Customer Reviews
A black hole of revelation - By: Katharine, 06 Sep 2008 
Without a doubt, this book is one of the most disturbing I have ever read. If not psychologically so, physically the sheer depravity of our protagonist Patrick Bateman's murders is enough to shock all but the most hardened readers of horror & gore. These descriptions are not brief or disguised; as Bateman draws out the deaths of his victims, such are the descriptions lengthy, horrifying & explicit. Sex is also focused almost solely around his violence; both as a prerequisite & even during the attacks themselves.
The rest of the book remains a flat monotone narrative, Bateman obsessively cataloging the clothes of his "friends" & giving overlong fussy analyses of discographies of his favourite musicians, Whitney Houston, Huey Lewis & The News & Genesis for example. It is these sections of the novel that are obviously essential as the contrast to the brutality of the frenzied sex & violence around them, but these bland accounts make Bateman a difficult if very enigmatic protagonist,in how little they say about a personality. However, Bateman is a self-confessed "vacant" person; these somewhat dull passages help us to understand how empty his life is: outside of his insanity, that is. It isin most cases simply something the reader has to endure; they hold little interestin terms of content or style.
I find it completely understandable that many many people will find this book not to their taste, or even object to its being published. Saying this, within the exhausting changes between almost comatose blandness & adrenaline & drug fuelled passion, there are some important messages. The growing desensitization of our society aided or even created by the web of the media is epitomised by Bateman's extreme of renting thousands of dollars worth of movies & constantly narrating to us the daily topic of a TV show & missing work to watch topics he finds interesting, & saying that during day-to-day life he feels "I simply am not there". Indeed, by the end of the novel, his commentary on his friends conversations & his own thoughts becomes increasingly fragmented, boiling down to simply stating concepts & nouns of the materialistic things that define his ironically meaningless life.
Perhaps a good summary of his feelings runs as follows: ""Define reason. Desire--meaningless. Intellect is not a cure. Justice is dead. Fear, recrimination, innocence, sympathy, guilt, waste failure, grief, were things, emotions, that no one really felt anymore. Reflection is useless, the world is senseless. Evil is its only permanence. God is not alive. Love cannot be trusted. Surface, surface, surface was all that anyone found meaning in."
This novel is not easy on the reader. The ending, on the surface, does little to relieve or comfort the reader as we may like an ending to. But look a little deeper into his brief moments of personal insight & social commentary & it may cause the reader to think harder about the societyin which we live & how dangerous it could be.
Sushi My Girlfriend - By: Philip Solo, 19 Oct 2007 
We have a guy called `Bateman' at work. He looks & behaves nothing like the `hero' of this novel, isn't impeccably dressed, doesn't eat lunchin smart restaurants, doesn't earn a huge 6 figure salary & hopefully.. his nocturnal activities don't match either... but like the central characterin this novel.. everyone just calls him `Bateman...'
Patrick Bateman is Hannibal Lector's yuppie nephew preceding our favourite `slice n dice' psychiatrist by a good many years but with a lust for sudden explosive gore-soaked violence that would make his `Uncle Hannibal' proud. Bret Easton Ellis's exquisite, expensively manicured & `his hair was perfect' protagonist is a narcissistic self obsessed over paid & indulgent dealer. His daytime obsession apart from making huge money is to outdo his other vacuously self centred male clique inmates demonstrating one-upmanship - achieve the `perfect' exclusive impossible-to-get restaurant booking, obtain snob-club memberships & flaunt their cartier-gucci-rolex-versace style-brand obsessions.
High powered 80s `new men'...they preen, strut, gossip & whinge their way through their overprivileged expense account lives driven by media trivia statistics. Their biting sneering criticism is a prescient glimpse of the male version of `Sexin the City' - a triumphant win for greed, gadget- materialism & vanity over meaningful existence. They ruthlessly denigrate everyone, sneer & boast, treat waiting staff & service personnel like scum, & of course they all `hate & despise' the jobless, the homeless & the `underclass' with a vitriol that knows no bounds. They drool over ever more contrived minimalist priced-to-insanity menus, celebrity tailoring, skin treatments & `male perfumes'. They talk yuppie `buzzword' speak & act like the spoiled selfish ***holes they are. Above all they 'hate' women, but can't do without them.
