A long time ago I saw the movie version of this book, and I remember that Christian Bale turned in a great performance, and there were a few shocking moments to exemplify the psychotic behavior of the main character. I had no idea the book was exponentially more shocking.
The writing in this book was really well done – the author guides us from the seemingly normal “yuppie” behavior of the main character and his “friends”, but also lifts the curtain on the (truly) psycho behavior and doesn’t hold anything back. Taken as a whole you could cut out the violence and read this as a snapshot of the excesses of the 80s. I was especially impressed with the amount of detail that went into describing the fashion – way beyond a GQ level and deep into haberdashery.
But this is a book letting us into the mind of a madman. There are flashes in and out, non-sequential events and blurry comprehension that throw the reader off. When psychotic episodes show up I was just as shocked as the victims. The violence and sex (sometimes separate, sometimes combined) seems meant to contrast with the “normality” of those times. For me it was hard to get through these scenes. If the writer was aiming for disgust he hit the mark and kept on shooting.
I don’t think I could recommend this book to anyone, but I can’t complain about the what I read – it is right there in the title. There were various messages in this book, and I felt like I got what the author was trying to illustrate, but it didn’t need to be delivered in such a grotesque way.
Next I am reading Profiles in Ignorance by Andy Borowitz.
