38 pages 1 hour read

Bret Easton Ellis

American Psycho

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1991

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Chapters 9-20

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 9 Summary: “Dry Cleaners”

Bateman goes to a Chinese drycleaner that returned some clothes to him “still covered with flecks of someone’s blood” (78). After stamping on the foot of a homeless person he argues with an elderly Chinese woman in the drycleaners whom he cannot understand. A woman who lives in his building enters the drycleaners. She talks to Bateman and notices the suspicious stains on his sheets which he tries to claim are from cranberry juice. She asks Bateman out for lunch, but he dismisses her with an excuse.

Chapter 10 Summary: “Harry’s”

Bateman and two other business associates are getting drinks in Harry’s. Bateman gets mistaken by a man called Paul Owen for another man, Marcus Halberstam, and is asked about Marcus’s girlfriend, Cecilia. They discuss women who “have a good personality” (87). The other men argue that this is unimportant and that only looks matter.

Chapter 11 Summary: “Deck Chairs”

A friend of Evelyn’s, Courtney, invites Bateman to a new restaurant near Columbia University called “Deck Chairs” along with another couple. When he gets there Bateman finds the couple to be dull and Courtney all but comatose from taking lithium. Despite this and passing out in the restaurant cloakroom, she invites him back to her apartment for sex.

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