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.