Choke

Rating:
Summary: Pulled back in
Review: If it wasnt for choke, I would not be reading today. Chuck has single handily opened me up to a world of authors who don't write conventional stories. If you are looking for something that isn't quite the norm, then this is it.

Rating:
Summary: Still The Cutting Edge! - Don't Miss it!
Review: In literature today, Chuck Palahniuk is the man of the moment. No other new author in recent memory has made such an immediate and important impact. With the controversial "Fight Club" Palahniuk muscled his way into the spotlight and gave his readers an uncompromising look at the flaws in our sometimes over-glorified culture. Now with the no less controversial "Choke" Palahniuk continues to deliver.

"Choke" is an exploration of sexual deviancy, but the main theme of the novel, like "Fight Club," is the modern-day angst caused from the apparent purposelessness of our watered-down, machine assisted lifestyle. There is a certain desperation that can be felt behind the novel's sometimes witty, sometimes grotesque, always compelling escapades. More so than in any of his other novels, you can hear Palahniuk's own uncertainty behind the false bravado of his unfortunate characters. Essentially, "Choke" is a discussion on what is most important in life and a plea for some guidance as to how to achieve it. But by presenting this argument through a series of ill-conceived misadventures, the discussion is rendered light and compelling.

Palahniuk writes with a short, terse style that is always compared to Vonnegut but which also reminds me of Hemingway. He tries to write as people speak, and the often grammatically garbled, yet perfectly understandable sentences that result are given a very spontaneous feel as a consequence. The novel is obviously well conceived and well polished, but it is not tediously overworked, as most novels that try to sound literary tend to be. Although I would hesitate to call Palahniuk's style new, he does add a dimension to this sort of "free" writing that I haven't seen before and which is very refreshing.

"Choke" is a marvelous novel. If you have any interest in being on the cutting edge of where literature is going, this is the book you must read. Although many of "Choke's" themes are very similar to the ones found in Palahniuk's previous books, "Choke" provides them with a more personal touch. Palahniuk has matured, and perhaps grown more confident as a writer; he is bringing his readers further and further into his confidence. In addition to "Choke," another recent novel I picked up off Amazon -- that I really love, feel obsessive about -- is "The Losers' Club" by Richard Perez. It's hard to purchase (continuously "sold out") but pick up even a used copy if you can, this novel is great -- no BS.

Rating:
Summary: DUDE!
Review: Palahniuk is by far one of the most disturbing authors I've read in a long time. He is a mixture of Kurt Vonnegut at his more witty and sarcastic, Don Delillo when he views society, and the carnal side of William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. Choke is basically about a con artist who deals w/ a sex addiction, a mother w/ Alzheimer's, and pretends to choke on food at restaurants to earn money. He is also a med-school dropout who works as an indentured servant at some colonial theme park.

The main character, Victor Mancini, is a very tragic and tortured man, like many of the characters in this book. He can't make his real self talk to his Alzheimer's stricken mother when he goes to visit her, instead putting on a bogus alias and their relationship was obviously very tortured. He also deals w/ a major sex addiction which he cannot seem to overcome no matter how hard he tries. Choke is another example of Palahniuk's grim view of society, like his novel Fight Club, and it symbolizes the death of the American dream, by revealing the ugly side to society, such as illness, corruption, addiction and war (both political and personal). Choke is not a book for everybody, obviously. For me it was too hard to put down, with suspense and curiosity literally bouncing off of every page, but it's hard to fathom what would happen next in Victor Mancini's insane life, and it was too disturbing to ignore. Perhaps this is one of the most bizarre and disturbing books I've read in my life. After I put it down I was in awe, and I didn't know what to feel. It was very powerful, but it was also very negative the way Palahniuk ignores the beauty in society and literally plunges straight into a Hedonistic and corrupted underworld.

Rating:
Summary: Just didn't get it
Review: Palahniuk probably achieved his fame and reputation by writing the book that led to the movie that became the anthem for angry, young, white, middle-class men working in boring office jobs: FIGHT CLUB. And that right there probably explains why I didn't really like CHOKE. The main character is, again, an angry, young, white man -- not so middle class, this time -- who works days as living color in colonial "Dunsboro" and has a second job as the guy who almost chokes to death in a restaurant until some well-meaning person saves him. How does he make money from this? Well, he really does adhere to that adage that if you save someone's life, you're responsible for that person for the rest of your life -- and he makes his saviors adhere to it, too. And he thinks he's doing some good by giving these people a great story and a sense of accomplishment that they can dine out on for years to come.

The reason why this young main is so angry? Because his mom was crazy and was in jail a lot when he was a kid, and kept kidnapping him from his foster homes the moment she got released from jail, only to get locked back up shortly thereafter for some inane stunt or another. Now his mom is in a mental institution and won't eat, and he's become convinced that she conceived him by using the DNA of Jesus' foreskin -- in other words, he's the son of Christ. Whether that makes him the Second Coming or the Antichrist I could never figure out.

The reason why I didn't like this book? It's so aggressively male, even more so than FIGHT CLUB. The main character, besides being angry, is also a sex addict who spends his free time conquering and debasing every woman he comes across. There are no realistic female characters in this book, not even the woman he ends up worshiping to the point [...]. There are no sympathetic male characters, either. The whole thing seems designed to make the reader feel slightly sick in the stomach. But Palahniuk must be doing something right, because all my male friends who read this book loved it. Me? I just didn't get it, I guess.

Rating:
Summary: The Things We Do for Love
Review: The book begins with this warning: "If you're going to read this, don't bother." This book "is a stupid story about a stupid little boy." And many should follow that advice. The book revels in sexual addiction, fantasies, and mental illness in a way that few will find a happy experience. The story itself is very self-indulgent, because the core theme of the book did not need to be so filled with unpleasant scenes and language. I graded down the book for the degree that this takes place in ugly thoughts and deeds that were not essential to the story's development.

On the other hand, the character development of Victor Mancini, the anti-hero in Choke, is masterful. Mr. Palahniuk has taken on quite a challenge, and pulled it off very well. As someone who loves character development, I was impressed.

If you enjoy the type of humor in the book, savage parodies of our sex-symbol-filled society, you will find yourself laughing aloud in many places. My favorite was the section about hypnosis.

The novel evolves through an alternating combination of flashback and narration of what is occuring in the current time. