Less Than Zero is quite nasty too

( spangolin laughs from the dark of the wilderness, Thu 15 May 2008, 14:36, archived)

I read Glamorama, that was good - it did have it's gruesome parts.

( Jobe http://www.flickr.com/photos/joefreeman, Thu 15 May 2008, 14:38, archived)

American Psycho is somehow much worse though
I don't know why. I remember thinking less than zero was a good book - worrying, but good. But AP is just every fucking country of the wrongworld.
(loutre I've said too much, been too unkind, Thu 15 May 2008, 14:38, archived)

oh really?
I do love a nasty book, I might pick it up.
( spangolin laughs from the dark of the wilderness, Thu 15 May 2008, 14:39, archived)

may I suggest
only reading alternate pages? every other page is his description of his and others clothes, glasses, mannerisms etc. It's meant to convey a kind of blase normality as a counter to the ultra-violence, and emphasise just how meaningless other's life and pain is to him ... but it just gets fucking irritating ;)
(loutre I've said too much, been too unkind, Thu 15 May 2008, 14:42, archived)

Some of those bits are my favourite moments in it.
The contrast is what makes it more effective, in my opinion.
( FoldsFive wishes to remain an omnibus, Thu 15 May 2008, 14:43, archived)

see below
I'm really just taking the piss. It's a fucking wrong book in so many ways though.
(loutre I've said too much, been too unkind, Thu 15 May 2008, 14:46, archived)

I very much agree.

( Jobe http://www.flickr.com/photos/joefreeman, Thu 15 May 2008, 14:47, archived)

But that's the point.
You get him writing pages and pages of superfluous adjectives about meaningless things, and then half a page of crudely written torture and sexual violence.

You can't have one without the other, otherwise it's just porn for mentalists.
(mookay pick em up picklehead, Thu 15 May 2008, 14:43, archived)

I know
I wasn't really being serious. But fuck, I wished he'd shut up about oliver peoples fucking glasses for a bit.

anyway, arguably it is just porn for mentalists.
(loutre I've said too much, been too unkind, Thu 15 May 2008, 14:45, archived)

i actually started to feel guilty for looking forward to the sick bits

(mookay pick em up picklehead, Thu 15 May 2008, 14:47, archived)

haha
just finished Rant, the latest Chuck Palahniuk one - could have done with that advice towards the end. He does have a habit of repeating things a few too many times.
( spangolin laughs from the dark of the wilderness, Thu 15 May 2008, 14:44, archived)

I found it irritating at first, but then it amused me, and was a nice break
from reading about eating intestines and burning eyes with lighters...
( Jobe http://www.flickr.com/photos/joefreeman, Thu 15 May 2008, 14:44, archived)

oh i forgot about the eyeballs exploding

(mookay pick em up picklehead, Thu 15 May 2008, 14:45, archived)

I've read a lot of bad things.
This is the baddest.
(mookay pick em up picklehead, Thu 15 May 2008, 14:42, archived)

I think American Psycho is
worse because you get quite involved with one person and the workings of his mind. Although I've not read Less than zero, I think this is why the violence in AP is worse than the violence in Glamorama.

/book club
( Jobe http://www.flickr.com/photos/joefreeman, Thu 15 May 2008, 14:42, archived)