Boycott of ‘Psycho’ Publisher Debated

I am appalled by the excerpts I’ve read from “American Psycho” and hope no one reads it. However, as a bookseller and a supporter of NOW, I cannot condone a blanket boycott of Random House.

Does NOW really wish to imply that all Random House’s publications are tainted by a single book? Vintage (a Random House imprint) publishes authors like Angela Davis, Antonia Fraser, Maxine Hong Kingston and Kazuo Ishiguro.

Under other imprints, Random House publishes thousands of books. Should I not sell “Babar the Elephant,” “The Random House Dictionary” or John Updike’s novels? How about Margaret Drabble or A.S. Byatt?

Even if Random House didn’t publish such an extensive and impressive list, I could not condone a boycott. Each book is a separate work and should be judged in its own right. I sincerely hope “American Psycho” sinks as did Ellis’ last novel. But with all this publicity, I fear more and more people will hear about, buy and read his offensive book.

LISE FRIEDMAN

Culver City