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American Psycho

23 Oct 03
Reviewed By Rogue

You're young, good-looking and successful. You work on Wall Street, you're wealthy. You own an expensive apartment in the most sought after part of Manhattan. You wear designer clothes. You work out in an exclusive health club. You date beautiful women; in fact you can have virtually any woman you want. You're Patrick Bateman.

You live in a world of blandness. Nothing touches you. You have no friends, just cardboard cut-out yuppie colleagues. All the women you date are air-heads. The poor disgust you. The rich you despise even more. Endless sex and pornography has no erotic effect on you. You lust for blood. You exist to inflict pain and torture on unsuspecting victims. You kill without mercy, without a thought. You're a psychopath. You're Patrick Bateman.

Bateman's existence is brought to gut-wrenching life by Bret Easton Ellis's incredible American Psycho. This is not a story with a complex plot. This is the narrative of a man so detached from the world around him that he barely exists. But how did such a person come to be? What was it that drove Patrick Bateman to the edge of sanity and beyond the boundaries of normality? Is the existence of evil (or what society defines as evil) nature or nurture? These are all questions you will ask when reading this book. Strangely, or indeed very cleverly, Bateman is not portrayed as some insane lunatic, far from it. He can survive perfectly well within his 'normal' life. In fact, he passes between his two worlds without any difficulty. At one moment he is sipping champagne and eating haute cuisine in an exclusive restaurant, the next he is feasting on the intestines of one of his many victims. Amazingly, Easton Ellis has not written this novel as some form of second-rate schlock-horror. This is biting satire, sharper than a slice of lemon wrapped around a razor blade. And it's darker than the deepest recesses of a black hole.

I can't pretend that the book doesn't shock. In fact I have never read any book that can repulse you as much. The murders, for there are many, and violence are portrayed in graphic detail and will challenge the stomachs of most. But in a strange, almost voyeuristic way, each one compels you to read further, willing you to explore the depths of depravity alongside Bateman. But just as the book squeezes your guts in a vice, the next turn of the page will make you laugh out loud.

This is a truly influential examination of the corruption of money, power, greed and vanity. An explosion of the myth of apparent success. In essence, Patrick Bateman is a vehicle, a vessel, for exploring the worst of society's excesses. It challenges your perceptions of reality, and makes you wonder whether a 'Patrick Bateman' lives right next door to you, right now. How would you know? The truth is, you wouldn't. Consequently, you start to wonder whether it is only the 'Batemans' that can see the world for what it really is.

Shocking but remarkable, this is a landmark book that can only be appreciated if approached with a truly open mind. Even if you are squeamish, take a deep breath and take a trip into Patrick Bateman's world. But please remember to come out again.

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