April 2012: Chuck Palahniuk: Damned

[Landslide]

Discussion starts April 1st.
Seriously.

 

[Leonardo Noto]

No thanks

First of all, let me say that Fight Club was an incredibly creative work and the author deserves all the kudos in the world for its originality. With that said, I doubt that I'll ever read another work by this author and here's why. I forget the title of the book, but one of his older works is about a guy on anabolic steroids who hijacks an airplane. The information on steroids is total bullshit/cliche. Now I see the intro to this book talking about someone dying from a marijuana overdose. I'm a physician and I've been around the block, but I 'ain't never seen no' marijuana overdose. I know that the book is entertainment, but it would be nice if people would research the subjects that they're writing on. Is this too harsh a critque--yeah, probably. But putting out stuff like this doesn't help our country's self-defeating drug policies to improve any.

 

[Anamnesis]

I think Palahniuk was mocking afterschool specials and young adult fiction featuring anti-drug messages. Also, several reviews do state there's more to her death than just the overdose.

 

[beer good]

I have to say that 6 chapters and change into the book, I'm pretty much hating it. It reads like an 8th-grader's book report on Fight Club, and I'm not sure if Palahniuk is mocking himself, his audience, his characters, or if he really thinks the "Yes, I know the word X" gag is so funny it can be used once per page. Having read Haunted I'm leaning towards the characters being the ones mocked, but it's just... if the message is that the narrator is an annoying idiot, why should I care? I'm giving it another couple of chapters.

 

[beer good]

OK, it picked up a lot, then it stumbled again, then it sort of fell apart, then it pieced itself together again, almost. More thoughts later. Not a completely wasted read, but by far the least impressive Palahniuk I've read.

 

[Alix]

I was all psyched up to read this after the blurb. It has really let me down. I am not engaged, I've picked it up and put it down about 6 times. Going to try once more tonight and if I can't get into it, then its back to the library with this one.

 

[Occlith]

I suppose it's partly a parody of Judy Blume's Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret and other teen/ young adult books. I did laugh at some of the situations and it's a fairly fast paced read. A "just okay" novel, not anything I would recommend.

 

[Anamnesis]

I mostly enjoyed the book due to Palahniuk's descriptions and vision of Hell. The narrator had some great wisecracks too but the repetition of phrases such as "I may be such-and-such BUT . . ." or "Ms. Slutty Von VanderSluts" prevented me from truly enjoying her as a character. Normally I'm fine with Palahniuk's characters reiterating certain phrases. Here it set my teeth on edge. Maybe I was reminded too much of Juno and other annoying heroines who are supposedly wise beyond their years.

 

[beer good]

Maybe I was reminded too much of Juno and other annoying heroines who are supposedly wise beyond their years.

Exactly! I kept thinking this book felt like a quick attempt to cash in on a trend - snarky young women à la Juno (or Dead Like Me if you want to do it properly) - without really having a handle on either the characters or the language. That may be slightly unfair to Palahniuk, but still; I never got the feeling that he had any idea what to do with this character. He seemed to think it was enough to just have her be sarcastic and know everything and then gradually show that actually, she didn't know everything... which, to quote a phrase, well, duh.