This is another of ALA’s most frequently challenged books, and this is the first book I encountered where I sympathized with the challengers. This doesn’t mean that I would support the banning of this book–it just means that I think it’s a vile piece of writing and the reasons for challenging the book are clear-cut and defensible. Here we go–
I read this book for the same reason that many of you will hopefully read other banned books that I discuss–because someone told me I shouldn’t. Here’s how it happened:
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A lovely young lady that I was quite smitten with some years back was reading American Psycho. I wasn’t familiar with it and said “What’s that?”
“Oh, nothing,” she said, hiding it behind her back.
“What is it?”
“You’re not old enough for this yet,” she said, running away to hide it. I chased her down and grabbed the book from her. Didn’t look so bad. I was familiar with Brett Easton Ellis from the so-so The Rules Of Attraction and the much better Less Than Zero.
“Seriously,” she said. “I hope you don’t read it.” I could tell she was serious but I didn’t have the sense to stop. I’d been challenged in a way that only the insecure man understands. It didn’t help that she was only 4’9″ to my 6’8″ and was a few years older than I was. I didn’t want to be mothered, especially by a tiny playwright.
She went to work, I grabbed the book, and by the next morning I didn’t like much of anything anymore. I felt disgusted with myself for plowing through it and not listening to her. I felt disgusted by Brett Easton Ellis and vowed never to read anything by him again (I broke this rule pretty quickly). I hated the knowledge that real depravity exists and I had spent upwards of 300 pages participating in a relentless horrorshow that others have described to me as a vicarious “thrill.”
I’m not going to go into detail except to say that American Psycho is about a yuppie Wall Street type who murders women at night. The murders go on for pages and pages and pages , as do the really twisted sex scenes, which nearly all end in murders. Children and animals are not spared either.
I have nothing else to say about this book. Its defenders talk about how AP is performance art, or how the experience of reading it is akin to la la la and how Ellis wrote it the way he did to stick it to his publisher and how he’s so courageous because blah blah blah–whatever.
“No, you’ve just got to look at it like this, then you see what he was getting at.”
Nope. I don’t care.
I have no problem with works that are supposed to be “edgy,” although the word means little these days. But there is the edge and then there is revolting, self-serving messes that pass themselves off as “daring.” So what if it is daring? Should you get a trophy for penning the most repellent book of all time?
Anyways, that’s enough of that. I wish I’d been secure enough to take my friend’s advice. But I suspect that many of you can’t turn down a dare. But I’m not going to dare you to read American Psycho. Leave it alone. It shouldn’t be banned, but I hope it is eventually forgotten.
I don’t hate it because I don’t “get it,” as some will suggest. I hate it because it is hateful.
Turn down those dares. I’m embarrassed that I couldn’t.
If you are looking for a great banned book that is equal parts beautiful and distubing, check out Golding’s Lord Of The Flies. I read it once every year. And if you like Lord Of The Flies, you might get a kick out of The Hunger Games.
Josh
PS: The movie of American Psycho is actually quite good, but it is satirical and has some funny moments. More like Dexter than ramped up Marquis De Sade.
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{ 42 comments }
I bought the book many years ago and tried reading it. The first two times I stopped because it bored me right at the beginning, the third time because it was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever read.
For me this is just plain horror porn crap and has nothing to do with any kind of art. In my opinion there’s no point to get when someone tries to write down the most sick thoughts humans can have just for selling a book because it breaks all taboos and might get banned.
Still, i can’t really throw books away so I hide it now. Sick, huh?
HA! I do have to admit that I have a copy lying around somewhere. I don’t get rid of books either. What a weird compulsion. There are so many books I want to read that I rarely re-read books that I love, let alone the ones I despise. I probably don’t need to have any of them around, but they still feel like family. Even my stupid copy of Flowers In The Attic will probably be with me until I die.
And I don’t even mind horror. There is some horror that I quite enjoy, but I think even “serious” horror writing is still a bit tongue-in-cheek. The author seems to be in on the joke. My favorite books are when I can tell the author had a blast writing them. Even though Stephen King can be hokey and repetitive, I love the guy and still read everything he writes, just because he obviously has so much fun with it. I don’t get that impression from Ellis and American Psycho. If he enjoyed writing it, that’s another weird wrinkle that I want nothing to do with.
“Filth” by Irvine Welsh is one of my favourite books. It’s often described as “horror”, at least it’s pretty tough, but not in the classical sense of horror. It’s so much better that AP. And it’s really psycho.
