What I'm Reading

I was rereading American Psycho, B.E.E.'s early 90s meditation on society's increasing desensitization to violence delivered in a running onslaught of late-80s excessive indulgence. I think I picked it up to get reintroduced to Patrick Bateman's rampant, label-whoring, hyper-cosumerism – consumerism being what pays my bills. But, half way through, I found myself... bored. It's possible that in the intervening sixteen years, I have become more desensitized to violence (of which there is actually very little in the first half) rendering the shock and awe of the original reading impotent. Or, I may have just become desensitized to rampant hyper-consumerism. Regardless, if you haven't read it it's worth reading once.

Now, I've just begun The Pesthouse by Jim Crace. I hadn't heard of the author but the reviews indicate the book is a worthy companion piece to McCarthy's masterpiece, The Road. [See the WTF mini-review of The Road. – Ed.]