AMERICAN PSYCHO (Bret Easton Ellis) - April 4/12

This shockingly terrible and consistently boring book contains an almost impressive amount of violence and gore - I wholeheartedly believe that some of these passages are more brutal than anything I've ever read - but the thing ultimately feels at least 300 pages longer than necessary. So much of the book involves Patrick describing objects and his surroundings that I wanted to smash my head into a wall, and the almost complete absence of plot ensures that the book is frequently interminable. There are a few decent stretches - Patrick's run-in with a former girlfriend - but for the most part I really did feel like the whole thing just sailed right over my head (ie what's the POINT of all this? I just don't get it). Terrible. Just terrible. * out of ****