Bateman though, has a secret. He compensates. He twists & blurs & warps his view of the world so that amongst his shallow peer group of preening guppies he is really a silk suited, Armani clad, calvin-klein Thin White Shark (with a perfect tan). At night Bateman targets & stalks prey - women (although the odd homeless tramp can be a suitable target for his murderous rage when the mood strikes) As the book progresses, Bateman's off duty serial killer `hobby' grows & grows into an uncontrollable monster. It's an explosive, bloody & visceral gutting, carving, raping, nail-gunning & beating of women, & gets more & more risky, careless & enthralling to him. Like most extreme sensation seekers he soon becomes jaded & needs an ever more outrageous thrill to produce the desired post event calm.
He is carelessly `wasteful' of his girlfriends, even ones he likes & has moments of bitter-sweet regret - one look, one move, one magazine vignette-style frozen moment or a word can set off the kill frenzy. After which he returns to his daily `act' within the indulgent high profile media dominated GQ `men's world'. A swaggering waxed-smooth male model peacock surrounded by yes-friends ` what shall we eat today , where shall we shop?' Bateman's neurotic male cronies make you think `material girls' are not so bad after all.
As famously askedin Hitch Hikers Guide `what is the meaning of life' .? For Bateman & his ilk its a constant keeping up with & humiliating of their peers & all those `beneath them' - rich diets, hi profile cars, designer suits, & vacuous gold-digger girlfriends just part of advertising land's trim & trappings. Bateman's label-scorning, brand obsessed life is a walking `to die for' OCD obsession, every move style-analysed & scored by our studio audience, folks. The rivers of anxiety, envy & resentment run deep & red through his mental landscape. It's the Land of Excess, the 80s aspirant excess-style-dream world.
The book follows his obsessive-compulsive disorderly decline & descent into homicidal madness & bursts of rage filled murderous self indulgencein a vain attempt to cope with his ever increasing thrill seeking & the bleak despair of boredom. A portrait of the veneer generation where fashion trappings, social status & `bling' outweigh values & where the line between normal `observance' of rules & outright pathological rebellion is a thin one. Bateman crosses the line & like Luke Rhinehart's Dice Man he is on the slippery bloody slope. He sets himself against the rest of grudgingly law abiding society...no way back...!
Good if you're into this sort of thing - By: A. C. Saunders, 08 Sep 2007 
Read this bookin about two weeks on & off. Personally I found it dull but interspersed with moments of total, gut-churning descriptions of utmost depravity. I can appreciate why some people think it deserves more than 3 stars but I am not one of them
Armani Blood - a new fragrance from aids orphans - By: Mr. B. Eden, 11 Jul 2007 This book is about living with perfection albeit of the materialistic splendour variety (poor poor Patrick). Money gives the psycho the resources to visit anyone, anything, anywhere. Psycho only livesin the material world & finds it incredibly irritating & shallow even though he appears to have it all. Porn & extreme violence very mildly produce a reaction otherwise he appears numbed & unemotional, dead really. These drones deserve ultra violence & Bateman is only looking for a real response from them as he mutilates. It is a slight reprieve for him who has to livein the uber chic air conditioned nightmare a milion free air miles cannot take him away from. Platinum amex cards & cocaine are no palliatives for this sterile consumer world, murdering another model might help for a few minutes. Poor Patrick Bateman I pity anyone he comes across. A bit of a bore carrying a carving knife only Phil Collins might be able to persuade him to put down
Shocking, vile and very good - By: molondas, 22 Mar 2007 Careful with this one. If you haven't got the stomach for graphic descriptions of the most depraved & senseless acts of violence, depravity & murder then, really, don't read it. Ellis leaves no stone unturnedin describing the vile deeds of his (anti) hero, the serial killer Patrick Bateman, & the nasty & random brutality inflicted on his victims can be a challenging read.
But the book is not actually about the murders themselves. The reviewers who say that the book is about the failures of capitalism & consumer excess are absolutely correct, however pretentious that may sound - it's the bitsin between the killings that are what the book is about. Or - to put it another way - the killings are an integral part of the world of labels, product endorsements, tv serials, chat shows, restaurants & conversations about restaurants, cocaine, GQ magazine, fitness routines at the gym, self-obsession, superficial lifestyles & empty personalities that Bateman lives in.
What he finds out is that endless killing has no more power to make his life meaningful than an endless choice of designer clothes, regional cuisines, CD or DVD technology or skin & haircare products. Consumer excess leads ultimately to disassociation, loss of values & absence of personality.
