American Psycho

[Koa]

Has anyone read this? I've just started it so no spoilers please Just wanted to know if anyone has anything to say about it.

So far, one thing I've noticed is that some descriptions or even dialogues remind me of Dorian Gray and the aesthets in general... well in a modern key of course!

[scruffy_danny]

I was thinking of reading that too, simply because I absolutely loved the film. Theres so much style in it. When you've finished say if it's a book definately in need of reading as i might take it up soon.

[Koa]

I vaguely remember someone telling me about the film... I'll let you know what I think of the book.

[seth]

For what its worth, I actually prefer the movie over Ellis' book. I read it well before the film came out and I had a hard time deciding whether or not I liked where the author was coming from. Alot of the violence is simply pornographic without much levity or irony. The irony is more apparent in the film, and I'm sure it is what the author intends as well with all that over the top slaughter. Never the less, I could never be certain while reading the book and after I put it down I just had to sit back, exhausted by how bleak everything was. There are few laughs, but when it gets to what Bateman does, its a real tough read. That's just my opinion though. Buy the new dvd instead.

[Koa]

I'm still not very far in the book but I'm getting more and more curious... I guess I'll have to have a look at the film after I finish the book.

[Koa]

For what its worth, I actually prefer the movie over Ellis' book. I read it well before the film came out and I had a hard time deciding whether or not I liked where the author was coming from. Alot of the violence is simply pornographic without much levity or irony. The irony is more apparent in the film, and I'm sure it is what the author intends as well with all that over the top slaughter. Never the less, I could never be certain while reading the book and after I put it down I just had to sit back, exhausted by how bleak everything was. There are few laughs, but when it gets to what Bateman does, its a real tough read. That's just my opinion though. Buy the new dvd instead.

I'm halfway through the book and I'm starting to see your point... Does anything happen, or is it just all the time about his expensive dinners, his designer-clothed friends, sex scenes and some slaughtering every now and then? I mean, it seems like there is no plot, and I don't see if there is a point to all the violence and everything... Violence and shallowness are present in many books, but there is usually a purpose to them, I was thinking for example of A Clockwork Orange, which certainly makes a point... Here I fail to see the point... I'll probably go on to the end (though yesterday I was about to drop it on a pages-long sex scene... I'm not a puritan or stuff, but it feels like spying on someone while they're doing their things... ) but I'm starting to doubt there will ever be a point... Shame, the writing is good, it seems just wasted in going on like that...pointlessly, as I was saying.
I'm really curious about the movie though, it's a very 'filmic' kind of writing somehow...

[kilted exile]

I read this about 5 years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. I also enjoyed his earlier books particularly less than zero.

[Koa]

Could you elaborate your answer kilted? I'm really looking for other viewpoints on this, and I'm looking forward to finishing it to have the whole picture myself... (but take your time, cos otherwise it might be a spoiler for me )

[Koa]

Finished it... ok, there's some sort of point if you really look for it... Just some sort of attention seeking in a way, like Bateman feels some sort of loneliness, people dont really listen to each other, most people mistake him for someone else and call him wrong names...and so on. But still, I'm not totally convinced, cos this point is just like 10% of the book, and the rest is all those detailed scenes which were really disgusting but of course that was the purpose. I wonder if there's meant to be no point after all.

I'm really stupid but... what with the chasing scene? And why someone said he dined with Paul Owen which was killed by Bateman or so we though? Was that only a bunch of fantasies... I think I didnt really understand the book after all, but sometimes I really wondered if things were meant to be 'real' in the fiction of the book, or some of them were just Bateman's mental ramblings...

Now my next read will be some Solzhenicyn... the difference will be abysmal.

[kilted exile]

Ok, now that you've finished I'll give my opinion. I also got the impression that Bateman was talking to himself and not commiting the murders in the book. The film I think portrayed this idea more clearly than the book did.
Another point is that his freinds were too tied up in their own lives and making money, to notice that their "freind" was having troubles.

[Koa]

Another point is that his freinds were too tied up in their own lives and making money, to notice that their "freind" was having troubles.

Yeah that was what I was trying to say... So ok, we got a firm point now.
But so...does it all happen or not? Or only some of it? Is there a way to know? I guess not. I' m curious about the movie but I'm not so sure I have the guts (uh, the image fits doesnt it? ), I've became boringly unable to watch 'horror' scenes, even if I used to be able to stand the occasional blood & stuff in X-files...

[kilted exile]

The violence in the film isnt too bad....imho there is almost a comic nature to some of it.

[Mark F.]

I saw the film a while ago, and don't remember the violence being unbareable. Then again I'm a horror fiend so gore doesn't bother me.