The book is not entirely in the 1st person. For a brief part , when he is in the middle of his biggest killing spree the book switches to 3rd person.

I think Ellis is showing us the absolute core of the society we live. We’re all nurtured to accept the vile and horrific behaviour of the people in power. What’s more, we aren’t taught to connect with each other because governments can’t afford to have a connected society. Western Society is ultimately corrupt.

The parts that really stood out to me, definitely were scenes like when he ask himself if he could have a life with Jean at dinner or when he goes to dinner with his ex girlfriend from Harvard and he is nervous and freaked out to an extent that we haven’t seen him before, or the very brief part where he breaks down crying and cry’s out that he just wants to be loved after one of his many murders. I think these brief moments that change his cold blooded interior to something else really catches my interest

Every bit of violence is needed, it shows how violence has been normalized to Patrick, how he can do all this crazy shit, kill a random Chinese man...put a rat in a girl....etc, he explains these acts like he explains his enjoyment for Whitney Houston. It shows how Patrick is losing his mind and cannot control his urges, and if you don't like reading these scenes, skip them, skip the chapter, nobody is forcing you, Bret is not trying to make the violence feel earned or valid, he is trying to make it seem without reasoning.... believe it or not, this is a good book.

Fun fact every time Patrick mentions a little girl it has either positive or neutral connotations! Seriously the zoo chapter has him do something terrible to a young boy but there’s not a single time where he hurts a little girl. One scene that stood out was him mentioning a 10 year old girl shopping for a scarf and jewelry and he remarks she had good style….. it’s just utterly bizarre coming from him but I guess Patrick cares emotionally for young girls.

There is also a part where Patrick puts a dollar in the coffee cup of a college student that he perceived as homeless that to everyone else was a normal well dress college student. The student is confused that he put a dollar in her coffee. This is another indication Patrick’s reality is distorted as after he puts the dollar in the coffee cup the entire city looks like a dream. There is also a part where someone he talks to is a talking vagina.

The books take of Evelyn is a lot more disturbing and depressing to me than the movie. In the book it seems like she wants a connection and something more. She's just in the same place as Patrick of not being able to obtain it. Just, as far as we know, she doesnt try to fill those needs by killing people. Also, Patrick is a lot more overtly emotionally abusive to her in the book than in the movie. That being said, I think Reese Witherspoon playing it like she did was perfect. Especially for the tone of the movie.

In the book it wasn’t Jean he spared from the nail gun (even though he really did never kill her) and she doesn’t think it’s because as he wants a relationship. She leaves because she hears a voicemail from another woman and she thinks she is imposing on another relationship.

A post modern masterpiece: thought provoking, shocking, and absolutely hilarious. While I love the film, the book is FAR better, especially if you are able to appreciate the absurdist aspects. You can always listen to the audiobook if you don’t want to actually read entire chapters about Whitney Houston and various clothing brands. Either way, American Psycho is an incredible work of art, one which is able to make you laugh out loud and feel physically disgusted at the same time. While it’s more challenging than even things like War and Peace or Canterbury Tales, I recommend that everyone at least try to read it.

She’s right this is not a “horror” novel but it certainly is a “horrific” novel.

What a lovely conversation. I think American Psycho is one of those stories that is just rife with interesting philosophical ideas, so that no matter how badly the story might be executed (like in a movie or a book or whatever) it sticks with you. I remember watching the movie with my flatmate in Glasgow for the first time and after it had ended I was like meh. I didnt find the ending satisfactory. But all this time later, especially having the chance to revisit this story through this episode of your podcast I came to appreciate the real depth and gravity of the ideas presented within. Of course, having lived a bit of life helped... for better or worse. Thanks for this, keep at it.

Loved your Whole review...if a book is banned it's worth reading ❣️

You guys offer fantastic and thoughtful opinions on the novel! I’ll definitely be back for more of your reviews

The book, like many provocative writers, is left to “interpretation,” if those acts occurred, or if they were just in his twisted mind, perhaps depending of what we think; tells something about our own psyche

I think the trick of this novel is to not separate the obsession about style and the murders. The murders THEMSELVES are “stylish.” All of it is superficiality, deified. It’s because Bateman cannot know anything other than the race to something stylish so he can be observed being stylish. In the end, I think the sadness Bateman may feel is that he isn’t getting recognition for his elaborate murders. THAT is his regret. The murder descriptions go hand in hand with his skin care regimen description and his observations about Huey Lewis.

