Top ten books in which things end badly

Richard Gwyn is Director of the MA in Creative Writing at Cardiff University. His books include The Colour of a Dog Running Away, Deep Hanging Out, and The Vagabond’s Breakfast.

In 2007 at the Guardian he named ten books in which things end badly, including:

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

Things end badly simply by dint of the hero, Patrick Bateman, remaining alive at the end of this gruelling odyssey to nowhere, although he does make a phantasmagorical appearance in the writer's latest, and most interesting novel, Lunar Park, when the character 'Bret Easton Ellis' believes he is being stalked by his own fictional creation. Yes, we are asked to believe, as his list of murderees grows, this is what a corporate culture allows us. No room for God here since the power of the killer has made redemption unthinkable and a devil's bargain expedient.

Read about the other entries on the list.

American Psycho appears on John Mullan's list of ten of the best zoos in literature, Nick Brooks' top ten list of literary murderers and Chris Power's list of his six top books on the 1980s. It is a book that Nick Cross "Finished Reading but Wanted My Time Back Afterwards."

--Marshal Zeringue