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Pygmy
Pygmy
Author: Chuck Palahniuk
The Manchurian Candidate meets South Park?Chuck Palahniuk's finest novel since the generation-defining Fight Club.?Begins here first account of operative me, agent number 67 on arrival midwestern American airport greater _____ area. Flight _____. Date _____. Priority mission top success to complete. Code name: Op...  more »

Thus speaks Pygmy, one of a handful of young adults from a totalitarian state sent to the United States, disguised as exchange students, to live with typical American families and blend in, all the while planning an unspecified act of massive terrorism. Palahniuk depicts Midwestern life through the eyes of this thoroughly indoctrinated little killer, who hates us with a passion, in this cunning double-edged satire of an American xenophobia that might, in fact, be completely justified. For Pygmy and his fellow operatives are cooking up something big, something truly awful, that will bring this big dumb country and its fat dumb inhabitants to their knees.

It's a comedy.
ISBN-13: 9780224087148
ISBN-10: 0224087142
Publication Date: 6/4/2009
Pages: 288
Edition: Airports / Ireland /
Rating:
  • Currently 3.6/5 Stars.
 9

3.6 stars, based on 9 ratings
Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio CD
Members Wishing: 4
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

lildrafire avatar reviewed Pygmy on + 117 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
As a rabid Palahniuk fan, I was tickled to get this book and start it. As I read the first page, my first response was WTF Chuck?!? Another gimmicky style? The book is written as if it is a first person account of a person whose primary language isn't English, but the account is written in English. For example, flowers are called "plant genitals."

I almost quit the book, but I kept on, and I finally adapted to the writing style. The story is about Pygmy and his comrades, who were taken from their parents at a very young age and made into weapons of "the state." We never find out which country--Palahniuk does this on purpose--the country who wants to destroy the USA is a composition of what could be many other countries. Anyway, Pygmy and his comrades all enter the USA as foreign exchange students, with their goal to inflict "Operation Havoc."

I really did enjoy the story, even as distracted as I was by the writing. I really wish Ole Chuck would just weave us a few good novels without the gimmicks. He's a great writer, has a huge base and doesn't need to "play." Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe his gimmicks are forever sealing his fate as one of the greatest contemporary writers of our time.
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