The Works of Chuck Palahniuk
 

Many people have seen the movie Fight Club, but how many of those people know that one of their favorite movies was based on an even better book? My guess is, not many. Fight Club was one of Palahniuk's first books, and the first to receive major press, and critical acclaim. It was very unique, both in it's ideas, and the writing style. The many twists and turns, a lot of which do not appear in the movie, make this a book for the ages.

Another little treasure of Palahniuk's is the short story that was made famous on GFF for making Meia faint. "Guts*", from his collection of short stories Haunted, is one of the most disturbing, and utterly realistic stories ever written. While Haunted may be one of Palahniuk's worst books, it still succeeds on many levels. In short, it is a tale of a "writer's retreat" where an elderly man offers complete seclusion and luxury for artists and writers of different genres so they can craft their best works. Unfortunately for them, this turns out to not be the case, and they are trapped inside a movie theater, with the maniacal old man holding them hostage. The story progresses through many short stories, written in the perspective of the many authors within the story. There is in between written, to make the story move along more smoothly, but it really is the weak link of the book. A simple collection of short stories would have been more enjoyable, although I still recommend this to any Palahniuk fan.

Finally, comes the latest of his books I've read, Lullaby. This is another terrific story that tells of a condition known as "Sudden Infant Death Syndrome" and a journalist who sets out to investigate what's behind these very mysterious deaths. He discovers that the one common factor between all these deaths is that they all read their children a poem from a book of poems of the world. This is not simply any poem, however. It turns out to be an ancient and mystic African culling poem, and instantly kills whoever it's read to. He goes on to try to destroy every single copy of this poem, with the help of another woman who had found the same thing. It is another well written, typically "Palahniuk" type book. I just love his style. Highly recommended, to anyone.

Also, a little word of warning, some of his work is extremely graphic, both sexually and violently.

* You can read the full "Guts" here.

Discuss.

I thought Fight Club was pretty good, but Survivor and Lullaby were his best by far.

Excuse me for stepping in here, but what the fuck is with the potshot there? I never dissed the story, I thought it was great, but at the same time I wasn't disgusted by it like everyone else. Big deal.

Fuck off Capo.

Sorry, Tails. It really didn't sound that bad in my head. :(

I edited it out.

I know it's cliched and looked at in poor light, but I really like Palahniuk.

I read his Survivor back a few years ago, and I really enjoyed it. I DID consider it rather raw - so fucking sue me. I liked the bizarro and twisted perspective it offered, and the sense of near-nihilism he offered through the eyes of the main character, of whom I have forgotten the name.

Has anyone read Choke? I am considering putting it on my list to read in the near future. I'd like to hear responses to it, if you've read it.

I have Choke, and I'm about to start it, with Survivor next in line.

And, Sass, his gritiness and rawness is what makes his writing so great. It brings something new to the table, which I rarely see in modern fiction.

It's pretty good, but it didn't hold my attention like some of his other stories have.

I've read Choke and while it's really not that great, I thought it started off great but around 3/4 through the book I kind of lost interest and it took a while to actually finish. It's probably only his 4th best or so. The 'twist' that he usually has at the end also was meh.

Haunted I thought was pretty dumb. He should have just made it into a compilation of stories, and ditched the writers retreat bullshit. A lot of the stories I thought were pretty lame too, like the one with the girl that massages feet or whatever. Guts is really the only good one and I think it's highly over-rated. Yeah sure it's sick, but people fainting? Come on, it's not even that bad.

I've read most of his books, I still consider Survivor his best. I don't really know why, it was the first book of his I read, and it just really hooked me. The characters I thought were the most likeable, especially Tender. And I really liked the last portions of the book, which were hilarious yet sad at the same time, and who could forget the ending! It was supposed to have been made into a movie, and what an excellent one it would be, but of course it never happens. In the end though, I really reccommend this book of his for people who've never read one of his books, yeah there's Fight Club but this one is so much better.

On a side note, is anyone else getting kind of tired of his writing? It seems like the same in every book, but the names and stuff are changed around. I'm not saying I don't like it, but it just seemed so fresh and "I'll never get tired of him!" at the beginning, maybe it's just me but after reading 5 or so of his books I can't really get into his works like I used to.

I've only read Fight Club (which was better than the movie), but I've always heard good things about all his other stuff. Someone posted Guts on here, however, and I wasn't too interested after that...

As I said before, I completely agree with you on the compilation of stories replacing Haunted. The in between was shoddy, and just seemed to be thrown together at the last minute. The old man twist was pretty cool, but then again, that was told in a short story, too. I disagree with your evaluation of the other stories, though. I thought the one where the rich lived as poor was a nice little story, as well as a couple others. Overall, it wasn't really impressive, but I still enjoyed reading it.

As to your notion that his writing is getting repetitive, I can't really comment now, as I still need to read a few book. I can say, however, that I really enjoy his style, and don't see myself getting sick of it. As I stated before, the gritty way he writes is such a completely new thing to me, and I enjoy it immensely.

It was me, and it's also hidden in a little link at the bottom of my first post.

Choke, although not Palahniuk's best, was a fun read. There are parts of the book that are simply great and can be quoted easily. I agree with Casaubon in saying that the book starts out great, but then begins to drag towards the end. The climax of the story is rather dull, and the ending is sub-par.

But I would recommend it.

The problem with Chuck Palahniuk is that his works never deviate from the established formula. Shit, Choke was like every unused subplot from Fight Club - sexual addicition counciling, crazy-ass mother, the whole Jesus thing.

CHUCK - WRITE SOMETHING NEW.

Choke and Fight Club were very interesting reads. The Fight Club film is actually one of my favorite movies. :)