Book Review - Choke

You may not immediately recognize the name Chuck Palahniuk, but I'm fairly sure you know his work. If I mention the movie Fight Club, I'm pretty sure you have seen it, or at least heard of it.

Well, Palahniuk is the guy who wrote the book that the movie was based on.

My brother-in-law turned me on to Palahniuk a month or two ago. He has been an avid fan of Palahniuk for quite a while, but I hadn't made a purchase of any of his work. After a little review from my BIL, I purchased the book Choke.

Here is the summary from the back of the book:

Victor Mancini, a medical-school dropout, is an antihero for our deranged times. Needing to pay elder care for his mother, Victor has devised an ingenious scam: he pretends to choke on pieces of food while dining in upscale restaurants. H then allows himself to be "saved" by fellow patrons who, feeling responsible for Victor's life, go on to send checks to support him. When he's not pulling this stunt, Victor cruises sexual addiction recovery workshops for action, visits his addled mom, and spends his days working at a colonial theme park. His creator, Chuck Palahniuk, is the visionary we need and the satirist we deserve.

Quite the summary.

I think what attracts me to Palahniuk's work (now that I've read Choke and Fight Club) is that he writes raw. Basically the world(s) he creates is incredibly loud and emotional. There is always a twist and you are left wondering if your mind has just been screwed with on more than one level.

I'm not even going to begin trying to dig into an explanation of this book - there is way too much to deal with. But it is a solid read and could be enjoyable by a wide swath of people. That said, if you didn't like Fight Club, you may want to steer clear. If you dug on it, though, purchase it, get it from the library, whatever. Enjoy it.

I got the paperback for $13.95 (the book goes for $21 in Canada), but it gets the Burnt Ost thumbs up seal of I likes it.