Promotional Information

From the author of the international sensation FIGHT CLUB comes a powerful and hilarious novel about love and strife between mothers and sons, the addictive power of sex, the terrors of ageing, the ugly truth about historical theme parks, and much else. ..

About the Author

Chuck Palahniuk is the author of fifteen best-selling novels - Make Something Up, Beautiful You, Doomed, Damned, Tell-All, Pygmy, Snuff, Rant, Haunted, Diary, Lullaby, Choke, Invisible Monsters, Survivor, and Fight Club. He is also the author of Fugitives and Refugees and the non-fiction collection Stranger Than Fiction. He lives in the Pacific Northwest. Visit him on the web at chuckpalahniuk.net.

Reviews

Palahniuk's grotesque, exaggerated portrait of American society certainly isn't pretty, but it grips like a vice all the same
*The Times*

A wonderful writer with a raw take on modern woes
*The Face*

Mining a dark vein opened by Bret Easton Ellis and George Saunders, Palahniuk specialises in producing nightmarish visions of American society that manage to be both repugnant and hilarious - the reckless brilliance of his imagination keeps you turning the pages
*Literary Review*

A raw and vital book, punctuated with outrageous, off-the-wall moments
*New York Times*

The pungent imagery, the witty twists, the chunky rhythms are great
*Financial Times*

While it's always interesting to hear authors read their own work, this production is not likely to prompt a narrating career for Palahniuk (Fight Club) on par with his literary accomplishments. That's not to say, however, that his style doesn't work with this offbeat story of a sex-addicted medical school dropout whose gift is pretending to choke in restaurants and reaping the sympathy checks of the people who "save" him in order to pay for the care of his sick mother. Palahniuk reads with a husky, occasionally whiny voice that's rushed and intense. At times it seems like he's not reading at all, but reciting the novel from memory as he paces the floor with a cup of coffee in one hand and the fingers of the other pressed to his forehead while a cigarette smolders away in the ashtray. He brings a unique sensibility and opts for inflections that other narrators probably would not. After the book implores listeners to turn away and go no further in Chapter 1, for instance, Palahniuk reads the words "Chapter 2" in a tone of voice that says, "OK, you asked for it." That's a fitting sentiment for those who choose to listen, as this bizarre story is by turns hilarious and depressing, read in an idiosyncratic manner by an idiosyncratic author. Based on the Doubleday hardcover (Forecasts, Apr. 2, 2001). (Apr.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Palahniuk's grotesque, exaggerated portrait of American society certainly isn't pretty, but it grips like a vice all the same * The Times *
A wonderful writer with a raw take on modern woes * The Face *
Mining a dark vein opened by Bret Easton Ellis and George Saunders, Palahniuk specialises in producing nightmarish visions of American society that manage to be both repugnant and hilarious - the reckless brilliance of his imagination keeps you turning the pages * Literary Review *
A raw and vital book, punctuated with outrageous, off-the-wall moments * New York Times *
The pungent imagery, the witty twists, the chunky rhythms are great * Financial Times *