Being a fan of the film I wasn’t prepared for the novel. Written with the precision of a surgeon it cuts deep. I love your Instagram analogy here as a present day marker of the culture described in the book. I grew up in the 80’s and the background is spot on and the moral vacuum is as well. This is the school shooter’s handbook.

This is an awesome analysis.

great conversation ! regarding the point about the themes of nihilism being too overbearing potentially I took the nihilism being mainly directed at the upper class as the saving grace. I felt like jean particularly being the most human character and seeing the best in patrick even superfically to the point where patrick spares her was a surprisingly sweet moment, as well as the segment where patrick debates having a real relationship with jean which also touches on his true desires. I think patrick as a character can be seen as more of a poser reflection of his environment trying to fit in, maybe even pretending to be callous and cold and maybe even hallucinating alot of the murder and sex based on the movies he watches and immerses himself in, combined with drugs. I think that the book while having a grim outlook on humanity isnt too nihilistic to get its point across and more came across as the dangers of normalized narcissism by using the upper class as an example.

I can’t help comparing American Psycho with Dostoevsky’s Notes from the Underground. Partially, because Ellis uses an excerpt from the novella to introduce the book, but also because we are stuck within the narrator’s head. I don’t think Ellis is trying to warn us. Bateman is a portrait of a type. There are people out there who are like Bateman, who think like Bateman but don’t kill people (assuming Bateman actually killed people). He’s manic, obsessed with status, materialistic, and completely self-interested. What makes matters worse is that Bateman lives in a culture that encourage selfish behavior. I believe in an innate human nature, but I also believe that the society that you live in can either lessen or enhance your darker impulses. Regarding the violence: Bateman’s violent acts are sadistic and reprehensible, but to be honest they were one of the main things that kept me reading. If Ellis wrote a book called Well Adjusted American Nice Guy, we just wouldn’t be interested. There’s something inside us that just can’t resist or are even attracted to gorey depictions of violence. It’s somehow cathartic…. Anyhow I liked the book. I’m not sure that I’d give it 5 stars, but I definitely wouldn’t give it one star.

Nice review but what does Paul Owen aka Allen think

I hope you see the irony in what you are saying about this book and the consumerism of the 80's and the consumerism of today. Never mind the narcissism of the 80's versus today. I would argue that both the narcissism and consumerism of today are way 'worse' than in the book or in the 'real' 1980's. Living in the age of social media, KZfaq and influencers not to mention the entitlement of generations post Gen-X. I would say those themes in the book are tame compared to today.

You guys should read “my absolute darling”

This is a rant, please don't read all of this if you don't want to, I just wanted to say all of this somewhere because I've been thinking about this novel a lot. I think American Psycho fails for me because it becomes a little too nihilistic for it's own good. Like you guys said, the violence is a little too much, but I think that's where the artistic merit of the book lies. Everything in the book is a little too much. All of the consumerism, the capitalism, the repetition, the brand names, the bands, the character names(and the confusion of the characters for other people) contextualise the world in which Patrick lives, but Ellis ends the novel by not depicting or even alluding to these social mores impacting Patrick's psyche. What I think American Psycho fails in is an ultimate critique of the society in which Patrick exists and, rather, favours a mere critique of Patrick himself. Obviously, at no point throughout the novel does Ellis present Patrick positively, but he doesn't ever extricate the facets of Patrick's personality and specifically link them to the society around him. This means that he can't blame the world around Patrick for how Patrick has become, in my opinion, undermining its notoriety as a social satire. The reader doesn't know or understand the reasoning behind Patrick's dedication to violence and is therefore forced to theorise for themselves. People can say that this is Ellis's way of recontextualising the conversation of morality vs. society onto the reader but, in my opinion, it becomes a little luck-lustre and, dare I say it, lazy. The story of American Psycho, to me, reads as a character living one casual, capitalist and hegemonic life whilst also living one intense, deranged, murderous life without any presented psychological links between these two facets of personality. Certainly, this total separation distorts the humanity of the character, painting his true identity as undoubtedly corrupt, but that condemnation is ever-present through the extreme violence already. So, in my opinion, American Psycho would have benefited from either a more distinct presentation of Patrick's reasoning, without forcing it onto the reader, or it would have benefited from less violence. But, as I have said, everything in American Psycho is "too much". Redacting that violence, in my opinion, would undermine American Psycho's artistic intent entirely. So, I think it needs more of the "psychological" aspects to make it a really strong "satire", both being things that it already claims to convey but, in my opinion, really lacks in. That, to me, is where it gets its reputation as being really nihilist. Not because it presents really strong nihilistic arguments, but because it forces readers to make deductions and assumptions about the society Patrick lives in(and we also live in) without really presenting this society one way or another. To me, the true nihilism of American Psycho is that it exists to entirely avoid providing a satirical message towards society, it just makes the reader assume the satire.

