Nice to see the early readers' reactions to Ellis. But I think it's unfair to say there are "those who get him and those who don't". I "get" him, and rate most of his books highly - even The Informers and Glamorama - but I side more with Lionel Shriver on Imperial Bedrooms than with Hari Kunzru. (Even so, I think her review unfair as, having decided she is going to come down against the book, she seeks to emphasise this by pretending there is nothing worthwhile in it, a patently false claim.) The review which most closely matches my own views is J Robert Lennon's in the LRB. Interesting, too, to see that that second readers' rhetorical question in their report was not "Is it good?" but "Will it sell?" That's the pragmatism of publishing which we demanding members of the reading public often forget.

I was a 20 when I bought this book (think I still have it someone, or perhaps it's knocking about in my parents' house) and I remember being shocked by it but also totally enthralled. I had to read American Psycho of course when it was published. I am looking forward to reading 'Imperial Bedrooms' which I only recently became aware of through a magazine interview.