American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis - analysis and review

 

Disclaimer: Monsta Reader is affiliated with bookshop.org and Waterstones. If you should make a purchase through any of the links in this blog, I might earn a small commission from the sale. However, this does not affect the price of any items, and it does not influence the content of the blog.

Patrick Bateman is twenty-six years old and works on Wall Street. He is handsome, charming and intelligent. But, Bateman lives a dual life that takes in both the American dream, and its worst nightmare. 

Patrick is one of literatures most monstrous creations. He is almost entirely devoid of all human emotions, caring for the material and the fashionable only. To the point that even other lives are but a source of entertainment and amusement.

This novel is brutal, and bleak.

American Psycho is the dream of wealth, the desire for the material and status symbols, taken to its conclusion - a gigantic and unquenchable desire for more. Nothing is ever going to be enough, because the fashions and the technologies that Mr. Bateman chases are ever updating and improving. And so, the protagonist is left with nothing more than an emptiness that can never be filled. His nightmare world is a reflection of the dream.

I think that this is why Ellis decided to make the character - the successful Wall Street man - an unfeeling and violent killer; it truly is the extreme conclusion of anyone whose dreams and pursuits are made of surface stuff and status symbols. People become objects of pleasure and amusement too, and sometimes, Bateman literally turns people into objects. 

Bateman's world is all surface. With the right haircut, the right clothing, the right music, you are beautiful, but the beauty is only skin deep. And underneath there is something toxic. Indeed, this book is a warning; beware of the dreams that are made of flashing lights and pretty faces, because the bright colours and smiles might just be a distraction, a lure to draw you into a trap.

This really is a shocking novel, and not for the squeamish or easily offended, but a very good book that is well worth a read. A clever book that draws the readers attention to just how easily we can be distracted, from the profound and meaningful, by societies obsessions with the bland and vapid.

You can purchase American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis here.

Thank you for reading. And, just before you go, can I ask that you please consider supporting this blog with a coffee from ko-fi.com - the caffeine keeps me turning pages!

I resist ad space here, wishing to generate more than just sales in this blog. But, with writerly ambitions, I throw myself on the kindness of my readers to support this blog.

So, if you can, support the blog here. And, thank you, every reader and supporter!