American Psycho (1991) is a psychological thriller and satirical novel by Bret Easton Ellis. The story is told in the first person by fictitious serial killer and Manhattan businessman Patrick Bateman. The graphic violence and sexual content generated much controversy before and since publication. A film adaptation was released in 2000 to generally favorable reviews;[1] it was presented in a more figurative and analogously implicit manner and did not convey the explicit sex and violence scenes as literally graphic as in the novel.
Synopsis
Set in Manhattan and beginning on April Fools' Day 1989, American Psycho spans roughly three years in the life of wealthy young investment banker Patrick Bateman. Bateman, 26 years old when the story begins, narrates his everyday activities, from his daily life among the upper-class elite of New York to his forays into murder by nightfall.
Bateman comes from a privileged background, having graduated from Philips Exeter Academy, Harvard (class of 1984), and then Harvard Business School (class of 1986). He works as a vice president at a Wall Street investment company and lives in an expensive Manhattan apartment on the Upper West Side where he embodies the 1980s yuppie culture. Through present tense stream-of-consciousness narrative he describes his conversations with colleagues in bars and cafes, his office, and nightclubs, satirizing the shallow vanity of Manhattan yuppies.
The first third of the book contains no violence (except for subtle references apparent only in retrospect), and is simply an account of what seems to be a series of Friday nights, as Bateman documents traveling with his colleagues to a variety of nightclubs, where they snort cocaine, drink a variety of alcoholic beverages, critique fellow clubgoers' clothing, trade fashion advice, and question one another on proper etiquette.
Beginning with the second third of the book, Bateman begins to describe his day-to-day activities, which range from such mundanities as renting videotapes and making dinner reservations to committing brutal violence. Bateman's stream of consciousness is occasionally broken up by chapters in which Bateman directly addresses the reader in order to critique the work of 1980s musicians, specifically Genesis, Huey Lewis and the News and Whitney Houston.
In addition to describing his daily life, Bateman also speaks about his "love" life. He is engaged to a fellow yuppie named Evelyn, though he possesses no deep feelings for anyone; additionally, he frequently solicits sex with attractive women ("hardbodies"), manipulates his secretary's feelings for him, and tries to avoid the attention of Luis Carruthers, a closeted homosexual colleague who confesses his love for Patrick. Bateman also documents his relationship with his estranged family, including his senile mother, whom he visits in a nursing home, and his younger brother, a hedonistic college dropout (Sean Bateman, one of the protagonists from Ellis's earlier novel The Rules Of Attraction; Patrick Bateman himself also briefly appears in said novel).
As the book progresses, Bateman's control over his violent urges deteriorates. His murders become increasingly sadistic and complex, progressing from stabbings to drawn out sequences of torture, rape, mutilation, cannibalism, and necrophilia. His mask of normality appears to slip as he introduces stories about serial killers into casual conversations, and confesses his murderous activities to his co-workers. People react as if Bateman is joking with them, appear not to hear him, or otherwise completely misunderstand him ("murders and executions" is mistaken for "mergers and acquisitions"). As the book nears its conclusion, Bateman describes incidents such as seeing a Cheerio interviewed on a talk show, being stalked by an anthropomorphic park bench, and being ordered by an ATM to feed it a stray cat. Bateman's mental state appears increasingly questionable, and the events in the novel draw into question whether he has actually committed any of the murders he has described.
Towards the end of the novel, he visits Paul Owen's apartment, where he has been stockpiling mutilated bodies; to his amazement, Bateman enters a perfectly clean, refurbished apartment with no trace of decomposing bodies, but with many strong-smelling flowers, as though meant to hide a bad odor. He runs into a real-estate agent showing the apartment to prospective buyers. The estate agent asks him if he saw the advert in the Times. When Bateman pretends that he did, the estate agent says that there was none, and that he should leave and not cause any trouble.
Bateman confronts Harold Carnes, his lawyer, on whose answering machine he has previously confessed all his crimes; Carnes, who mistakes Bateman for someone else, is amused at what he considers to be a good joke. But Carnes reproaches Bateman for laying the list of crimes at his feet, and further says that Bateman is far too much of a coward to have committed such acts. Challenged by Bateman on the disappearance of Paul Owen – a colleague whom Bateman hacked to death out of professional jealousy – Carnes unexpectedly claims that he had dinner, in London, with Paul Owen a few days previously. The ambiguity is heightened by the fact that mistaken identity is a recurring theme throughout the book. Characters are consistently introduced as other people, or argue over the identities of people they can see in restaurants or at parties. Whether any of the crimes depicted in the novel actually happened, or were simply the fantasies of a delusional psychotic, is deliberately left open.
The opening lines of the book have Bateman staring at graffiti on a Chemical Bank building, reading Abandon all hope ye who enter here, an allusion to the gates of hell portrayed in Dante's Divine Comedy; the book ends with a similar scene, as Bateman sits in a bar, staring at a sign that reads "This is not an exit".
Characters
Major characters
- Patrick Bateman - The central character and narrator.
- Evelyn Williams - Bateman's fiancée.
- Timothy Price - Bateman's best friend and colleague. Later appears as a teenager in Ellis' novel The Informers.
- Paul Owen - Bateman's colleague who is later murdered by Bateman.
- Jean - Bateman's secretary, who is in love with him.
- Luis Carruthers - Gay co-worker who is in love with Bateman, something which disgusts Bateman
- Courtney Lawrence - Luis' girlfriend who is having an affair with Bateman.
