Choke
January 27th, 2008by Chuck Palahniuk
ISBN: 0385720920
The first book I read by Palahniuk was Lullaby, and I knew then that despite an irritating repetitive tic in his writing, I’d be reading more. He’s outrageous and unpredictable enough that his story just makes me keep turning pages. Even when — or because– he’s disturbing, gross, and makes me feel somehow conspiratorial just for reading the story, I can’t seem to put his books down.
There’s plenty of conspiracy and grossness in Choke. The main character, Victor Mancini, chokes on food in nice restaurants in a quest for love, acceptance, and money. He’s a sex addict, but assures us that is not the titillating fun time it might appear to some. His mother is mentally ill and physically waning, and he winds up with an unemployed roommate who obsessively collects rocks. Yet Palahniuk still manages wring an odd hope from these folks:
It’s creepy, but here we are, the Pilgrims, the crackpots of our time, trying to establish our own alternate reality. To build a world out of rocks and chaos.
What it’s going to be, I don’t know.
Even after all that rushing around, where we’ve ended up is the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night.
And maybe knowing isn’t the point.
Where we’re standing right now, in the ruins in the dark, what we build could be anything.
If you think Palahniuk sounds intriguing but you are not sure you are up to his level of the vivid and grotesque in novel form, check out Stranger Than Fiction, a collection of essays. If, on the other hand, you can really appreciate a novel where the author feels free to let his characters get their freak on in detail, go for it. Recommended.
