American Psycho

American Psycho is a novel by Bret Easton Ellis, and it falls under the category of Transgressional Fiction. The book is written in first person, and narrarated by the main character, Patrick Bateman. Patrick is an exorbantly wealthy wall-street broker, who has a near obsession for everything materialistic. Patrick's running monologue often includes detailed descriptions of people's outfits and items, including their price and brand. Patrick finds him self disgusted by people who are dressed poorly, as well as jealous of those who are dressed better than he is. There is one scene in the book that is a particularly good example of this trait; Patrick is out to dinner at an exclusive resteraunt with his co-worker's when he decides to show them his new business cards so they can admire them. However, another collegue of Patrick also reveals his new business cards, which everyone at the table, including Bateman, agree is nicer. Patrick is almost unable to control his rage over having been shown-up.

It is not until late in the book that Patrick reveals that he is isn't just a self-absorbed yuppie, but also a serial killer. Throughout the book Patrick commits a series of horrific murders involving torture, sexual abuse, and sometimes cannabalism. Patrick killings seem to be purely random; co-workers, hookers, lovers, a child at the zoo. Patrick describes each one of these murders with the same detail as he does armani suits and crystal ash trays, as well as the same emotionless separation. The detailed and horrifying nature of the violence made this book difficult to read at many points. I chose to skip over many of the more graphic scenes because I found them so disturbing. Although American Psycho carries a clear and very important message about greed and depravity in our consumer driven and materialistic society, I find that the shocking, gruesome, and gratuitous violence detracted from the message instead of adding to it. Ellis went so far to try and shock the reader and evoke a response, that it actually took away from his point and made me focus instead on how throughly sick and disgusting this book itself was instead of the character. Ellis could have toned down dramatically the violence in this book and it still would've conveyed the same message.