The blurb:

'Five years ago Less Than Zero caused a sensation. Now Bret Easton Ellis has done it again with American Psycho, a bleak, bitter and aversive novel about a world we all recognise but do not wish to face.

Patrick Bateman is 26, handsome, sophisticated, charming and intelligent. He is also a psychopath. He works on Wall Street by day earning a fortune. At night he spends it in ways we cannot begin to understand. In fictionalising a character of such obvious hypocrisy Bret Easton Ellis takes us on a head-on collision with America's greatest dream - and its worst nightmares. American Psycho is an explosive novel which brilliantly exposes American culture today.

American Psycho is a black comedy, a disturbing portrait of a madman, a subtle send-up of the blatant behaviour of the '80s - and a grotesque nightmare of murder and insanity.

'It's a very disturbing book, but the author is writing from the deepest, purest motives'
Joe McGinniss author of Fatal Vision
[sic]

'Although the book contains horrifying scenes, they must be read in the context of the book as a whole; the horror does not lie in the novel itself, but in the society it reflects. This book is not pleasure reading, but neither is it pornography. It is a serious novel that comments on a society that has become inured to suffering'
Nora Rawlinson, Library Journal

'He has forced us to look at intolerable material, and so few novels try for that much anymore'
Norman Mailer, Vanity Fair'

This is a paperback copy from Picador, published in 1991, which was also the book's original year of publication. Reprint. It's an oversized paperback, pretty much trade size.

I haven't read this copy, but I have read the book, quite recently. Didn't like it at all. See below for details ... :-)

This is #166 on the 1001 Books You Must Read list.

I got this book at a flea market at inderud elementary school in Oslo on Sunday, August 31st, 2008.

Review from this copy of the book:
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/5139228

I've read this book now. Did not like it. At listsofbests.com I checked the box for 'not worth consuming'. :-) This book basically gave me nothing as a reader. It did perhaps make me think a bit, but ... actually not enough to make this book worth reading, IMO. The main character was much more annoying than either he or the story were thought-provoking, so ... meh.

This book was IMO pretty dated. I think that when it came out, it was a very pertinent comment on the current culture and social mores, etc. But times have changed and kind of left this book behind. It feels dated ... like it's a commentary on something that doesn't exist any longer. I suppose it's still valid in part. But overall I think it really suffers from this.

There's a bunch of disgusting scenes, but these weren't a problem in and of itself ... I've read other books that have been equally graphic that have been much more rewarding. I would say that this is because in those cases, the characters were much more well rounded and engaged the reader much more. Patrick Bateman is just ... not interesting. All the characters in this book were really boring. :-) I didn't care about any of them, and this of course made the whole plot rather uninteresting too. I felt that this book was basically not worth reading ... not because it wasn't well written, or because it had nothing to say, but just because the author never managed to make me care about anything or anyone in it. Great literature FAIL ... in my opinion.

This book will be released any moment now :-) somewhere in the woods at Tveita, up towards Godlia. Probably on a bench and in a release bag.

Happy trails, little book. I hope you will find a new reader who will appreciate you more than I did. >:-)

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