Marc, you get better and better. I absolutely loved Filth. Welsh is kind of playing his own sport when it comes to weird and trashy. You’re right, it’s a psychotic book. I really don’t have anything I’d compare it to.
Josh, have you read Tours of The Black Clock by Steve Erickson? Just wondering…
My current fav horror is Threshold by Caitlin Kiernan. That book rocks.
AP is just useless/boring/sleazy, though perhaps what he was aiming for is what they shot of the movie-if so he certainly failed.
I used to have some friends who grew up with Brett, and said that a lot of Less Than Zero was stories from their youths together. Said it was very interesting to read bits of your life reworked…
Craig, I haven’t read either. Looks like the library has them both. I requested them and should have them by this afternoon. Thanks for the recommends. Never heard of either book, so that’s exciting. Always, always looking for something new. How’s everything going?
Oh, also! I tried some of those sandbag slams onto the tire that you mentioned. Oh good grief those are hideous and great.
I’ll take your word for it and not bother with this one. You say the movie is worth watching, though?
Lord of the Flies is a long-overdue read for me. I make a point of never reading books that we were ordered to read in High School, and I guess it passed me by that way.
Things are good, and rather intense right now. Seems like the universe has decided to set me on the path to my future slightly ahead of schedule and fire the bridge behind me! No complaints.
On the sandbag slams -you being a foot taller adds about 20 inches to the motion, at least! But they are great. It’s one of those moves where you can feel the metabolic changes almost instantly…
I read this about 3/4 of the way through while I was in the Marines. Someone stole it out of the duty hut while I was in the head, so I didn’t finish it. What the hell is that? Books are usually like kryptonite to Marines! I liked the movie better. The business card scene is priceless.
Agreed. “It even has a watermark.”
I have never read American Pyscho but now that you’ve said I shouldn’t I want to. As my brother you should talk me down if it really is as bad as you say. Oh and by the way I haven’t read Lord of the Flies either. Would I like it?
Anyone should like Lord of The Flies. It’s short and excellent.
Any of you guys read ‘The Wasp Factory’?
It is easy to write off “AP” as “horror porn trash” and I am sure it makes people feel better, but that’s nonsense.
Stylistically, its one of the smoothest most Sublime books every written. Not once does BEE resort to the kind of cheap gimmicks and clowny trickery employed by people like Irvine Welsh in hammy half assed books like “Filth”.
AP is such a stroke of genius on so many levels I am still in awe of it. BEE- Mission accomplished.
And the likelihood of this book being forgotten? Low people, very low.
I agree with you about the unforgettable bit, Eric. I’m usually on the fence with Welsh. Have you seen that Brett’s about to put out a followup to Less Than Zero? That I’m actually pretty excited about.
I think you are missing the point of the novel. If the author completely removed all the graphic scenes, which in my opionion are completely unecessary and don’t add much, the novel would still support it’s overarching themes! The central character and those he associates with are as completely aliented in their lives as the impoverished characters who briefly pass through many of the scenes throughout the novel. Ellis choose to include these distrubing scenes which are meant to accent how dissaociative and psychotic Bateman is, but it’s not meant to be the focus of the novel. Furthermore, it was most likely therapy for the author, in maybe much the same way Notes from the Underground was a way of exercising the disgust that Dostoevsky felt after reading Chernashevsky’s what is to be done…
Could be. I’ll never know and I’m okay with that.
American Psycho is a masterpiece of literature and film. Both Bret Easton Ellis and Mary Harron are outright geniuses.
I loved the movie. Has Harron done anything else you particularly enjoyed?
No, not really. American Psycho is perfect. As well as other classics- A Clockwork Orange, The Shining and even Wall Street which was directed by Oliver Stone back in 1987.
I watched wall street for the first time this weekend. Now I’m going to start slicking my hair back.
American Psycho is my number 1 all time favourite book… I love controversial books, I’ve read, The Turner Diaries, Hunter and A Clockwork Orange and i love these types of books.
My advice, read The Turner Diaries if you can find a copy… It is extremely racist and has been ostracised by everyone, including the american government but i thought it was a great book.
Thanks for the recommendations Kyle. I’ll take a look.
Kyle, do you have a link for the book Hunter?
I’ll try and find The Turner Diaries as controversial books have a tendency to intrigue me. I’ve just got to get through Balzac and Rousseau first!
Sam, what Balzac are you reading?
