Lucian Marginean itibaren Vilamòs, Lleida, Spain

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11/02/2024

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2019-01-09 04:40

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Controversial satirical book from the early 1990’s depicting the consumer yuppie world of the 80’s New York wealthy. At times funny and insightful but increasingly barbaric and grotesque. Very much a book of its time when the culture of greed had given way to bust and the veneer of image had tarnished considerably. Twenty years later its relevance is perhaps redux. Patrick Bateman is handsome, wealthy, athletic and ‘cultured’ and lives a life of ‘best’ restaurants, nightclubs and the ‘finest’ things, but his obsession with image, brand and consumerism masks a shallow hate of all around him including himself. Contradictions abound. Drink and drugs with fanatical fitness, culture and art with self-loathing, misogyny and barbarism. In his world though his obvious faults are masked or ignored by the fatuous and trite associates that share his creed. Ellis writes a slick modern stream of consciousness narrative very heavily weighted by branding and cultural bookmarks from the era. Descriptions of people are basic except for the obsessive listing of designer brands that are itemised for every article of clothing everyone wears. Peoples names are often forgotten but not the consumer goods associated with them. Ellis creates a world where the banal is raised to primacy and to the exclusion of all else, leaving the vacuum for the horrific workings of Bateman’s mind. Like the fleeting fashionability of the restaurants, nightclubs, music and clothes Ellis raises the questions of what is reality and what is horrific. If is not outrageous when with contempt for all around, you order a ridiculously priced nouvelle cuisine meal and leave it uneaten whilst people beg on the streets outside, then what could possibly considered wrong. The juxtaposition of the trite and banal with the horrific works fantastically. The horror scenes are particularly vivid and obsessively itemised in the same detail as the endless fashion references. I am not a fan of horror but American Psycho works as long as you remember that it is a satire on the very things it appears to promote so graphically. The listing of fashionable brands does become slightly irritating eventually and the three chapters that are music reviews of Genesis, Whitney Houston and Huey Lewis are so bland as to lull the reader into a hypnotic trance of consumer oblivion that allows the sadistic events to wash over you. Then again, surely this is what the author was trying to illustrate about the society he sees, with the events and ending being left open to interpretation by the reader. It is a very good novel that is bound to divide opinion and I would have given it five stars if I hadn’t been so numbed by the endless cultural references. On the subject of divided opinions, I love the ironic footnote that this book was staunchly opposed in its publication by Gloria Steinem, the American feminist, who subsequently became Christian Bale’s step mother – Bale later played Patrick Bateman in the movie version of the novel.

Okuyucu Lucian Marginean itibaren Vilamòs, Lleida, Spain

Kullanıcı, bu kitapları portalın yayın kurulu olan 2017-2018'de en ilginç olarak değerlendirdi "TrendKitaplar Kütüphanesi" Tüm okuyucuların bu literatürü tanımalarını tavsiye eder.