I generally enjoy Mike Selby's articles about books and authors. However, I was appalled by his recent column about the novel American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis.

To describe the novel as social commentary is being overly generous. Ellis is no Dickens and his satire does not approach Swift. Yes, the book does poke fun at the trappings of the Yuppie lifestyle - Brooks Brothers suits etc.. However, the book is dominated by horrifically graphic descriptions of the torture, mutilation, and killing of women. I challenge Mr. Selby to read the 'rat scene' to his mother or sister or girlfriend and still argue that there is any merit in this book.

I find it somewhat ironic that Selby uses the opinion of Norman Mailer to legitimize Ellis. Mailer has been accused of misogyny himself. This is an author who wrote a book, Prisoner of Sex, just to attack the Women's Movement and stabbed his second wife with a knife.

I'm against the banning of books. If Mr. Selby wants to stand on a soapbox about controversial books, then at least pick a book that has some merit. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie is still banned in over a dozen countries. The works of Joyce, Steinbeck, Orwell, Salinger, Henry Miller and a long list of others have been banned, protested, and burned and have real literary merit. American Psycho is the shock jock of novels and nothing more.

Don Moore

Cranbrook