Has anyone read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson. I read it three months ago as it was fairly short and I also devoured the unusual,creepy illustrations throughout the book. I have seen the film countless times as well. I’ve moved on to older fiction and writers for example it spans from 10 BC philosophy (Plato, Tacitus, Plutarch) to 1800′s literature (Defoe, Thackarey, Dickens). So I love old literature/philosophy. It’s fascinating. Also other philosophers such as Cicero and Kant
I love everything Thompson wrote, and I think I’ve read everything he published. If you like the art, check out the books by Ralph Steadman, the illustrator. My favorite of his illustrated works was his take on Alice in Wonderland. His collection Gonzo, The Art, and his illustrated edition of Animal Farm are also fantastic.
I am currently reading History of the Thirteen which is not one of his best known works yet I was thrilled to get my hands on any Balzac copy as the content is complex yet I’m enjoying it. I finished Crime and Punsihment two weeks ago. Dostoyevsky is an outright legend of Russian literature yet I think Tolstoy is a little better
American Psycho is a very complex book yet you have no right to call it horror porn trash. That’s just ignorance and a complete lack of understanding for the book. It’s one of the most important novels of the 21st century. It’s not about the violence what’s it’s really about is society and it’s corruptible flaws. You have to sit down and have long discussions about the real deep message about the book. If you want to call it meaningless, useless and stupid then you are obviously have misread or are misunderstanding the whole concept and story of AP
Maybe. It’s been a while. I’m happy to have the discussion. Feel free to give me a starting point. We both have the right to call it whatever we want.
Wow. AP is one of the greatest pieces of literature you can possibly read. Like you took the dare, I took it at 12 years old! in grade 7 I asked my english teacher what his favorite book was and he told me he would not tell me, after asking and asking, he finally told me never to read it, but it was AP. After school I walked to chapters(local bookstore) and bought it. I began reading, and reached the sex and gore and was disgusted. I must have attempted over 10 times to read it, but it was revolting, I felt like gaging at some points. Now I am older, currently 17. I love literature, read every play written by Shakespeare, Lord of the flies, 1984, A clockwork orange Ect. I basically burned through some of the greatest books ever in a period of 3 years. I must have read american psycho over 30 times, and now the gore and sex and all that twisted stuff makes me laugh. IT’S INSANE. it’s so out of this world. It teaches people to look through the Designer suits, nice haircuts, BUSINESS CARDS and nice apartments ect. Its an extremely important piece of literature and I hope it is never forgotten. It also makes lord of the flies look like a book made for 7 year olds.
@ Flagmonkey, you obviously don’t know anything about literature, The gore, blood, twisted sex and all that is just the thoughts of a man losing his sanity. Using the detail that Ellis used serves as a literary technique to make a sane person feel nauseous towards how sick a person can be. How insane someone can think, BUT that insane person can be a rich guy on wall street and you would never see that coming. People like Oj simpson who obviously was a murderer got out of trouble, Because he’s famous, rich and well off, and that just makes him a good person? Who would you point your finger at first, a low life that drinks and has nothing or christian bale a rich business man living in a million dollar apartment. The book shows how people are ignorant and chose to not pay attention to the people who are wealthy and will always point their fingers at the person who is lower in society.
Sorry for any spelling mistakes and grammar errors, my passion towards the subject pushed me towards writing all that in a span of 2 minutes.
2 minutes? Bravo! You could have a novel by morning if you could keep that pace up.
Admittedly, I love American Psycho. Something I am a little curious about is whether or not men have a different reaction to it than women? The brutality, I’m thinking, more; I tended to overlook the sex because objectification is something I’ve become very used to for reasons I’m not going to detail, but I’m just curious, really. Personally, I revel in controversial works anyway, and I got through this without too many twinges, although a few scenes in particular caused me to ponder the point. If I was male and reading this, would I interpret it differently?
I do think, however, that Mary Harron and Guinevere Turner’s adaptation hit the nail on the head; I’m not usually a fan of adaptations, but the underlying message carried through so clearly without the explicit content and Bale’s turn as Patrick Bateman was excellent.
Oh, and it’s nice to see some more Hunter S. Thompson fans around. (:
I am reading American Psycho at the moment and confess to being very unimpressed with your review. So I have written my own which I’ll put up in a couple of days on http://www.gliddofglood.com when I’ve finished the book.
To stop at the violence and sex scenes is to miss all the humour, the farce, the musical jokes, the ironic distance between the author and narrator, and sheer quality of the writing.