Very based book

No one ever notices how he always mentions the patty winter's show and how the topics always get more obscene over time!

Hang on. I'm like a minute in but I already have an issue. You say the book uses senseless violence to complain about senseless violence. I'd say that it obviously doesn't since a book cannot perpetrate actual violence (unless it somehow glorifies or incites it, I guess, but this doesn't). If a book is merely depicting violence, it can condemn actual violence without contradiction or hypocrisy. I like the podcast btw, but I think that form of criticism you use at first just irks me for reasons too boring to explain. When you talk about it later I got the impression that it wasn't the violence per se that concerned you, but rather just the repetition of it. Repetition of anything can become a problem in a book, but in this case I guess the repetition is the point, and maybe _too much_ repetition is the point. From about 39:00 you mention that the book leaves one without answers or hope. It reminded me that David Foster Wallace said exactly that (in the David Lipsky book I think) and it was his biggest criticism of AP, and I think Ellis more broadly. Although he did say he did found Less than zero "very powerful".

This book is banned? My 11th grade english teacher, a very nice lady, made us read passages from it in class. The lunch with Bethany chapter was reading material for the essay question on our final exam. But hey, I live in Canada. We're a bit more chill when it comes to art.

I always thought Patrick killed the wrong guy lol

i literally just did my senior project on this book omg

I'm here for this

Does the guy have to constantly interrupt her!!!? Let her fucking speak

This book is so sick 😫 but I love it!

What kills me about this book is the lack of consistency of Patrick as a character. He says he hates gay people but he goes out of his way to coerce women to have intimate acts with one another.

What a way to completely miss the point of the entire book.. 👏

Impressive. Very nice. Let's see Paul Allen's book review.

The novelist does not long to see the lion eat grass. He realizes that one and the same God created the wolf and the lamb, then smiled, "seeing that his work was good."

I am of the opinion the PB is perhaps the most unreliable narrator in all of american fiction. In fact, I think all the torture amd murder he mentions are the dillusions and hallucinations of a cocaine addict fully at the mercy of cocaine induced psychosis.

As a Christian the book perfectly illustrates what happens when people turn away from God and embrace themselves as their own God. More care given to things and status and none given to others. The ending might feel like a let down, that someone so abhorrent just gets away with it, but I tell you this, God allows the wicked to do as they please. Why? So they can be judged.

I feel like this book is about a man who daybreams about committing heiness acts towards women in order to escape his monotonous lifestyle. He's definitely an unreliable narrator.

A lot of people in the beginning hated the writer for being misogynist and messed up in the head. But in reality he was exposing the dangers of capitalism on how it could impact the rich and poor. Today America is in a much worse version of capitalism where everything is unaffordable. No wonder why we have mental health issues and school shootings because people are loosing their minds. They want to release energy and feel alive. It's a life where people can't have meaningful relationships.

My take: this is a psychological thriller as opposed to a commentary on society.

i wanna be like patrick bateman when i grow up

It's not a satire it's a fantasy.

This fuckin' book here...ha ha... (as far as psychological-thrillers go, has me chasing the dragon in finding another book that can make me feel the way that this one did).... one of my movie director friends turned me on to this upcoming author at a recent Melvins concert in St. Louis.... he had a copy of this book "Witchwood Forest" in his car out in the parking lot because they are attempting to make a movie about it.... it really flipped my wig & rocked my brain.... ABSOLUTELY-WILD... kzfaq.info/get/bejne/e791Z72Lvd3Un3k.html