Tim A. (bobkittykid81) - , reviewed on + 5 more book reviews
I haven't read all of Palahniuk's work since I kind of felt the latter stuff like Snuff kind of just delved into his literary pattern of finding small tidbits of information about life and somehow weaving them into a tawdry storyline wasn't all that interesting after he's done it a few times. This, however, is Palahniuk's first book, the fourth chapter of which was just written on it's own and later turned into a novel.
The book I liked a lot for it's edgy, fast moving, stream of consciousness format. I think the difference between his "good" and "bad" books is that books like Choke or Fight Club actually have a tangible, moving story which gets your invested in the characters and storylines more. The little info tidbits like "Here's how you make dynamite" and "Baggage handlers are called throwers" seem incidental and add to the story, vs the later books like Snuff where the story seems incidental to him telling you interesting factoids and anecdotes. Just FYI the book is pretty descriptive in it's violence and language and sex. Definitely for the on board R-X adult reader.
Second, since there's no way to untether this from the movie of the same name, they are different animals. The book/movie relationship reminded me in many ways of American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. Both books contain similar elements, characters and situations with some changes between the book and movie. In both cases the books are actually edgier and delve more into adult subject matter. One thing I do enjoy more about books and these authors is they can and do tackle subject matter darker than you could in a mass marketed Hollywood film. Palahniuk in this version actually writes an epilogue that details many of the stuff that has arisen since the book was originally published ranging from the movie to the real life "fight clubs" that were inspired by or preceded the book. I found that actually pretty insightful for him to write about his experience going from an unknown author struggling to find an audience to his work to being world renowned and copycatted almost overnight. I suspect other bibliophiles will enjoy it as well.
The book I liked a lot for it's edgy, fast moving, stream of consciousness format. I think the difference between his "good" and "bad" books is that books like Choke or Fight Club actually have a tangible, moving story which gets your invested in the characters and storylines more. The little info tidbits like "Here's how you make dynamite" and "Baggage handlers are called throwers" seem incidental and add to the story, vs the later books like Snuff where the story seems incidental to him telling you interesting factoids and anecdotes. Just FYI the book is pretty descriptive in it's violence and language and sex. Definitely for the on board R-X adult reader.
Second, since there's no way to untether this from the movie of the same name, they are different animals. The book/movie relationship reminded me in many ways of American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. Both books contain similar elements, characters and situations with some changes between the book and movie. In both cases the books are actually edgier and delve more into adult subject matter. One thing I do enjoy more about books and these authors is they can and do tackle subject matter darker than you could in a mass marketed Hollywood film. Palahniuk in this version actually writes an epilogue that details many of the stuff that has arisen since the book was originally published ranging from the movie to the real life "fight clubs" that were inspired by or preceded the book. I found that actually pretty insightful for him to write about his experience going from an unknown author struggling to find an audience to his work to being world renowned and copycatted almost overnight. I suspect other bibliophiles will enjoy it as well.
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