#563: Look into the mirror....

Hey, did you know Bret Easton Ellis's controversial 1991 yuppie-horror novel AMERICAN PSYCHO has ... RECORD REVIEWS in it? I was kinda suprised.
As a big horror fan, I tried 2 read AM PSYCHO a few yrs back, couldn't get in2 it & gave up. This time around I read the 1st 50 pgs or so & got mildly bored, so now I'm skimming -- only 2 trip over an entire CHAPTER that is nothing but reviews of Genesis's 1980s output, starting on pg 133.
But here's the thing -- Ellis & his psycho narrator Patrick Bateman go on&on&ON in endless, mind-numbing detail about fashion & brand-names (I assume all this stuff is correct). But Xcept 4 Genesis & a couple refrences 2 INXS and Huey Lewis and the News, all other refrences 2 music in the 1st 130 pgs of the book R botched. ALL of the oldies mentioned R attributed 2 the wrong artists.
Lotta diffrent ways 2 take this. Either Bateman the narrator thinks all the artists' names R interchangeable & don't matter (he even gets Genesis members' names scrambled-up toward the end of his reviews), or Ellis isn't that big a music fan & couldn't care less, or his publisher blew it on the fact-checking. But this is obvious stuff: "Cherish" was not done by the Lovin' Spoonful. "Be My Baby" was NOT done by the Crystals.
If Ellis/Bateman lavished so much attn on fashion & brand-names -- you ALWAYS know what EVERY character is wearing, you may not know what they LOOK like but you ALWAYS know how they're dressed (you also always know what everybody's eating or drinking) -- why would he blow-off the music details? Hmmm....
Course this book isn't about music. & tho I'm mildly bored, I havta admit I'm enjoying the way Ellis slips in sneaky details about his main character's slimy pursuits. Just little flashes here & there. Like when his girlfriend asks why she couldn't come over 2 see him the night B4, & when she gets distracted Bateman answers: "You couldn't come over last night because your neighbor's head was in my refrigerator." & no1 notices. ... OK, so I hava odd sense of humor....
His Genesis reviews R pretty funny 2, especially when Bateman rattles on about the band's DEEP EMOTIONAL COMMITMENT 2 their music, & how former member Peter Gabriel never made a solo album as consistent, tuneful & challenging as INVISIBLE TOUCH....
Course I don't recommend you read what is sposta B a pretty tough novel just 4 the silly music reviews. & I'm aware I haven't gotten 2 the really tough stuff yet. (Just 1 fully-detailed but only mildly messy murder so far.) I don't even know if I'm gonna B able 2 finish it. But there WERE some intresting things going on here....