I just started working my way through Chuck Palahniuk's latest book Pygmy, and holy fuck is it a hard read. I won't bore you with the details, just know it's written in a style that's very hard for me to get used to. I'll hang in there though until I get into the swing of it, I'm only 20 pages in.
Palahniuk is the most interesting thing that's happened to American fictional literature since Luke Rhinehart gave us The Dice Man nearly forty years ago, so I'm sure it will be worth the effort. He hasn't disappointed me yet.
Here is the man himself recorded at Barnes & Nobles in New York on December 9th 2003 reading the chapter "Guts" from his collection-of-short-stories-disguised-as-a-novel Haunted.
(mp3) Chuck Palahniuk - Guts
Excerpt from Haunted (2005)
2 comments:
I dont know...don't get me wrong, I loved Survivor, thought it was brilliant. Same to lesser degrees for fight club, invisible monsters, and choke. But these days (possibly aside from Rant) the man has become a parody of his past self. See: Snuff. See: Diary. He found a niche, a formula, something that works, but then just beat the hell outta of it.
Actually, I think Invisible Monsters was (while good) by far his weakest, and that was the first. As monumental as Fight Club was, I think he's only gotten better. Rant was brilliant IMO.
I admit I haven't read Snuff yet so I have no opinion on that one, but I really enjoyed Diary. I read somewhere David Fincher wanted to adapt into a mini series for HBO. The result could be spectacular.
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