05. American Psycho, by Brett Easton Ellis.

American Psycho was recommended to me by a few people, so it got bumped up the list a bit. Also it's one of those classic books-everyone-should-get-around-to-reading-at-some-point, so I felt like I really should give it a go at some point. It follows Patrick Bateman, a rich businessman who spends most of his time doing anything but work, and has a nasty habit of murdering people on a whim. Half of the point of the book is that it wants you to look at society in a different manner to the usual, given how people just gloss over how bizarre things are in order to keep up with the Joneses. Outfits and meals are listed in meticulous detail (lest we fall behind the trends), and Bateman flies into pieces over his difficulties attaining reservations at the coveted Dorsia. Juxtaposed with the rape/murder/torture that he gets away with on what seems like more or less a weekly basis, and his flat-out confessions to multiple people (on tape, even) that are laughed off as a joke, because, he couldn't possibly be a serial killer (not Bateman, he knows what to wear with argyle socks, we have lunch with him, he's just a yuppie).

And granted, it does a very good job of doing so. The ending keys in with that, the fact that his nosedive into insanity isn't picked up by anyone, the careful, detailed, brand referencing, his anger when others don't follow the trends as closely as he does, all keys into what a caricature society can be. Technically, and in its execution, this is a marvellous book. I can't say you should not read it, because you should. It shows you a different part of society that most people don't think to look at, and I think that's a valuable experience for people.

However. I did not enjoy this book as much as I thought I would, even though I can appreciate how well it was fulfilling its function. I was really hoping for a book that left my skin crawling, that had me spooked at the end of a few hours of midnight I-Must-Finish-This-Book-Now reading, and it did not fulfil that role. The portrayal of power-hungry society bored me. Real-life power hungry society bores me as well, so I can't say I was particularly surprised, but I found the products and brands and the constant effort to record those things to be tedious and grating after a while. I didn't care what suit anyone was wearing. I didn't care that they ate this specific thing, or about what precise order his showering routine was. I can see that it helped make a point, but I got that point fairly early on, and it felt very yes-yes-I-know after a while. I didn't have any sort of affinity with that lifestyle. And because I didn't relate to the violence either, I had no real, personal, connection to the book. Which meant that I didn't like it very much in the end, technically competent though it may be.