Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho: A Reader's Guide (Continuum Contemporaries)

American Psycho is one of the few books I have read more than once. I realized upon initially reading it that there was much going on beneath the surface that I was probably missing due not only to the extreme violence but also to the relentless focus on the superficial details that the main character, Patrick Bateman, describes. An excellent essay by Elizabeth Young in the book Shopping in Space allowed me to better appreciate the book the second time around. I was therefore excited when I saw the instant reader's guide by Murphet. Unfortunately, it was a letdown.There are a couple of bright spots. Murphet does a fair job (but no better) of placing the book into the historical and social context in which Bateman existed. Murphet also does a good job of demonstrating that many events that are described in the book are probably occurring only within Bateman's head. Particularly noteworthy is pointing out that the real estate agent at Paul Owens' apartment, after Bateman allegedly killed him, was named Mrs. Wolfe. This is a reference to Tom Wolfe, the author of the realistic novel Bonfire of the Vanities, and provides a clue that that particular episode is "real." Combined with other clues, this calls into question the accuracy of Bateman's description of the murder itself.Unfortunately, this reader's guide usually disappoints. As an initial matter, it is written in the pretentious language all too typical of literary criticism from people trying to show how smart they are. Such high-falutin' language does not impress me and others should not hesitate to say that the emperor has no clothes.Murphet also strikes out frequently, as when a minor character mistakes Bateman for someone else and proceeds to describe Bateman in unflattering terms. Murphet believes this is noteworthy as it is inconsistent with the perception the reader has formed of Bateman. This is incorrect. Even a casual reader will recognize well before this episode that Bateman's inner view of himself is not matched by others' objective view of him. Check out what a fool Bateman makes of himself at McDonalds immediately after his attack on the homeless guy Al.Murphet does little better when analyzing social critics of the novel. Bateman attacks both men and women in the novel, which Murphet acknowledges. Yet in discussing allegations of anti-woman sexism, Murphet focuses on whether this is attributable to the character Bateman or the author Ellis. How could anyone miss a softball like this? The better analysis is that the novel's violence may not be anti-woman, but critiques along such lines speak volumes about the callousness of such critics towards men. Further, Murphet's discussion questions regarding consumerism would be laughable if one could keep one's eyes from rolling at, again, the pretentiousness.Ellis has written an important book skewering a noteable segment of our society. I have given the current reader's guide two stars, rather than only one, because of the paucity of literary criticisms of the novel and because a fan may get something out of it (though I would recommend Elizabeth Young's aforementioned essay over this). American Psycho deserves intelligent analysis. It deserves better than this.

In this small book, Julian Murphet makes an excellent analysis of Ellis' work "American Psycho". Particularly interesting is the way Murphet focuses on the class and cultural context that serves as a backdrop in the story. Bateman, the main protagonist of Ellis' book, is representative of this new sector of the society composed of "yuppies" who are strongly impregnated with the neoliberal mentality. In this study, the reader will find a good interpretation of the symbolism used by Ellis, especially in the scene confronting two entities of the capital's representatives: the world of Finance and the world of Real Estate. Both are serving the same objective: accumulating surplus-value, one through Wall Street and the Stock-exchange and the other one through an exacerbated valorization of property. In that moment of history characterized by the severe crisis of mass production, both fields are becoming the core of a renewed form of accumulation of capital. As a matter of fact, we witnessed in the 1990's - which is the time period covered by Ellis' story - the increasing negative impact of financial globalization on low and middle wage earners, together with the strengthening of the real estate's power.In the middle of the wealth produced by this world of speculation, Bateman is guided by clichés and brands that serve as criteria to his meaningless and dead boring life. In a sense, his behavior could be interpreted as the denunciation of the lack of transcendental ideals from which the emerging class of new rich suffers. More precisely, through his depraved way of life he can be viewed as a victim of a society lost in the pursuit of money and of purely materialistic objectives and where killing provides the murderer a feeling of "acting", of "being someone". Nevertheless, one should not overlook the fact that a lot of images in Ellis' book are phantasms that emanate from Bateman's mind, which makes it difficult to distinguish fiction from reality. But as many writers state: "fiction is always based on reality and reality nourishes itself from fiction".

Ellis's writing manages to convey complex themes with simple minimalist writing. I wish this Reader's Guide would have done the same.I expected something on the lines of Cliff or Spark Notes and got worse. No individual Character, theme, motif or plot analysis. The analysis is less than half of the brief 100 pages and often jumps into the realm of personal opinion, criticisms of the Ellis and the characters. The analysis seems to only focus on sexist/political issues, and diction with 101 level marxist consumerism theory sprinkled in. The analysis tends to guide the reader down one very specific interpretation of the novel.What the analysis lacks in substance it makes up for in pretentiousness. Complete with complex sentence structures interrupted with multiple clauses, obscure novelist references and scrabble worthy words. The book points out that most of American Psycho is mere list making and a lesson in bad writing. The Reader's Guide is the same but on the opposite end of the spectrum: overwritten. Far too often I had to look up a word in the dictionary just to realize that the author chose to use an obscure synonym of a simple word.The book is a good summary of Ellis's works and influence. It also does a good job at framing the novel in a historical/cultural sense. The guide also unnecessarily covers the adaptation the book into a movie.The guide does bring up some valid points and interesting ideas but no more than a few. Scouring the internet for analysis might be more useful. American Pyscho deserves more.

I found this book very interesting. It was an accurate view of so-called American culture. The gory parts were a bit difficult to get through, but the author did say he did not make them up--he couldn't. He had to go through police files to find the grisly details of the sadistic acts.

ein sehr guter readers guide. war ein gutes buch für meine hausarbeit zu american psycho. erklärt einfach und kompetent die wichtigisten dinge , geht aber auch in die tiefe. Man findet dieses Buch auch in der sekundär literatur zitiert.