Welcome back to Books With Cause. Let’s dive into my next review. After revisiting the film during Cineworld’s Halloween season, I finally crossed American Psycho off my reading list — and I was surprised by just how much sharper, darker, and more satirical the book is than the movie ever hinted at. Patrick Bateman’s voice is terrifying, hilarious, and unforgettable.
For whatever reason, this is a book that has passed me by for too long. Like many people, I had seen the film a couple of times, and I attended a recent screening of American Psycho at Cineworld as part of their Halloween season. For whatever reason, I hadn’t considered it to be a horror film. I don’t know why, because when you consider the ingredients of the story, then of course it’s a horror. And a bloody good horror at that. With the Cineworld screening fresh in my memory, I decided that it was finally time to check this book off my to read list.
American Psycho is the story of Patrick Bateman. A high-flying investment banker in his mid-twenties. He works on Wall Street, is engaged to Evelyn, and spends a lot of his time with men who are just like him. He is vain and narcissistic. He gives a lot of attention to his workout routine and the way he looks, spending a great deal of money on skin lotions and tonics. He seems to eat every night in different restaurants, and he has an obsession with Donald Trump. It’s worth noting that this book was published in 1991, back in a simpler time when Trump was only a celebrity businessman. The thought of him becoming President can have been nothing more than a twinkle in the eye unless Ellis knows more than he’s letting on.
But Bateman also harbours a darker side – and I’m not talking about his Trump obsession. Bateman’s dark side is that he lives a double life as a serial killer.
American Psycho is written in the first-person present tense. Much like many of Chuck Palahniuk’s style. Both authors are also known for what is known as transgressive fiction. With Fight Club being published in 1996, it is likely that Ellis was an influence on Palahniuk. But of course, this was my first time reading an Ellis novel. As a fan of the Palahniuk books I have read, I wasn’t surprised to find myself enjoying this too.
The first-person style is almost like a diary and takes us deep into Bateman’s psyche. Although I wouldn’t say it necessarily means we understand him or his motives all that well. Bateman is the archetype of the unreliable narrator. We never know how much of what he says we can believe, and that’s what makes the book so unpredictable. Bateman is also quite entertaining. There are sections where he discusses his music taste in detail. Specifically, he gives us the history of the bands Genesis and Huey Lewis and the News. While these sections don’t serve the plot in any way, they’re still highly enjoyable.
Of course, enjoyment is subjective, and there were moments in this book for me that were a bit slow. There were passages where nothing seemed to happen at all. This makes the book quite slow in places. There also seems to be a lot of pages where the only thing being discussed is which restaurants the characters have reservations at. This does have an element of comedy because there are countless restaurants in this book, each with pretentious names.
This brings me to the themes of the book. Consumerism is a key theme. Everything is treated as being disposable, whether it’s the must-have gadgets or women. Much like the restaurants come in and out of fashion. While one week they’re struggling to get a table at a restaurant, the following week they might be embarrassed to be seen there.
I would argue the other major theme is that of identity. I get the impression that Bateman doesn’t really know who he is, he only knows who society thinks he should be. It’s an identity he wears like clothes that don’t really fit. There’s a likelihood that Bateman embraces the serial killer side of him because it’s something unique to him. In a world where everybody seems to be the same, it’s the only thing that is strictly his.
If you have seen the film, you will recognise some scenes and dialogue as lifted from the book. But there are also some differences. Within the book, there are some extremely graphic scenes. Scenes too graphic that the book has been banned in some places around the world. The book also led to Ellis receiving death threats and some speculation that it would be the end of his career. Thirty-four years later, he’s still here, and so is this book. Check it out.
My Goodreads rating: ★★★★☆ (4 stars)
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