chuck palahniuk.

at long last.

rather than reading one of jen's assigned books, i chose to follow my personal interest in chuck palahniuk, my favorite author [forget that i've only read two of his books so far, i'm working on it!]. the man is a genius. i actually go through and, if the book belongs to me, highlight quotes that i find to be particularly insightful and moving.

i've read "lullaby" before, but more recently, i've finished "haunted", which is a striking psychological tale about a group of writer's cooped up in a building for 3 months. they come there voluntarily, thinking it'll help with their writing, but soon enough they all realize that being there of their own free will doesn't make for a good story. the group of writers start to self-sabotage, and create heroes, villains, and victims, with the book plunging back and forth between the gruesome, bizarre personal backgrounds of the writers, and the main plot of all being locked up together. it seems tame enough by my description, but one section of the book has allegedly made a total of 73 people faint from listening to it at his public readings, this number calculated by palahniuk himself.
not only is "haunted" [and many of his other novels] a commentary on how desperate people can be for money, fame, entertainment, etc., but also shows the lengths that people will go for silly, meaningless things. it's an in-depth study of human nature, and that's probably why i love it so much.


“Reading a Palahniuk novel is like getting zipped inside a boxer’s heavy bag while the author goes to work on you, pounding you until there is nothing left but a big bag of bones and blood and pain.”
—The Miami Herald

“To Palahniuk’s credit, there is something here to appall almost every sensibility. The author has a singular knack for coming up with inventive new ways to shock and degrade.” —New York Post