Chuck Palahniuk: Haunted

[direstraits]

I've never read Palahniuk, but have heard some swell stuff about this chap. So I jumped for joy when I got the opportunity to get a free short story from his new book Haunted. It's one of the 23 stories in the book, and I got it as an audiobook.

And all I can say is - wow. Writing is crisp and concise, never patronizes the reader; lets you intuit the situation by yourself. The story is gripping and, well, makes you think long after you finish it. It's dark, dark, dark. And this is just one of 23 in the whole book!

Anyone read this one?

ds

p.s. The story was Exodus.

 

[curiouswonder]

There's some discussion of Haunted over in the Palahniuk thread in the author forum. The condensed version of my take - it felt like he had a lot of short stories that he really liked, but didn't want to publish an anthology of short stories. I got tired of the connective story after a while and the gore for gore's sake went from silly to tedious.
I like Palahniuk, I just did not get into this book. That being said, I have a friend who thinks it is Chuck's best. To each his own I guess.

It's dark, dark, dark.

It gets darker.

 

[Anamnesis]

Levy brings 'Haunted' to New School - Entertainment News, Film News, Media - Variety

 

[sparkchaser]

Palahniuk did a reading at my college of a few of his short stories. Some of the audience ended up getting sick to their stomach, and a couple people had to leave because of the graphic detail he was reading. It was excessively hot in the room, but even so, Palahniuk certainly has a way with words, and with this example you can't deny his affect on people.

Sounds like the famous "Guts" story.