Recent chain of events

Hello!

It is time to tell you a little bit about the storyline of American Psycho so far. The chapters are still divided in a way that follows the whereabouts of Patrick Bateman. The amount of time in the story between each chapter also varies; one chapter can be about a Christmas party at Evelyn's place, the next can be about playing squash in May the following year. Because of this, it is hard to find an actual plot in the story. If there would be a plot, it would be the development of the mind and insanity of Bateman.

As I wrote in the last post, Bateman's murderous personality has slowly begun to reveal itself in the book. His days still consists of work at Pierce and Pierce, shopping at Bergdorf's, working out at Xclusive, manicures, facials, lunches and dinners at Manhattan's finest restaurants, and partying at the hottest nightclubs on the populated island. The only thing that has changed is the detailed descriptions of the assaults and murders that he performs more and more frequent. The murders are carried out because of boredom or anger, and I often experience quite unpleasant pictures in my head.

The book is so thrilling and addicting that it is easy to read, and I often read for hours simply because I loose track of time. Even though it is quite horrible and often disgusting, the book constantly makes me want to continue reading and I believe this is the case because I get closer to finding out who Bateman really is for each chapter that I read. I am also extremely curious about how the book will end and I cannot wait until I find out. Will Patrick continue with his violent lifestyle after the book ends, or does he get caught by police? For all I know, he might even kick the bucket.

The difficult thing about the book is to keep track of all the different characters that are involved in the story. Bateman has a lot of acquaintances that are mentioned, some of them only once, and therefore it can be tough to sort out those people in his life that has a value to the story. Since the book was published in 1991, it can also be hard to get all the 90's references. A modern and wealthy lifestyle at that time is not the same of what it would have been today, especially the technology has advanced a lot. I also have to know a great deal about high end fashion, art and design to be able to catch all the references and since I do not have the acquired amount of knowledge about this, it is easy for me to get a bit confused.

Although some things can be tricky to understand, I really enjoy the book and I am excited to know the end.

Adieu!

Concerning Mr. Bateman

Hello again!

SPOILER ALERT! This post, and probably my future posts, will include spoilers from the book.

I have now read a little over half of the book, and it is getting crazier and crazier. In this blog post, I will write about some of the characters in the book. My main focus will be about the mysterious Patrick Bateman. Since he is the narrator of the book, it is obvious that his thoughts and feelings are the ones that are being described most frequent and detailed.

Patrick Bateman is, as I have mentioned in my earlier blog post, a wealthy and materialistic Wall Street investment banker living on the Upper West Side. He is vice president at the company Pierce and Pierce which I believe is some kind of investment firm, but I am unfortunately not sure of the specifics concerning this. Last post I wrote briefly about the psyche of Bateman and especially about his obsession with details. As far as I have read he is still fixated with this, but now his mind reveal even darker and more awful thoughts. An example is when he says, "Daisy stays, sips Caron's champagne. I imagine her naked, murdered, maggots burrowing, feasting on her stomach, tits blackened by cigarette burns, Libby eating this corpse out (...)". These kinds of descriptions are persistent in the book, with him having violent and brutal thoughts about his fellow citizens. Not only are these vicious thoughts constantly in his head, he also turns out to be a serial killer that takes lives only for the pleasure of satisfaction. Several murders are explained in the most comprehensive ways and it seems like the victims are randomly picked people that he either chooses because they piss him of or because he is bored, often both. As I read the book even further, the murders are occurring more often.

In addition to him being a brutal murderer, Patrick Bateman also shows signs of sex addiction. He has several sexual partners, some regulars and some "one night stands". One of the regulars is Courtney Lawrence. Courtney is Luis Carruthers' girlfriend, but she is repeatedly cheating on him with Patrick. In one of the chapters in the book Bateman decides to kill Carruthers at a restaurant, simply because Luis annoys him, but he does not succeed because Carruthers expresses feelings for Bateman and these feelings take him by surprise. In addition to Luis and Courtney, Patrick also spend his time with Craig McDermott and David Van Patten, but their personalities are not described in the book, other than the fact that they share both successful careers and wealthy lifestyles with Bateman. Another close friend of him is Evelyn Williams, but they have a complicated and turbulent relationship that varies along with his mood.

