Choke

Film #13 for me in '09 was Choke.

My NetFlix rating: 3 stars
Jamie says: Really had a hard time not comparing this one to the book. Read it instead.
RIYL: Fight Club

Official site
Rotten Tomatoes reviews
Wikipedia

Snuff

Book #24 on my reading list was Chuck Palahniuk's new novel Snuff.

Another addition to Palahniuk's boundary breaking, rabble-rousing, 'no he didn't' oeuvre. Snuff ain't pretty, but it is provocative and something tells me that's just the way Palahniuk wants it.

Official site
New York Times Review
Wikipedia article

Rant

Book #25 on my '07 list was Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey by Chuck Palahniuk.

In Rant, Palahniuk uses an interesting oral biography approach to weave together a story loosely centered around a rabies epidemic, time travel paradoxes, Matrix-style politics and a Death Race 2000-like car crash game. Got all that? The oral biography style is a bit tough to get into, especially with the fifty-plus characters who chime in (none of whom are Buster Casey), but like all Palahniuk novels it's chock full of crisp writing, gross-outs asides, and oh-so-clever ideas. The end result is a book that's a good step up from Haunted, but still on the lower end of the Palahniuk scale. If you're already a Palahniuk fan you'll dig this one, otherwise I'd start with one of his earlier works.

Official site
Reviews

The Revolution Will Not Be Accessorized

Book #32 of my 2006 reading list was The Revolution Will Not Be Accessorized, a compilation of pieces previously published in NY Style mag BlackBook.

The Revolution... comes jam packed with an outstanding line-up of authors including superstars like Joan Didion, Naomi Klein, William T. Vollman, Irvine Welsh, and Augusten Burroughs as well as Rain King favorites such as Ryan Boudinot, Neal Pollack, Douglas Coupland and Chuck Palahniuk. As with all compilations The Revolution... is pretty hit and miss, though on the whole I found it to be disappointing given the quality of the writers. The mix of fiction and non-fiction, topical pieces and interviews, works well when you're flipping through a magazine but doesn't translate as well to a book you're reading from front to back.

Some of my favorite works from the book included Meghan Daum's "L.A. Bourgeois", Bruno Maddox's "The Angriest Book Club In America", Jonathan Ames' "Sneakers Make The Boy", Mike Albo's "The Big Sell" and Victor Bockris' "Ghostwalk".

Bumbershoot Take 3

The full Bumbershoot lineup was announced this weekend and although it's still a rather disappointing year from the music standpoint the overall festival is shaping up to look pretty sweet.

First and foremost I'm thrilled to see that The Upright Citizens Brigade is going to be bringing ASSScat to the comedy festival. UCB is pretty much the bestest thing ever, and it's not often one can get out to NYC to partake in their genius. Speaking of bestest things ever the cast of VH1's Best Week Ever is coming, as is Tinkle which one can only assume is still starring David Cross. All in all the comedy side of things is looking top notch.

On the music side, there are no knock out additions, but picking up Spoon, The New Pornographers, The Thermals, and Derby helps fill out the reduced three day line-up.

Aside from the comedy and music it looks like there will be plenty of great ways to wither away the three day weekend. Between roller derby, Flatstock, John Moe, Chuck Palahniuk, art shows, the 1 Reel Film Festival, and the 826 Seattle benefit (Dave Eggers, Sarah Vowell, Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket), Stephen Merritt, John Hodgman and Jonathan Coulton) who's going to have any time to listen to music anyways?

Take 2
Take 1

Survivor

"I'm a Survivor, I'm Not Gon' Give Up..."

Book numero dozen was Chuck Palahniuk's Survivor.

I have to admit that I think all of Chuck Palahniuk's books are pretty much identical. You either like his writing style in which case you'll probably dig them all, or you hate it in which case you should just watch Fight Club and call it good. I'm pro-Chuck and despite my claim that all of the books are similar I'd have to put Survivor high on the list of my favorite Chuck books.

The story is about a man named Tender Branson who's the last survivor of a religious cult called the Creedish (think Heaven's Gate)...and here I thought Creed-ish was just a good way to describe a really crappy band. Anyways, I was going to provide some very artculate well thought out details about the plot, but damn if the always excellent Wikipedia hasn't already scooped me with a lucid summary of the entire book, including a explanation of the surprise(?)/ambigious ending from Palahniuk himself.

For some reason the Wikipedia summary neglects to mention the fascinating PornFill - aka the Tender Branson Sensitive Materials Sanitary Landfill - a truly Palahniukian idea which consists of a 20,000 acre repository for the nation's discarded porn. Between the PornFill and the hi-jacked plane that Branson plans on crashes into Australia it's no wonder Survivor hasn't yet made it to the big screen.

Haunted

Book #27 of 2005 was Chuck Palahniuk's new novel Haunted.

Haunted is a horror story structured as a collection of poems and 23 short stories, with narrative chapters interspersed throughout to keep the story moving. The plot revolves around a group of writers who answer a vague ad about a writer's retreat. At the retreat they hope to abandon the pressures of their everyday lives for three months and settle down to write their masterpieces. When they arrive at the retreat, they find themselves locked into an empty old theater and isolated from the outside world. Unhappy with the situation and feeling deceived, the writers begin to turn on one another and blame the retreat organizer/host for kidnapping them. In hopes of garnering more sympathy when they are rescued from the 'kidnapping', the writers begin to sabotage the situation by doing things like destroying their food supply, breaking the building's heating system, and inflicting torture on one another.

The more desperate the circumstances become, the more devious their schemes to worsen the situation become. Each character fantasizes about the way they will be portrayed in the Hollywood version of the story, jockeying with one another in an attempt to ensure that they will be the star by virtue of their suffering.

Palahniuk has always had a reputation as a shock novelist, but in the previous books that I've read I always felt that his style has added to the overall story. Fight Club was awesome because it was shocking and different. Haunted on the other hand feels like a novel completely structured around the idea of providing as many gross moments as possible. Some of the short stories are interesting as individual pieces, but in reading the whole novel it seemed like the narritive was mostly just a plot device to get from one gross story to another.

If you're already a big fan of Chuck's work you might still find this one enjoyable, though I would rate it at the bottom of the list of his books that I've read. If you're looking for a good starting point for Chuck, I'd definitely skip this one and go for Fight Club, Lullaby or Choke instead.

"Even the cannibalism is kind of boring" - Elizabeth Hand in Washington Post review

Invisible Monsters

Book #22 of 2005 was Chuck Palahniuk's Invisible Monsters. The main character in Invisible Monsters is Shannon McFarland, a former super model whose jaw shot is shot off in a drive-by 'accident' leaving her horribly disfigured. While recovering in the hospital, Shannon meets "The Queen Supreme" Brandy Alexander who she joins for a wild cross-country adventure to first reinvent themselves and then discover who they really are. It's a book with tons of twists and turns all written in Palahniuk's sordid minimalistic style.

I've previously ready Choke and Lullaby. Of the three Invisible Monsters is my least favorite, but I've enjoyed each. If you're unfamiliar with Palahniuk's work (Fight Club anyone?), Random House has posted a brief extract from the first chapter which should give you a flavor for how he writes.

I seem to be on a roll with reading books that are being turned into movies, as this one was long ago picked up by Mirimax and is set to be directed by Jesse Peyronel. Rumor has it that the film will star Jessica Biel as one of the main characters.

Palahniuk will be reading at Seattle's Town Hall this Wednesday night at 7:30pm.