feel beyond the obvious reactions to the violence, though I want to go into that too.
Reading American Psycho is an overwhelming experience in many ways. Ellis bombards the reader constantly with information which plays very well alongside the idea that the book symbolises capitalism, which is more apparent now than it was back then. Reading the novel felt like a busy day on social media – talk of what was eaten, what is being worn, gossip, Trump. So much of it is still relevant, because we’re constantly connected to companies that want to sell to us, to news that changes our mood, to the emotions that course through each other every day. I feel sad that I didn’t get to read it before the social media boom, because I think the constant talk from Bateman would feel more alien, whereas to me, it felt normal.
The same could be said for the violence. While it is awful, descriptive and extreme, in an odd way it became freeing, which it was to Bateman himself. The diatribe that assaulted Bateman each day pushed him into thinking that the violence was a release, it became his time to breathe. Of course, he saw the women and men he killed as things, rather than people. He sees everyone and everything as consumable or disposable, much like advertisers view the buying public and our information.
I have to wonder how much of Bateman’s psychotic tendency is in his mind. We see, at various times, how even he doesn’t believe what he’s doing. We see people call him by the wrong name repeatedly – a sure sign that everyone is interchangeable – and he’s forever voicing his darkness while those around him talk over or ignore him. American Psycho plays brilliantly with the convention of narrator and reader. Are we meant to believe everything he says? Does he fantasize these things in order to get through his life? Does he feel the pressure and burden of wealth and popularity which makes him target those who idolise those aspects or even humanise them?
Patrick voices that he just “wants to fit in”. Don’t we all? Whether its within society at large or within a niche, that’s why he pays attention to TV, clothing, technology… he wants to be a part of something bigger. Which is also why he kills, to be bigger than everything else – to play God.
Reading the book became a multi-layered task which was exhausting, but so worthwhile. Some chapters focus on dinner conversation over twenty pages which perfectly sums up how we all fall in line with convention and listen, even though what’s being said is worthless or meaningless. Entire chapters are devoted to analysing the careers of Whitney Houston, Genesis and Huey Lewis, because it’s what Patrick is MEANT to know and us, in turn. He goes into incredible detail about clothes, but not because he loves them, but because everyone expects him to and they expect him to be a certain way.
I wish I’d read this book as a teenager. I’m not going to sit here and state that everyone should read it – the violence is sickening in places and is always shocking (but isn’t that the point?!) – but the commentary on life is second to none. Ellis basically wrote a book telling us not to fit in, not to conform to society and to break convention. Just don’t do it by murdering prostitutes.
I love this book and I will defend it to the grave. The writing switches from poetic to anarchic, from trite to explosive. The entire novel forces the reader to question everything, including what is acceptable in fiction. It’s a work of sheer genius. It moved me emotionally watching Patrick live with his actions, it made me laugh (because really, it’s a dark comedy) and it pushed me out of any and all comfort zones. It’s not for the squeamish, but then neither is life itself.
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