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.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

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

I edited it out.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

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.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

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.

Originally Posted by The Dopefish

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...

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

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?