It’s Gruesomely Graphic! Appallingly Violent! And Only $19.95!
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Most Chicago-area book dealers apparently bought the book weeks ago, as part of a mass order of winter offerings, with no clear sense of its bloodcurdling contents. Last week, veteran bookseller Stuart Brent professed total unfamiliarity with Ellis’s book, though Simon & Schuster Chicago sales rep Vicki Warthen said copies had been ordered for his high-toned Michigan Avenue shop. (Added Warthen knowingly: “It won’t be a big seller for him.”) Pat Peterson, co-owner of Barbara’s Bookstores, has only recently gotten a sense of what’s inside American Psycho, and late last week she was admitting to second thoughts about carrying the book. “It’s horrific stuff,” says Peterson. But other booksellers are convinced the book will move off the shelves no matter how ugly it is. “I’m sure the book will sell because of its shock appeal,” says Chris Kennelly, trade book buyer for Unabridged Books, adding that “there are people who are fans of Bret Easton Ellis.” Even so, Unabridged’s initial order of American Psycho, is only about 10 copies, considerably fewer than the 200 it ordered of David Leavitt’s comparatively tame new collection of short stories A Place I’ve Never Been. Ray Carroll, chief trade book buyer for the Kroch’s & Brentano’s stores, also says he was unaware of American Psycho’s violent content when he placed an order for around 100 copies. “The book certainly wasn’t presented to me as sensational,” says Carroll. Still, the Kroch’s buyer maintains a realistic attitude about the public’s seemingly insatiable appetite for murder and mayhem. “There’s always a market for outrageous stuff,” he says. Simon & Schuster is trying to keep prying eyes away from American Psycho while stoking the flames of curiosity about it. An S&S publicist says there will be no advance galleys of the book, which runs 400 pages and will list for $19.95, while sales rep Warthen promises it “will be controversial.” Adds Warthen: “American Psycho was written to shock people out of their complacency about the 1980s.”
No Stars at Steppenwolf
