"American Psycho" by Bret Easton Ellis is no ordinary story about murderers and psychopaths due to its unique inner dialogue-style of writing. The reader is constantly shocked by Ellis detailed and very graphic language and his dualistic main character, Patrick Bateman.
At apperance, he is a successfull businessman and investment banker in the american upper class of Manhattan, while in an internal level he is a raging,psychopathic,wrathfull and blood-thirsty massmurderer. His victims throughout the story varies from people either getting in his way of life, his way of thinking or just for the satisfaction and power of his persona. At night his most savage fantasies results in both conflcts with authorites and his murdering personality starts to take a even stronger hold of him as the story evolves.
Bret Easton Ellis "American Psycho" is not a book för the light hearted-reader or for the traditionalist, it is rather a fascinating but intensively disturbing portrait of a consumerism egomania and the inhuman state in which it can result in. Dark themes such as cannibalism, strong sexual graphic language and mutilation might be strong for even the most experienced writer, but it is clearly a book that divides and reinstitutes many barriers of the experimental novel. It is however to be regarded as an exploration of a psychopathic state and clearly the readers own opinion has to be the key for any understanding of the content of this novel.
There is no absolute truth with the main charachters rampage and horrifiic acts of violence, clearly the author has been very aware of the intelligence of those who choose to read "American Psycho" and therefore the reader is put on a stilistic test a several times througout the story.
"American Psycho" has also been put on to the silverscreen by director Mary Harron in 2000, featuring actor Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman, however several details and plot changes were made due to the novels most graphic scenes and there are also some changes in characters and subplots. However "American Psycho" stands out as a controversial novel and is maybe even more captivating if the reader pick up the detailed language as a whole. But it is preferred in my own opinion that the book would in every aspect deliver this disturbing but fascinating story at a wider range, while the film is a limited exploration of Patrick Batemans mind.