I am enjoying it hugely, even if the violence is somewhat stomach churning. But this is a book that is about a lot more than violence. The violence in Stephen King’s novels is pretty graphic, from the very few I have read. But then King is all about frightening you. Ellis has a lot more to say – so why should he be lambasted for his gory descriptions? The book is more about a culture or a strata of society than it is about murder. In fact, murder just appears to be the ultimate manifestation of Patrick Bateman’s dysfunctional personality.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, naturally. But just saying that you don’t like it because it is hateful is not a very trenchant piece of criticism. Your PS is quite enlightening: ” The movie of American Psycho is actually quite good, but it is satirical and has some funny moments.” Er, the novel is already satirical and is stuffed with funny moments. Why is this so hard to see?
Alex, thanks for the comment. When you get your review up, please feel free to come post a link in this thread. I’m willing to take another look. It’s been nearly a decade since I read it. Could be I’ll see things differently. Maybe not.
Alex, what do you think of this quote from David Foster Wallace re: AP?
“You’re just displaying the sort of cynicism that lets readers be manipulated by bad writing. I think it’s a kind of black cynicism about today’s world that Ellis and certain others depend on for their readership. Look, if the contemporary condition is hopelessly shitty, insipid, materialistic, emotionally retarded, sadomasochistic, and stupid, then I (or any writer) can get away with slapping together stories with characters who are stupid, vapid, emotionally retarded, which is easy, because these sorts of characters require no development. With descriptions that are simply lists of brand-name consumer products. Where stupid people say insipid stuff to each other. If what’s always distinguished bad writing—flat characters, a narrative world that’s cliched and not recognizably human, etc.—is also a description of today’s world, then bad writing becomes an ingenious mimesis of a bad world. If readers simply believe the world is stupid and shallow and mean, then Ellis can write a mean shallow stupid novel that becomes a mordant deadpan commentary on the badness of everything. Look man, we’d probably most of us agree that these are dark times, and stupid ones, but do we need fiction that does nothing but dramatize how dark and stupid everything is? In dark times, the definition of good art would seem to be art that locates and applies CPR to those elements of what’s human and magical that still live and glow despite the times’ darkness. Really good fiction could have as dark a worldview as it wished, but it’d find a way both to depict this world and to illuminate the possibilities for being alive and human in it. You can defend “Psycho” as being a sort of performative digest of late-eighties social problems, but it’s no more than that.”
What do I think of that quote? It gives me the impression that David Foster Wallace’s idea of what makes a good satire and my own are very different. But there is no accounting for humour. Leaving the violence out of the equation, you either find the book funny or you don’t. And any humour denies that society is completely bleak: if you can laugh at something then you have a sense of perspective and can still find joy somewhere. Another book about 80s excess that is hilarious is “Money” by Martin Amis. Once again the narrator is unloveable, but that doesn’t make for a bleak book.
Comedy requires some simplification, but to be honest with you, although the characters are caricatures, how far from the truth are they really? There is quite enough reality in their doings and obsessions to make them still believable. In fact, considering that the book was penned in the late 80s, it is incredible how relevant it still is. It could just as easily have been written last year. Moronic bankers with obscene bonuses are even more prevalent today; there is the same obsession with materialism, power and prestige and the cult of the self.
I find it ironic that you should choose to quote an author lambasting a dark and nihilistic world view, when that same author committed suicide due to chronic depression. Whereas BEE seems to be a fairly cheerful soul who doesn’t take himself too seriously. I’m not familar with David Foster Wallace’s work. Is it entertaining? In am also wary of authors’ views on other authors. The literary world is awash with feuds and jealousies.
I decided in the end not to post a review of the book on my blog, as it seems to be covering very old ground. I read a lot of reviews and looked at BEE video interviews. I came to the conclusion that some people wouldn’t know satire if it hit them in the face. I do think he overdid the violence aspect, but I don’t think this makes it a bad book and I think that the writing is excellent. This is not Dan Brown.
I have only seen excerpts from the film, but it would appear that the tone of the book is faithfully rendered. Perhaps those who criticise the latter just needed it spelt out for them.
Thanks for the good discussion, Alex.
The difference between a great book and the rest is not how shocking or controversial it is. A great book is well written, has a strong plot, and interesting character development. Through those and other writing techniques a purpose is developed, a point is illustrated. This gore fluff is simplistic in writing and the point is lost in all the boring inane details. There is no plot, no character development and no reason for this book to be a “cult classic”. At least the movie doesn’t drag on and on to no concievable end. I ask what was the point? What part of this satires consumerism and 80′s greed? He should try developing a plot and quit relying on shock value to bring a popularity he doesn’t deserve. Read a Jonathan Swift novel and see how a great author creates satire. Or open a psychology book and realise that Bateman is nothing like the profile of the real serial killers Ellis so likes referencing.