What is the point of banning books? I hope that the people who work so hard to get books banned realize that, in the act of banning the book, they’ve simultaneously catapulted the same book to instant notoriety, thereby guaranteeing that more people will read it now that it’s ‘banned’ than probably would have read it when it was ‘acceptable’. But I digress (what’s new?). Every once in a while I take a look at the banned books list, and then go seek out one of the books on the list. When the movie version of American Psycho came out, I knew I wanted to see it, but I also knew I wanted to read it first. Not only am I a little particular about reading books before seeing the movies, but I knew it was on my favorite book list too.

Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho is narrated by the titled American Psycho, Patrick Bateman. On one hand, Patrick is the quintessential yuppie. The book takes place in the 80’s. Bateman lives in New York City and works on Wall Street. He spends hours upon hours (and pages upon pages) discussing how much time and care he puts into his physical appearance. He goes into great detail to explain the restaurants he eats in, what he orders, the people he works with, the never-ending pursuit of one-upping his colleagues, the numerous hot women (hard-bodies) that roam the streets of New York, the club scene, the quests for cocaine, Whitney Houston’s debut album, and oh-so-much more.

Of course, if it were just that alone, we’d all be bored, the book never would have been banned, and it most likely would have faded into book oblivion. Therefore, as you most likely already have an inkling, there is another side to Patrick Bateman. Between the seemingly innocuous events of his very busy social life, Patrick spends his time torturing, maiming and murdering different people.

Whether or not you’ve read American Psycho, you’ve most likely heard that there is much debate over whether the less savory events in the book take place solely in the narrator’s head, or if he was relating ‘true’ events. I’ve read numerous debates on the internet, pointing to such and such ‘clues’, and I’ve come to form my own opinion. If you care to know my thoughts on the matter, please send me an email (on my profile page).

I actually read the book a few months ago, but have been having a hard time actually putting together a review. Ellis has a way with words, and amidst all the thinly veiled rips on shallow people, there are passages truly deserving of the ‘black comedy’ label. Those are definitely diamonds in the rough, however, the rough in this case being the incredibly long, bloated, boring passages about clothes, music, talk shows. I realize the point Ellis was trying to make, pointing out the insanity behind how much appearances matter to some people, but if, as a writer, you’re putting your audience to sleep, it matters not a bit how true your point is, it’s missing the mark.

As for the violence, the gore, the reasons I was afraid I wouldn’t make it through the book… it was rough, but there wasn’t nearly as much as I thought there would be. The first half of the book has none, and then it slides downhill in a snowball effect, getting bigger, bolder, bloodier (fine, that’s not going with the snowball analogy, but you know what I mean). And what about the sex? Yes, there’s sex. It’s graphic. Some ends in violence. Some just ends. Sex and violence, violence and sex. They both run rampant through this book. Bateman relates both the sex and the violence in such a matter-of-fact, detached way, that it’s much easier to read than I thought it would be. Even he notices his detachment three quarters of the way through the book, after he’s trapped a rat inside a girl’s… well, you know… he says:

I can already tell that it’s going to be a characteristically useless, senseless death, but then I’m used to the horror. It seems distilled, even now it fails to upset or bother me. I’m not mourning, and to prove it to myself, after a minute or two of watching (edited for grossness) I use a chain saw and in a matter of seconds cut the girl in two with it.

My final thoughts and recommendations? Yeah, I can see why people tried to get this book banned. Do I agree with that attempt? Nope. Then again, I don’t really agree with book banning at all. It was definitely worth reading once, but be prepared to skim through some of the more boring passages and/or, depending on your sensitivity levels, the more violent passages.

A bit o’ fun trivia (thank you wikipedia)

~ Feminist activist Gloria Steinem was among those vehemently opposed to the release of this book. Steinem also happens to be Christian Bale’s stepmother (Christian Bale played Bateman in the movie version).

Join the Banned Books Write-Off!

This review has been part of pestyside’s Banned Book Write-Off. Go here for a list of participants and rules, as well as a link to a list of other banned books.


Recommended: Yes