A disturbing satire of yuppie life which combines both explicit violence and sex with gruesome results. But are Patrick Bateman's actions real or perverse fantasy? And in the end does it matter - the assault on the reader's senses is equally powerful, regardless of the truth.

There wasn't a clear, identifiable emotion within me, except for greed and, possibly, total disgust. I had all the characteristics of a human being - flesh, blood, skin, hair - but my depersonalization was so intense, had gone so deep, that the normal ability to feel compassion had been eradicated, the victim of a slow, purposeful erasure ....