Guts, Chuck Palahniuk


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Drunken Idaho
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Re: Guts, Chuck Palahniuk

Post by Drunken Idaho »

TheDukester wrote:
Redstar wrote:... but is it strange I kept recognizing how well-written it was?
My ass. Pretentious nonsense is all I saw. I want the 90 seconds I invested in that returned, please.

That guy might have just peaked with Fight Club ... and that was 13 years ago.
Disagree fully. I read that chapter a long time ago. It was released to promote the novel "Haunted" in which it appeared. I didn't care for "Haunted" at all, but Palahniuk definitely has moments of brilliance. He was among my favourites for a while, although I kind of grew out of it. "Fight Club" is his first book, and in my opinion, his worst. You've got to love the themes of anarchy and such, but he hadn't perfected his prose by any means at that point. However he definitely has a distinct style. I actually once wrote a short story for Writer's Craft class back in high school that completely emulated his prose (that was the point of the assignment).

"Survivor" was pretty decent, but definitely odd and vaguely revolting at times. The pornfill really weirded me out. But like "Fight Club" it was a zany story with some funny moments. EDIT: Also, gotta love the fact that it's narrated from the blackbox recorder of a crashed jumbo jet.

"Choke" was a fantastic novel. A great read, and again very similar to "Fight Club" in its mood. Dark and funny, but the movie doesn't look so good.

"Diary" is by far my favourite Palahniuk novel. The story is a little more dramatic, but the writing as I recall it is pretty fantastic. He seems to write in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person simultaneously, which I think is a literary feat. I highly recommend this one.
SadisticCynic wrote:I'm a little unnerved that this shocked lots of people yet had little effect on me...
Don't be. Palahniuk is the man, and the story does come together in a solid, if not dark and disturbing way. For those who chickened out reading from reading the rest, I say man up!
"The Idahos were never ordinary people."
-Reverend Mother Superior Alma Mavis Taraza
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