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I have read a lot of his work. Less Than Zero is my favorite book by him but I love many of them.

I know he kind of sticks his foot in his mouth a bit as a person especially on twitter but I think he has some great quality writing.

I just wondered if anyone else had read some of his books or more than one and what they thought, favorites, etc.

Sorry but have to say I think you have to be a psycho to be able to write a book like American Psycho! It is deplorable and should be banned from bookshops!

I love Brett Easton Ellis.. and I think , ironically, American Psycho is not REALLY him.

No, let me refreaphes it's him..But it's almost too stressed.. I always felt it, very HYSTERIC in driving home a perfect guy who gets aways with murder..

Fyi ellipsis always has three dots. Also you seem too keen on them

The things that American Psycho does could only have been dreamed up by a fellow psycho...

Don't understand your last para.

I think Ellis used American Psycho to release a lot of pent up feelings and anger. It's an amazing satire poking at the yuppie generation of the 80s.
I can see why some of the descriptions and content make this book hard to read for some but I think it's a really great piece of work.

mandap24 wrote:I think Ellis used American Psycho to release a lot of pent up feelings and anger. It's an amazing satire poking at the yuppie generation of the 80s.
I can see why some of the descriptions and content make this book hard to read for some but I think it's a really great piece of work.

Totally agree with first paragraph, however... To say it is hard to read is an enormous understatement. I do wonder if the book contained scenes of graphically described torture and mutiliation of male as oppose to female gentialia if you male readers might have a hard time reading it. The premise of the book, the satire is destroyed by the book's deplorable scenes of violence. Ask yourself how Easton Ellis came up with those scenes?

I am not a male and while I do find the scenes overly gruesome that to me is the point of a Satire as it's a huge exaggeration of circumstances a la Candide by Voltaire.
Easton Ellis has a hugely vivid imagination as most writers do, it's possible he researched serial killers before writing.
While there are similarities between the persona of Bateman and Easton Ellis there are also drastic differences.
For one, Easton Ellis is a gay male, not that it should even matter.

Well yeah it does because he's targeted hetrosexuals to satire! Believe me I'm not in anyway homophobic but the fact he's gay is interesting. In white heterosexual american society, a successful business man can get away with murder, murder of the most horrific kind! Is what Ellis is saying.

I think it's sad that you downplay the scenes of grotesque violence towards women especially being a female. Ask yourself how the book would suffer if they weren't in it or what the book gains from them?

Like I said before the explicit scenes of violence spoil the book and in my opinion show something sinister about Ellis and were only done to gain sales.

Everyone has different opinions and I'm sure the way we read the books were entirely different.
My interpretation is different from you interpretation.
To me the book is more than just a successful business man that can get away with murder.
The group Bateman is around only cares about labels, that they wear the best suit in the room, have the best business card, and can get tables at the best restaurant. Everyone is self-involved and dress the same, look the same, and do everything like each other. It shows how society only cares about material things.
Bateman is a part of this class in society (dominated by males) where they all look the same and that is why he's able to get away with murder

However, Bateman's character is a bit different, he's messed up to the point that describing actions of other serial killers to his friends doesn't even phase him. So of course all his extremely violent acts won't phase him either.
I'm not downplaying the violence towards women. It's gruesome. But he even offers to pay a bum, a man, money and murders him right in the street.
Ellis uses American Psycho to comment a lot on society and the violence is there to show how desensitized people are to it which is even more relevant today.
I'm not saying you're wrong, maybe it could hold the same without all the violent descriptions, but that's not how it was written.

-- 09 Jul 2014, 00:45 --

I also just wonder if anyone who has read Less than Zero has read the sequel to the novel titled Imperial Bedrooms and if they had any thoughts?
Was the sequel needed? Did the older versions of the characters surprise you?