Word: psychos
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...American Psycho, scheduled to be published by Simon & Schuster in January, runs 362 pages in edited manuscript. Crawls, actually. Barely distinguishable chapters are stuffed with the brand names of expensive suits, shoes and wristwatches, endless spoofs of nightclubs and restaurants and rambling reviews of pop records. The litany of the trivial is intentional, though Ellis seems to be writing for people who take forever to get the point. Instead of a plot, there is a tapeworm narrative that makes it unnecessary to distinguish the beginning of the novel from...
George Corsillo, the New York City artist who designed the jackets for Ellis' previous novels, refused the assignment for American Psycho. "I had to draw the line," said Corsillo. "I felt disgusted with myself for reading it." Many Simon & Schuster employees were disturbed by the manuscript, copies of which have circulated around town. Some women staffers are especially outraged by Ellis' descriptions of atrocities against females. But no one wants to say so on the record. Here is a hot property that may be too hot to handle or, says a staffer who requests anonymity, "too hot to even talk...
...caught in a profit squeeze like many other U.S. publishers, grossing out readers could mean netting a big return on Ellis' advance, estimated at $300,000. Yet American Psycho could backfire on the accountants. Penguin turned down the chance to publish the paperback edition. Executive editor Nan Graham is relatively diplomatic: "I had to read for an hour and a half before getting to the bad stuff. I was bored and annoyed." Is a new paperback deal being negotiated elsewhere? The terse reply from S&S's subsidiary-rights department: "We're working on it. No takers. No comment...
...would be naive to think that American Psycho will not find its market, although some stores might be shy about displaying the book prominently, and an Ellis promotion tour might run into resistance. Even Geraldo might take a pass...
PACIFIC HEIGHTS. Weirdo Michael Keaton squats in a house and tries to drive the nice couple who own it crazy. Sound like Beetlejuice II? Not quite: this thriller concentrates on turning familiar fears into plausible melodrama. The result is one of the slickest haunted-house movies since Psycho...