Best New Reading of 2004 : American Psycho
I intended to read American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis for years, but never got around to buying it. Last year I received an Amazon voucher for my birthday, so I went ahead and bought it. Of course I didn’t read it for months once I received it, but I’m sure that surprises no one!
American Psycho took a while to get into. The constant detailed descriptions of what people were wearing was distracting for the first 30 pages or so, and it took me a while to get to the point where it didn’t bother me. After that however it became a fascinating read. Patrick Bateman as the protagonist is clearly a disturbed individual and just how sick and deranged he is is gradually revealed. First of all we get the occasional mention of people he has had run-ins with in the past, before we gradually get details of what actually happened. Later in the book we move on to graphic descriptions of how Bateman passes his time, and it really is extreme.
I wouldn’t say that I enjoyed the book, but I would say that it is a good read. It is also the most disturbing book of fiction that I’ve read. Bateman is a psycho, but we gradually see him sliding further into insanity throughout the book. How the book will end is unsure throughout, and I must admit that it ends in possibly the most disturbing fashion, but I won’t spoil that for you.
As was pointed out to me by my sister so far we’ve had a list of either science fiction or history books, or in one case both simultaneously, well this is the first book that doesn’t fall into one of those categories. I do read other things too!