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Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk. Author had a few clever ideas but they grew stale after the first third of the book. This would have been better as a short story. However, it's good satire and was entertaining enough. Some passages made me chuckle and I might be reading more Palahniuk in the future.
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Mar 30, 2023 23:11
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Make Something Up by Chuck Palahniuk. A short story collection attempting to trigger disgust by descriptions of gross sex, racism, violence or physical disabilities. Some stories had happy endings but those felt weakest while others had vague references to each other and it was fun to pick those up. Also there is a philosophical essay on language for some reason. Never again will I look the same at defibilirators, horses or car wash places. On the whole a very enjoyable read.
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Apr 10, 2023 14:48
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Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk Palahniuk's first book feels angrier, more raw, less polished and not funny at all. His detailed knowledge of chemicals and guns already apparent. In comparison with the movie both narrator and Tyler Durden felt like two losers living in a shithole and the concept of a fight club ridiculous. Why didn't they do MMA or something? Chapter 14 posted:MY BOSS BRINGS another sheet of paper to my desk and sets it at my elbow. I don’t even wear a tie anymore. I found this hilarious. An insurance agent not wearing a tie to work. Such nihilism. Was the 90s office worker dress code really so strict?
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Apr 18, 2023 15:42
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Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk Jump to me reading author's musings on beauty, modelling and transgender issues. Just as in Fight Club the book starts with an epic scene and the rest of it is a non-linear telling of events leading up to it. Compared to his later works the violence and disgusting stuff felt rather tame, theme du jour being surgery, body mutilation and prescription drugs. There are many plot twists that are revealed troughout the book which was neat. All in all I was entertained.
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Apr 26, 2023 22:09
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Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk. In this one Chuck decided to try out magical realism and he really shouldn't have done that, spells and witchcraft do not fit his style. His worst novel that I have read so far.
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May 2, 2023 22:15
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The Invention Of Sound by Chuck Palahniuk Author's most recent book and a great read. Gone are the philosophical detours of his earlier works which I found to be a good thing. There are two parallel plotlines narrated in third-person about a bereaved father and a masochistic recording artist mired in a world of sorrow. The stories merge in the last part of the book for a satisfying finale. As the title implies, it's also about sound. Palahniuk has researched the subject thoroughly and I Ioved reading all about it.
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May 7, 2023 13:07
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oldpainless posted:Like Tarantino, you either like the Palahniuk style or you don’t Yeah, it's an addiction at this point. I just want another hit, a pressing need to scratch that Palahniuk itch.
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May 7, 2023 16:49
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boquiabierta posted:I’ve never read any Palahniuk and only saw Fight Club once twenty years ago. What would be a good one to start with? His short story collections Make Something Up or Haunted. I've only read the former, I'm guessing the latter is similar. Should acquaint you with Palahniuk's style.
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May 7, 2023 21:09
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Adjustment Day by Chuck Palahniuk. His most complex novel I've read, I kept notes to keep track of all the various characters. From viewpoints of a revolving cast it describes a what-if scenario of a new "Mein Kampf"/self-help book being written and creating some sort of tribal fascism in the US, except instead of jews the targets are liberal college professors and corrupt politicians. Just as Fight Club the new movement starts in support groups as that's where you supposedly find the men with nothing to lose. Palahniuk even makes fun of the similarities quote:“So this is like Fight Club?” At first I didn't like the novel, but it grew on me. It's good satire about right wing nazi fantasies and identity politics. I particularly enjoyed some characters having insights on American literature classics. There were funny bits like quote:In their first wedded moment alone, Charlie did take his new wife boldly in his arms. In noble modesty he acceded to Shasta that his was a simple hard-laboring, tax-paying Caucasian penis without the dimensions or the stamina accredited to the black or the homosexual. His might not bring her the fulfillment of others, but he would strive to sow a multitude of seeds in her. The ending is unsatisfying, after creating the new tribal US Palahniuk doesn't know what to do with it and the novel peters out.
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May 26, 2023 05:52
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Beautiful You by Chuck Palahniuk Palahniuk imagines a world were every female abandons her life to hide in a cave and masturbate. The first part is a Fifty shades of grey parody but after that it seems like the author ran out of ideas and added magical ointments and bloodstream nanobots to move the plot forward. The elaborate sex scenes and descriptions of female reproductive organs were good porn.