- Craig McDermott - Bateman's colleague, part of a social foursome alongside Bateman, Timothy Price and David Van Patten
- David Van Patten - Bateman's colleague, also part of Bateman's main social group.
Minor characters
- Christie — A prostitute, employed and abused sexually on multiple occasions by Bateman.
- Marcus Halberstam — Bateman's colleague; Paul Owen repeatedly mistakes Bateman for Marcus.
- Donald Kimball — Private detective hired to investigate Paul Owen's disappearance.
- Alison Poole — Sexually assaulted by Bateman, principal character in the novel Story of My Life by Jay McInerney (who is a friend of Ellis's)[2]; she also reappears as a main character in Ellis's later novel Glamorama, where she is involved with the lead character, Victor Ward.
- Sean Bateman — younger brother of Patrick Bateman and also the lead character of The Rules of Attraction.
- Paul Denton — friend of Paul Owen, who also appears in The Rules of Attraction where he is possibly romantically involved with Patrick's brother Sean.
- Christopher Armstrong — Bateman's colleague at Pierce & Pierce.
- Bethany - An old girlfriend of Patrick's whom, after a date, he murders in a particularly heinous manner.
Bateman's personality
On first appearance, Bateman exemplifies the image of the successful Manhattan executive; he is well-educated, wealthy, unusually popular with women, abreast of cultural trends, belongs to a prominent family, has a high-paying job and lives in an upscale, chic apartment complex. Bateman passes for a refined, intelligent, thoughtful young man. Yet, contrary to his persona, he tortures and murders victims, practices violent sex, cannibalizes his victims, and has sex with corpses. For transportation, Bateman uses personal limousines to search for suitable victims in the streets.
Bateman is extremely style-conscious, and appears an expert in fashion and high-end consumer products. In his narrative, he obsessively describes his and other people's possessions in exhaustive detail, focusing particularly on attire, and even noting articles like pens, and pocket squares. He has a general tendency to pay more heed to the designer, place of purchase, and style of the items he describes, often ignoring the textile type or color. Bateman incisively answers his friends' and co-workers' queries, authoritatively explicating the difference between various types of mineral water, which tie knot is less bulky than a Windsor knot, and the proper way to wear a cummerbund, pocket square, and tie bar.
Bateman's employment at Pierce & Pierce is apparently unnecessary. His father owns most of the business, which is revealed during a conversation between Patrick and his ex-girlfriend. Upon questioning, the sole justification for still working is, in his own words, "I... want... to... fit... in." Because he doesn't need to work, he is supreme in his own world; he usually comes to work late—sometimes by more than an hour—and indulges in long lunches. Despite these advantages, Bateman's envy of his peers runs throughout the novel. In a scene in which characters compare business cards, Bateman panics when he realizes a friend's card is superior to his because it includes a watermark. Just as Bateman is obsessed with wealth and symbols of it, he repeatedly expresses a converse loathing of poor people.
Murder descriptions
American Psycho generated much controversy for Ellis's graphic description of Bateman's murders. Many include some form of sexual abuse or torture by Bateman, in which graphic language is used to describe the scene. Many of the murders themselves involve various forms of mutilation, including genital mutilation. Ellis also provides detailed descriptions of Bateman examining the internal organs of some of his victims after murdering them, as well as scenes in which Bateman cooks and eats human body parts. Bateman at one point says that he tries to "make meat loaf out of the girl but it becomes too frustrating a task and instead I spend the afternoon smearing her meat all over the walls, chewing on strips of skin I ripped from her body". Others include Bateman's murder of a child at the New York City Zoo, as well as the killing of a dog.
Controversy
The book was originally to have been published by Simon & Schuster in March 1991, but the company withdrew from the project because of "aesthetic differences". Vintage Books purchased the rights to the novel and published the book after the customary editing process. Interestingly, the book was never published in hardcover form in the United States, however, a deluxe paperback was eventually offered.[3] Ellis received numerous death threats and hate mail after the publication of American Psycho.[4][5]
Feminist activist Gloria Steinem was among those opposed to the release of Ellis' book because of its portrayal of violence toward women. Steinem is also the stepmother of Christian Bale, who portrayed Bateman in the film adaptation of the novel. This coincidence is mentioned in Ellis's mock memoir Lunar Park.
In Germany, the book was deemed "harmful to minors", and its sales and marketing were severely restricted from 1995 to 2000. In Canada, the book was originally deemed too harmful to the general public and subsequently banned from distribution within the country until recently. In Australia, the book is sold shrink-wrapped and is classified "R18" under national censorship legislation. The book may not be sold to those under 18 years of age, or criminal prosecution may result. Along with other Category 1 publications, its sale is theoretically banned in the state of Queensland. In Brisbane, the novel is available to those over 18 from all public libraries and can still be ordered and purchased (shrink-wrapped) from many book stores despite this prohibition.[6]; At the University of Queensland, the book is only available to students over 18, and is stored where it is not accessible to the public. In New Zealand, the Government's Office of Film & Literature Classification has rated the book as R18. The book may not be sold or lent in libraries to those under 18 years of age. It is generally sold shrink wrapped in bookstores.
Adaptations
In 2009, Audible.com produced an audio version of American Psycho, narrated by Pablo Schreiber, as part of its Modern Vanguard line of audiobooks. [7]
See also
References
