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What is the best part in the American Psycho book ? I heard that the movie would have to have been rated NC-17 if parts of the book were put into the movie.

The book is chilling. It really freaked me out, not because of the violence but because of the absolute despair and nihilism. There is a part where Bateman is using geological metaphor to describe his barren inner landscape and for whatever reason I found it very disturbing.

My understanding (Not having read it but hearing a lot about it) is that the book has very long sections that is basically a non stop monologue of Bateman's in which he analyzes all kinds of aspects of his life in minute detail. Like,,, picking his tie or whatever. Which is a great introspective on his mind and methodology and can be genuinely creepy but is also kind of dull because literally nothing is happening. Then the gruesome murder stuff happens. Then it's monologues again. Then a murder. Then monologues.

The end consensus is the movie did a great job of trimming some fat and following the whole "Show, don't tell" bit.

The movie is great, but I feel that it is tonally very different from the book. I'm not sure if it's been directly confirmed by Mary Harron, but I'm almost certain the movie is intended to be a black comedy, whereas the book is just as bleak as it gets.

The book is one of my favorites of all times, an absolute masterpiece. The movie is one of the few literary adaptations that doesn't look trash in comparison with the book. Both worth your time.

American psycho is about the american society (mostly but it can be applied to all western societies which are influenced by the Usa) where only the surface counts, there isn't a real plot. It was written in '91, but still very actual since also the new generations are obsessed with their image. Creepy? Maybe, I think it perfectly portrays the average upper-middle class even if it's a satire, I found it extremely realistic.

I also loved The Rules of Attractions from the same writer, which deals with similar matters after all, but not as much as American Psycho.

 Blackie wrote:
The book is one of my favorites of all times, an absolute masterpiece. The movie is one of the few literary adaptations that doesn't look trash in comparison with the book. Both worth your time.

American psycho is about the american society (mostly but it can be applied to all western societies which are influenced by the Usa) where only the surface counts, there isn't a real plot. It was written in '91, but still very actual since also the new generations are obsessed with their image. Creepy? Maybe, I think it perfectly portrays the average upper-middle class even if it's a satire, I found it extremely realistic.

I also loved The Rules of Attractions from the same writer, which deals with similar matters after all, but not as much as American Psycho.

Fully agree.
Book and movie are very different in tone.

The book is full on psychotic and it doesn't matter if Bateman describes picking a tie, the movie-famous business card description or killing a human. And this is so full on insane, that I found myself laughing on more than one occasion.

The book was put on the index in Germany (no open selling in bookstores, no advertisement, need to be 18+) for 6 years and while I generally disagree with this practice, I can totally see why they did it with this book.

My two part mini-review of the book.

American Psycho
I kind of speed-read this thinking what a complete load of gak it was. But I came back to it later...

American Psycho (2nd reading)
Taken at a proper pace, this actually is a very funny book in a lot of the chapters.
The protagonist is a rich yuppie in the New York financial business of the 1980s.
Practically every scene involves minute descriptions of the designer clothes the characters are wearing.
Another aspect is the detailed analyses of various 1980s music albums, including the complete oeuvre of Hughie Lewis and The News.
Psychopathic scenes of torture and murder increase in frequency as the book progresses, lurid and disgusting in detail.
The ultimate payoff is that it's never clear that these episodes exist outside the protagonist's fethed up mind.

I haven't seen the film, but from the book I can understand hw it could be made a black comedy.

It was sold sealed in plastic bags in this country at first.
The sort of grey plastic baggies that certain skin mags got sold in.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Luciferian wrote:
The book is chilling. It really freaked me out, not because of the violence but because of the absolute despair and nihilism. There is a part where Bateman is using geological metaphor to describe his barren inner landscape and for whatever reason I found it very disturbing.

I hope to get the book.

I feel like both incarnations of the story greatly benefited from the 80's guy episode of Futurama in terms of people getting a frame of reference for the characters.

There's one chapter (cant remember specifically, read it years ago) where he starts out trying to be better person, takes his girlfriend on a vacation. Buys a new puppy. Then about a page or two later everything starts unraveling and... escalates quickly. I thought it captured the essence of the book.