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May 30, 2023 07:11
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Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk Delirious novel about a surviving cultist finding love then becoming a famous religious leader and finally hijacking an airplane. Funniest part was him setting up a fake suicide hotline and telling callers to kill themselves. The cult is about member families having lots of children, educating them about housekeeping and sending everyone who isn't a firstborn in exile to make money for the church as caretakers until they croak. It's a parable, it's all of us in the modern society who are the slave workers.
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Jun 14, 2023 05:54
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Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk. Took me two months to finish this. It's a short story collection tied together with a Big Brother-like reality show satire. But the connecting plot felt dumb and unnecessary, just people torturing each other for no reason. A few stories were good but Make Something Up is definitely the better story collection.
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Jul 31, 2023 22:39
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Choke by Chuck Palahniuk Compared to his other works this novel felt light and breezy. As usual there were gross things involving sex and human anatomy but that seemed quite mild in contrast. This was author's next book after the Fight Club movie came out, I suspect he might have written it with a larger audience in mind. For the full experience I saw the movie starring Sam Rockwell, too. It painstakingly depicts almost all the scenes from the book and slightly changes the narrative, but there really wasn't anything worth watching it for. 4/5 for the novel, 2/5 for the movie.
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Aug 8, 2023 12:19
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White Tears by Hari Kunzru Before this book I had read Kunzru's Red Pill and only had a vague idea that this is going to be about racism. The first third is about a weak-willed music nerd and his cool college friend obsessing about old blues records but then it takes a turn into horror which I didn't expect at all. Well written and a joy to read.
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Aug 25, 2023 15:02
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Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion I decided to read this after Bret Easton Ellis cited this book as having made him want to be a writer. I can see why, Didion writes about mundane things such as a vacation in Mexico or mansions in Newport in a distinctive and engaging style. It's an article collection split into three parts, profiles on personalities, self-help columns and reflections on places. Some of the pieces have too many references to 60s era stars and that makes them kind of dull, but others are captivating. I particulary enjoyed a true crime article on a murderous Californian wife.
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Sep 19, 2023 09:55
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Not Forever, But For Now by Chuck Palahniuk His latest satire is set in Wales and Palahniuk tries to make it as British as possible. It's full of English turns of phrase, cuisine and countryside descriptions, grand mansions and then there are countless murders and constant gay sex. It's a bizarre, sometimes funny book, that also weaves in a conspiracy theory that plastics industry invented gay pride. Not his best but quite enjoyable.
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Oct 1, 2023 08:59
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The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante A vertiginous trip into the mind of a teenager, it was good although I liked Ferrante's Days of Abandonment more. Netflix has an adaptation, I should watch it sometime.
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Dec 6, 2023 23:19
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The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami Didn't like it at first but it grew on me, pulled me in. Plot seemed so dumb and the main hero a navel-gazing loser but nonetheless I wanted to know how it ends and kept on reading. The best were the parts on WW2 Japanese invasion of Manchuria/Manchukuo probably because Murakami had researched it so well, f.e., a chapter on how to supply enough wool for military gear in case of a winter battle against the Soviets.
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Dec 9, 2023 22:34
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Americana by Don DeLillo A young TV executive goes on a road trip through the US and meets all sorts of characters along the way. I found DeLillo's prose hard to read and trippy but it's quite original.
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Dec 26, 2023 15:31
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Cosmopolis by Don DeLillo. I enjoyed this novel a lot more than I did Americana. The latter was his first book and this one is his 13th so I suppose his style got better. But the plot is similar, a powerful, rich, young man goes on a downward spiral while encountering characters speaking in eerie philosophical monologues. Saw the movie adaptation by David Kronenberg starring Robert Pattinson. Pretty good but there was mass naked bodies scene missing which was disappointing.
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Dec 28, 2023 23:30
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The White Album by Joan Didion A collection of essays on topics as varied as Doris Lessing and the California water system. Absolutely loved it, what a great writer. All she does is write what she sees but at the same time it's dark and depressing and you get the feeling she thinks she is better than you and she is. Hers After Henry is next, looking forward to it.
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Feb 13, 2024 16:56
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After Henry by Joan Didion. Liked this a lot less than her earlier collections, the essays are lazily written and rambling. Lots of newspaper citations to pad up the word count. I should have stopped reading her after White Album.
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Mar 15, 2024 22:53
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Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon I couldn't get past the first few pages of either The Crying of Lot 49 or Gravity's Rainbow but this one pulled me in easily. Dovetailed very well with Didion's work on early 70s California I read before this. Great characters, beautiful descriptions and I would recommend this book to anyone.
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Apr 26, 2024 19:40
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