American Psycho

by Bret Easton Ellis

American Psycho is a thriller novel by Bret Easton Ellis published in 1991. It is a first-person narrative of the life of a wealthy young Manhattanite and self-professed psychopathic serial killer. The graphic violence and sexual content generated much commentary at the novel's release. A film adaptation was released in 2000 to mostly positive reviews[1] although the film was heavily edited and did not convey the graphic sex and violence scenes as literally as in the novel. That same year, Ellis approved emails collected under the title "AmPsycho 2000 Emails" that were sent from main character Patrick Bateman to his therapist.[2] Users could sign up to receive these emails at Universal's website for the movie.

Set in Manhattan and beginning on April Fools' Day 1987, American Psycho spans roughly two years in the life of wealthy young investment banker Patrick Bateman. Bateman, 26 years old when the story begins, narrates his everyday activities, from his daily life among the upper-class elite of New York to his forays into murder by nightfall.

Bateman comes from a privileged background, having graduated from Philips Exeter Academy, Harvard (class of 1984), and then Harvard Business School (class of 1986). He works as a vice president at a Wall Street investment company and lives in an expensive Manhattan apartment on the Upper West Side. He embodies the 1980s yuppie culture. Through present tense stream-of-consciousness narrative he describes his conversations with colleagues in bars and cafes, his office, and nightclubs, satirizing the vanity of Manhattan yuppies.

The first third of the book contains no violence, and is simply an account of what seems to be a series of Friday nights, as Bateman documents traveling with his colleagues to a variety of nightclubs, where they snort cocaine, drink a variety of alcoholic beverages, critique fellow clubgoers' clothing, trade fashion advice, and question one another on proper etiquette.

Beginning with the second third of the book, Bateman begins to describe his day-to-day activities, which range from committing brutal violence (such as the torture of a young woman by trapping a rat in her cheese-smeared vagina) to such mundanities as renting videotapes and making dinner reservations. Bateman's stream of consciousness is occasionally broken up by chapters in which Bateman directly addresses the reader in order to critique the work of 1980s musicians, specifically Genesis, Huey Lewis and the News and Whitney Houston.




I just got up to the second third

I've seen bits of the movie on youtube but I'm not too sure if I want to read the book now...

Iiiiii wanna read that! I wanna see the film too... Tis awesome

Gah I really want to read this. And watch the movie. It seems like my kind of novel...