American Psycho

Why it’s on the list: Bret Easton Ellis’s novel narrated by Patrick Bateman, a late-1980s Wall Street M&A banker whose obsession with business cards, restaurant reservations and brand names runs alongside murders the book never confirms.

Where I heard about it

• Replies to @WillManidis — named in the answers to his question “what is the single best book you can read that will explain an entire industry?” (the thread, June 2025) — a satire offered as the best available description of investment-banking status culture. The full list of replies is on what is the single best book… (tweet).

Connections

• what is the single best book… (tweet) — the thread this came out of; the full recovered list lives there.
• Language of Discourse — the portfolio idea this sits closest to: the book is almost entirely about the vocabulary of status.