A is for American (Psycho and Gods)
Okay. I’ve started a new blog endeavor, which is to share my favorite books I’ve read from A to Z. To be clear, I’m not saying these are the best books beginning with these letters. Just the best books I’ve read throughout my life. For the sake of argument, I’ve left out short story collections and anthologies and have stuck mostly with fiction, though one or two works of non-fiction might make it in.
I’ll include my favorite novel, then one or two runners-up and, occasionally, one novel I couldn’t stand. These will usually be classic works of literature I was forced to read in school, which I’m still happy to complain about. And I invite you to share your thoughts on my picks and your own favorite novels that begin with each letter.
So, without further delay, we’ll get on with the letter A:
And the winner is:
American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis
A friend bought this for me years ago. I doubt I would have picked it up myself and had no idea what it was about but found it amusing, compelling, inspiring, disturbing, and impossible to stop thinking about. Great satire and social commentary, with an ending that I found ambiguously perfect.
Close but no cigar:
American Gods andAnansi Boys, Neil Gaiman
I’m not sure which one I enjoyed more, so I’ll include them both here. I loved the themes of immortality and the way Gaiman played with concepts of gods in American Gods, but found the storytelling in Anansi Boys to be more playful and engaging. Either one is well worth the time. Read them both.
What about…?
The first novel to come to mind for A was Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll but, um, well, I haven’t read it.
April 16th, 2010 at 8:30 am
American Psycho caused such a fuss when it was first published I knew I had to read it. I was surprised how good it was and it was obvious that the hysterical critics had not bothered to read the book. I became an obnoxious huckster promoting and recommending this book to friends, strangers and anyone else that didn’t walk away from me; it is that good. When Hollywood made this book into a “film” it was released and promoted as a horror movie; this book is far from a horror movie. The real horror was how badly Hollywood misinterpreted Ellis’ book. American Psycho is social commentary, satiric and at times wildly funny. Ellis aloofly and coolly takes us into the mind of a psychotic killer, Pat Bateman, whom to all is a seemingly normal and very successful guy. The extremely graphic murders/violence is presented as if frozen in a block of ice; choreographed and staged, like Bateman’s life. We can walk around this block of ice and view every detail from all angles, but it is untouchable; it is isolated as is Pat Bateman’s mind. **SPOILER ALERT** The fun part of American Psycho is the moment you discover that Bateman isn’t a serial killer at all; it is all fantasy. Bateman uses his fantasy psychosis as a devise in order to cope with his banal and empty life. Through Bateman’s eyes, Ellis shows us that psychosis and reality are divided by a very fine line and that sometimes we have to choose “crazy” in order to maintain our sanity.
April 16th, 2010 at 1:28 pm
I always felt that the book left the ending ambiguous. Is he really a killer? Or was it all just a fantasy? While I believed the latter, I liked that Ellis didn’t make it definitive. At least not for me. And unless I’m misremembering, in the movie, which I agree was a poor adaptation, the ending leaves no question that he was a serial killer.
Thanks for the reply, Kevin.
April 18th, 2010 at 5:26 pm
Somehow, I managed not to include ANIMAL FARM by Orwell in here as one of the runners-up. It’s inclusion, I think, speaks for itself.