A Review of American Psycho from 16 Year Old Me

After having watched American Psycho for the first time last night, it reminded me of the brilliance of the book I first read a couple of years ago, which sparked a slight obsession with Bret Easton Ellis and prompted me to write a review on the novel which I will include below. So to any of you who have not watched it, or don't quite understand, I want to explain why I think this novel is one of the most brilliant works of our time and quite literally epitomises the dangers of consumerist culture through the yuppie culture of the 80's, instead of  ‘a how-to novel on the torture and disembodiment of women’. So, here is 17 year old me's initial reaction to the novel, which I find to be significant in the way in which it taught me something indisputable about society and the world in which we inhabit. I had always felt a certain sort of blandness in society, advertising and the grotesque way in which brands act as a reflection of someones character, bringing them some sort of backwards status in such a backwards society. This epitomised perfectly for me the monotonous and boring outlook I felt when observing 100 teenagers looking the same talking about how individualistic they are and how 'no one gets them'. This distaste for materialism is something that has stuck with me ever since.  

The novel to me and many others has a message that was initially missed. Through his somewhat twisted work, Ellis presents the reader with a rather rude awakening to the bland and eminently fake face of humanity. One where we experience sheer pleasure through possession of material objects that provide us with a strange glamour, all of which contribute to our meaningless status within society which we hold so much value and significance to. The novel is largely based around the criticisms of materialism and the yuppie society of the 80’s, which Ellis deeply despised. Throughout the countless murders performed by Patrick Bateman, Ellis almost suggests that this intransigent, unyielding, lust for murder is the novel’s Protagonist’s way of reacting to the things in his life which he deems fake and being surrounded by a world of rich yuppies infatuated by who has the newest Armani suit or whether one should be sipping Evian or San Pellegrino, the only thing tangible in a world so fabricated seems to be the action of chopping through human flesh. Within a society pursuing rigidly defined happiness, where everyone is resolutely wrapped up in the possession of material goods and achieving a status and power that is perceptually impressive to those below them yet inevitably meaningless, Patrick Bateman somehow embodies this failure to fit in. Bateman’s isolation, perpetual bafflement at the behaviour of others around him and his constant search for some sort of meaning even though he knows there is nothing tangible beneath surrounding surfaces, creates an almost endearing character. His narcissistic yearning for a larger entity of power he believes he can retain simply through seizing the lives of countless individuals and being in possession of their flesh proves to be useless. Instead, a rather comical character of a man obsessed with how his hair looks whilst chopping up a prostitute or the flecks of blood on his new marble fireplace left behind from a graphically tortured and mutilated rat, present Bateman, a psychopathic serial killer, in an almost pitiful light. Albeit brutish and corrupt in his being, Ellis presents us with a man tortured by an innate feeling of helplessness as he fails to connect any meaning to the material world that enshrouds and encompasses every element of his being.

 There has been much speculation around the novel by critics who question whether the murders actually happened or whether they were all in Bateman’s head. Looking back on the novel, it does in fact become hard to tell if anything Bateman tells us is actually true. It becomes doubtful whether he is in fact as incredibly good looking as he describes himself to be, or whether he actually does manage to attract women as easily as he suggests, or whether he even is a killer? All this is an indictment of the culture as a whole, issued by Ellis himself. The novel is presented as a collision of absurd reality and deranged fantasy that encompasses not only Patrick Bateman’s mind, but society itself. A quote given by Ellis himself, some years after writing the novel, I find to be a particularly good embodiment and explanation of the novel as a whole. ‘A lot of it had to do with my frustration with having to become an adult and what it meant to be an adult made in American Society. I didn’t want to be one because it was all about status. Consumerist success was really the embodiment of what it meant to be a cool guy- money, trophy girlfriends, nice clothes and cool cars. It all seemed extremely shallow to me. Yet at the same time you have an urge to conform’. Overall, American psycho encompasses that echelon of society where everyone aims to achieve the dizzy heights of perfection set by ads in glossy magazines that prove to be futile. In summary, if I have not given too much of this away, I would urge you to read this novel if you want something thought provoking and an overall good book written by an incredibly talented author.