These are some of the most central characters of the book so far, apart from Patrick Bateman of course. In the next post, I will write more about the actual storyline that have read so far. I hope you enjoy reading my blog and that some of you are being tempted to reading the book for yourself.

Until next time!

The first chapters

Hello again!

It is now time to start to summarize the book as far as I have read it. I have finished 86 pages and nine chapters in American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis so far. The first thing that I noticed about the book is the style that the chapters are divided in. The chapters are not structured in an ordinary way, where the first chapter is chapter number one, then number two, and so on. In American Psycho, the chapters are titled after the whereabouts of the main character, Patrick Bateman, and they are in chronological order. An example is the chapter named "Tunnel", where Bateman and his friends are guests at the nightclub called Tunnel. The chapter start with their arrival and ends with their departure. The book is written from a first-person perspective, from Bateman's point of view.

Now it is time to tell you about the actual storyline of the book. It is about Patrick Bateman, an investment banker living in New York City with a luxurious life, filled with fancy restaurants and designer clothes and other artefacts. His days consists of work, training at an extravagant fitness center, tanning in sunbeds, business lunches with important people, dinner dates with pretty models, and partying at expensive nightclubs. For now, his closest friends are Timothy Price, David Van Patten and Craig McDermott. They all share having successful careers and their love for high-end items and their glorious life on the Upper West Side on Manhattan.

Already now, it is cleat that Bateman has an almost obsessive eye for details. His descriptions of clothes, products, interior, and similar things are astonishing and the details are overwhelming. For example, he always describes everyone's outfits down to the smallest feature, including his own. It almost seems like a compulsion because it is so dominating in the book.

The cover of the books shows a male with a suit and thoroughly combed hair. It is an appropriate cover for the book because the person on the cover seems perfectly sane and normal, in contrast with the main character in the story. I have quite a lot of expectations to the book, mostly because of the reviews and opinions that I have gathered from both people that a know and critics. I already know that the book will develop in a grotesque way, but I do not know how. I am eager to continue reading, and to continue reporting  to you guys!


Thanks for reading!

About the author

Hello to you!

On this blog, I will post my opinions and summaries on the international bestseller American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.

Today's post will focus on the author of the book, Bret Easton Ellis. Ellis was born March 7, 1964 in Los Angeles, California. He is not only an author, but also a screenwriter and a short story writer. According to Wikipedia, Ellis is a self-proclaimed satirist whose trademark is the expression of extreme acts and opinions in an affectless style.

Ellis grew up in a middle class Californian household in Sherman Oaks in San Fernando Valley. His father, Robert Martin Ellis, was abusive and because of this, it was speculated by critics if the main character Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, was based on him. Bret Easton Ellis later claimed that the character was in fact based on himself.

Ellis was educated at The Buckley School in California, and he later attended Bennington College in Vermont, where he got an education in writing.

He made his debut in writing early, at age 21, with the book Less Than Zero (1985). It was written while Ellis was still attending Bennington College. The book was a success, and his next book, American Psycho, was an even bigger success. Ellis has written several other books, like The Informers, Lunar Park and Imperial Bedrooms. 

Four of his books have been made into films; Less Than Zero, American Psycho, The Rules of Attraction and The Informers. Both American Psycho and The Rules of Attraction achieved a cult status after their releases. The movie American Psycho is starring popular Hollywood actors like Christian Bale, Justin Theroux and Reese Witherspoon.

Journalists have been speculating for years whether Bret Easton Ellis is gay or not. He has given different explanations over the years to different journalists, like saying that he does not identify himself as either gay nor straight. After many years of being very unclear about his sexuality, he finally identified himself as gay in 2012.

In the next post I will start to summarize the book as I read it and give my opinions about it.


Until next time!


References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bret_Easton_Ellis
http://breteastonellis.com/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0254735/