I just read his Survivor & Invisible Monsters. I liked the two novels alright,& they were enjoyable, entertaining reads, but I dont think theres anything particularly special going on here. The writing is fairly straightforward & minimalist which, granted, is the point. When I see his utilisation of phrase repetition, I think of those who have done it much better, such as Vonnegut & Donleavy, so its nothing new. The rapid-fire insights & drive-by bumper-sticker philosophy is fairly clever & hilariously funny. It keeps things moving right along at a nice speed. The novels are basically one big punchline w/bursts of narrative. I really appreciated the black humour of the social commentary & found that he has a knack for accurately depicting & analysing the modern world & popular culture. The guy has a lot of good ideas, but something stops them from coming together entirely. I think it may be that they are not developed enough.
Palahniuk's prose is sort of like "Writing For the Attention Deficient" or something. Again, I think his minimalist approach is intentional & part of the point, but it did get on my nerves a little bit.
Overall Im entertained but not very impressed.
