synopsis:

As the 'story' of american psycho is clearly not the most important element of the book, a synopsis can not be given easily. a successful Wall Street yuppie, patrick bateman, cannot get enough of anything - including murder. bateman spends his time training in the gym, taking care of his skin, reading magazines in his office and murdering people, mostly girls in horrorlike ways. the book consist of endless descriptions of people's clothes, pornographic scenes, cd-reviews and the sometimes sickening murder tales. fascinating sometimes, but definitely not for everyone.

on this book:

American Psycho became the centre of one of the biggest literary controversies of the 90's. Critics rejected the book on literary and moral grounds, but now the dust has settled, it's fair to say that ellis' book is not only a stylistic novum, but also, in the words of norman mailer,

'the first novel to come along in years that takes on deep and dostoyevskian themes... [ellis] is showing older authors where the hands have come on the clock.'

in 2002 a film based on this novel came out starring christian bale as patrick bateman.