Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho: A Reader's Guide (Continuum Contemporaries) [Paperback]

Julian Murphet (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 11, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0826452450 | ISBN-13: 978-0826452450

This is part of a new series of guides to contemporary novels. The aim of the series is to give readers accessible and informative introductions to some of the most popular, most acclaimed and most influential novels of recent years - from 'The Remains of the Day' to 'White Teeth'. A team of contemporary fiction scholars from both sides of the Atlantic has been assembled to provide a thorough and readable analysis of each of the novels in question.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

This is an excellent guide to Bret Easton Ellis’s controversial novel. It features a biography of the author, a full-length analysis of the novel, a commentary on the film adaptation, and a great deal more. If you’re studying this novel, reading it for your book club, or if you simply want to know more about it, you’ll find this guide informative and helpful.

About the Author

Julian Murphet is Junior Research Fellow at St John's College, Oxford University. His previous publications include 'Literature and Race in Los Angeles'.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Continuum (January 11, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826452450
• ISBN-13: 978-0826452450
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,195,283 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Ellis Deserves Better, August 24, 2004

By 

Dash Manchette - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho: A Reader's Guide (Continuum Contemporaries) (Paperback)

American Psycho is one of the few books I have read more than once. I realized upon initially reading it that there was much going on beneath the surface that I was probably missing due not only to the extreme violence but also to the relentless focus on the superficial details that the main character, Patrick Bateman, describes. An excellent essay by Elizabeth Young in the book Shopping in Space allowed me to better appreciate the book the second time around. I was therefore excited when I saw the instant reader's guide by Murphet. Unfortunately, it was a letdown.

There are a couple of bright spots. Murphet does a fair job (but no better) of placing the book into the historical and social context in which Bateman existed. Murphet also does a good job of demonstrating that many events that are described in the book are probably occurring only within Bateman's head. Particularly noteworthy is pointing out that the real estate agent at Paul Owens' apartment, after Bateman allegedly killed him, was named Mrs. Wolfe. This is a reference to Tom Wolfe, the author of the realistic novel Bonfire of the Vanities, and provides a clue that that particular episode is "real." Combined with other clues, this calls into question the accuracy of Bateman's description of the murder itself.

Unfortunately, this reader's guide usually disappoints. As an initial matter, it is written in the pretentious language all too typical of literary criticism from people trying to show how smart they are. Such high-falutin' language does not impress me and others should not hesitate to say that the emperor has no clothes.

Murphet also strikes out frequently, as when a minor character mistakes Bateman for someone else and proceeds to describe Bateman in unflattering terms. Murphet believes this is noteworthy as it is inconsistent with the perception the reader has formed of Bateman. This is incorrect. Even a casual reader will recognize well before this episode that Bateman's inner view of himself is not matched by others' objective view of him. Check out what a fool Bateman makes of himself at McDonalds immediately after his attack on the homeless guy Al.

Murphet does little better when analyzing social critics of the novel. Bateman attacks both men and women in the novel, which Murphet acknowledges. Yet in discussing allegations of anti-woman sexism, Murphet focuses on whether this is attributable to the character Bateman or the author Ellis. How could anyone miss a softball like this? The better analysis is that the novel's violence may not be anti-woman, but critiques along such lines speak volumes about the callousness of such critics towards men. Further, Murphet's discussion questions regarding consumerism would be laughable if one could keep one's eyes from rolling at, again, the pretentiousness.

Ellis has written an important book skewering a noteable segment of our society. I have given the current reader's guide two stars, rather than only one, because of the paucity of literary criticisms of the novel and because a fan may get something out of it (though I would recommend Elizabeth Young's aforementioned essay over this). American Psycho deserves intelligent analysis. It deserves better than this.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars American Pyscho: Uncovered, April 23, 2003

By 

Elizabeth Nolan (London, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho: A Reader's Guide (Continuum Contemporaries) (Paperback)

We have been in need of a series like Continuum Contemporaries for a long time. Unlike the watered-down reader's guides produced by York Notes (and in the US `Cliff's Notes') these little books tackle text's which have gained something of a cult status in the late twentieth century, and do so from a perspective which is at once approachable enough for the recreational reader, and rigorous enough for the advanced student. It is therefore fitting that a text so widely, and wildly, misunderstood as Bret Easton Ellis's `American Psycho'. should be included amongst the Continuum survey.

Julian Murphet is one of the foremost critics of Ellis's work, and what you get here are all the benefits of the breadth and depth of his knowledge, boiled down into a slim and precise volume. He provides us with a short biography of the author; an exploration of the narrative voice at work within the text; a discussion of the themes of alienation and reification and a survey of critical responses. He is, however, at his most engaging in his discussion of violence and politics, the real heart of the novel itself.

He tackles the central, consuming question of whether the protagonist Patrick Bateman ever actually commits the murders so graphically rendered in the text's pages, in a manner that is exploratory and revelatory without ever being proscriptive. Thus we see an argument develop from the tentative suggestion that `everything could well be contained to the level of fantasy,' to the final assertion that the violence within `American Psycho' is `an act of language' and never really happens at all. He ties this argument in very neatly with an understanding of the text in its political context, seeing Bateman as a `pin-up boy for the establishment Right' during the Reagan era, and reading the real `murder' within the novel, not as that projected by Bateman, but rather as the `murder of the real' the erasure of all social difference and threat - what he terms `the gentrification of the city.'

Murphet rounds this off with a great critique of the film version of the novel, his genuine academic appreciation of cinema in general, making this more than just a fan's opinion.

No reader of `American Psycho' will ever wholly agree with any one theory, and indeed it is the paradoxical beauty of the novel that is never really gives you a definitive answer either way. Murphet's argument is one reading, but it is a very convincing one, and this text is a must for anyone who remains challenged by, and curious about, this work.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars sharp, honest, intelligent writing, February 7, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho: A Reader's Guide (Continuum Contemporaries) (Paperback)

Been puzzled for a while as to why there aren't more scholars working on BEE - what, they don't think the books stand up to close analysis? - so was keen to get my hands on this. It's much better than I expected. Even the biographical chapter at the start got me thinking, and I don't normally care for author background. The influence of Joan Didion on BEE is well dealt with. The whole book is beautifully written. Check this out, from p.17: 'The temptation to ascribe the gruesome violence of the text, its often nauseating and explicit detail, to Ellis's mental state, however, must be firmly resisted. It has been far too easy for moralistic critics of the novel to latch on to these passages (which constitute less than 10% of the text) as instances of Ellis's own misogynistic bile and disturbed imagination. In fact, these are some of the most factual and research-based sections of the novel - literally the furthest from Ellis's own imagination.'

The whole of this short book is as fluent and thoughtful as that. I won't discuss Murphet's analysis of the novel any further here, I recommend you read it for yourself. Yes, even if you hated American Psycho. This could well make you think again.