
Will the Real American Psycho Please Stand Up: Why Donald Trump Was Patrick Bateman’s Hero
Recently, I had cause to reread Bret Easton Ellis's 1991 bestseller American Psycho. A lot has been said about this controversial comic novel’s violence, but I think it's best classified with social satire like Vile Bodies or Speedboat (just with, you know, a homicidal narrator). And as it turns out, despite its twenty-four years, some of American Psycho’s social satire is very timely, particularly one running story line: Patrick Bateman is obsessed with Donald Trump. I had completely forgotten this, and upon revisiting the book, it dominated my reading experience. Here, as in real life, Trump