Has anybody read American Psycho?

Read at uni 20 odd years ago. Remember there was a bit I couldn't read as it made me feel physically sick but thought it involved a dog maybe it was a rat ?!

Horribly gratuitous I remember, haven't read a book like it since.

It is a long time since I read this (a definite one time thing) but I am sure I came to the conclusion that it was all in Bateman's head. A despicable and broken mind with crap taste in music, it is worrying to think someone out there might actually think that way.

penguindream - 'I felt defiled reading it' is exactly how I felt! i felt like I'd done something really terrible. Perhaps we are just enormous pansies

Really grim, and left me in a weird mood for weeks after reading it. And not in a good way. More in a 'what the fuck is the point of life' way. It was just truly horrible, I wanted to bury it in the garden and run away. It isn't just gory, it's truly truly revolting.

I hate Brett Easton Ellis...have tried a couple of his other books, led to him by Donna Tartt, and just got no enjoyment out of them whatsoever. I had to force myself to read them.

Yes, as an innocent teen. It traumatised me. I'll never forget the bit with the rat! I honestly think the author should be investigated.

I read it when it was first out and found it slightly unbalancing. Mostly because I was mixing with that type of society at the time (the competitive consumer consumption type, not the psychopathic murderer type, although I can't be completely sure of that, some of them were odd). I was in Berlin with my DH and he was working with a large group of extraordinarily well-paid ex-pats. Some of the comparisons were almost direct, there was always a group heading out to have dinner/drink/go clubbing. They weren't competitive over business cards, but they were over who had the newest, smallest phone or the most expensive watch (Patek Phillipe type). A lot of them went to the brothels "because it was a good place to get late night drinks".

I coped with he violence reasonably well because I assumed that it was in his imagination and not real, but it was still grim.

I don't think I would read it now, it would be a novel out of its time and, even in its time, it wasn't a particularly good novel just a well-hyped one.

I read another of his - less than zero I think - and it is the only book I truly regret reading. The final scene is so awful I still think about it. American psycho is pretty revolting in parts too but overwhelmingly I just remember it being boring

I thought it was a clever book when I read it - it was the facelessness of it all; the fact that the culture they were in allowed these things to happen because everyone was so interchangable (if it did indeed happen at all as Bateman is an unreliable narrator, as far as I can remember as I read it years ago). Nobody even notices when he's horribly killed someone, just confuses them with someone else as everyone is so alike. I found it repulsive too, but I think that was the point. Plus, the fact the violence was only hinted at for such a long time in the novel because it meant so little to him as a psycho.

I'm not a horror fan at all, avoid horror films, but read this on a recommend when studying Lit and have a lot of time for it.

Agree with the above I am a BEE fan but he's of his time and paints the evil side of a moment in time, or a movement, incredibly well

He wrote a similar book set in the 90s. The settings are spot on

I read it years ago. I love the author and have read all of his books. It is very, very graphic and gruesome but I liked it. I hated the film. I am one of those people who enjoy horror films and the more gruesome the better. I can understand why some people hate it and wouldn't have it in the house though.

I chucked it in the bin, like the poster above I didn't want to put anyone else through reading it. It was nasty and pointless. I think if someone said they enjoyed it I would give them a wide berth.

It's very of its time, which is the point of it, I suppose.
The film makes it a bit fluffy and cuddly.

Don't bother. What nooka said. Author is one sadistic person who needs help.

I thought it was fairly revolting in a wholly unnecessary and rather gleeful way, and I too wondered about the motivations of the author. Basically it's the equivalent of snuff porn. I struggled to understand what was meant to be good about it. A nasty book about a nasty man written by a nasty writer. One of the very very few books I seriously regret reading.

Spoiler .

Agree with the general PoV on here. Grim reading, I couldn't wait to finish it and get it out of the house. I only finished it because I wanted there to be some kind of resolution and there wasn', it just trailed away leaving open the possibility of more horrors.

I would not say it is particularly worth reading, no.
Kind of dull and inane and then gratuitously sick.
Not great writing either.

I read it 20 years ago and remember there was quite a lot of sex.

Only book I've ever thrown away. I felt defiled reading it. It felt like evil. I couldn't give it away and expose anyone else to it.
Honestly I'm v sensible and pragmatic usually but it just felt to me like something malign.

He bloody well nailguns the prostitutes legs apart and forces starved rats up her vagina where he has helpfully stuffed decayed and rotting meat.

The author is a grotesque misogynist.

Agree with others - don't think I've read anything else by the same author to be able to compare, but this felt it was purely written for the shock factor. Unpleasant from start to finish.

That said, I'm glad I've read it (if glad is the right word). It's so polarising, it's good to have an informed opinion. I'd put it in the same category as The Exorcist - very disturbing, but you have to watch it to decide that for yourself.

It is the most disgusting book I have ever read. I don't agree with burning of books, but I'd make an exception for this one.

Scarydinosaurs, you mentioned you have read a lot of Irvine Welsh - Marabou Stork Nightmares was the other book I have had to skip pages! Very grim, but very well written.

I don't remember the bit with the nail gun. Am I right in thinking the majority of the prolonged violence in American Psycho is carried out against women? I don't remember any male victims, but it's been a long time since I read it, and perhaps those scenes just haven't stuck with me as much. I will say I thought the ending was a let down...

Ah but you can bump into any one of Irvine Welsh's characters on a stroll down Leith Walk today - the likeness doesn't even really date; much harder to identify with the yuppies or the sicko in American Psycho then or now.

It WAS very zeitgeisty! It's follow up was even more try hard.

It is the sickest thing I have read, and I studied post modern drama with weird dead baby stuff, and have read a lot of Irvine Welsh. I think the sexual gratification elements really made it worse for me.

The bit with the nail gun upset me the most- but perhaps it was just my teenage naivety not knowing people liked stuff like that.

I liked it, found it quite bizarre. Had to skip a few bits as PP have said - well one bit in particular.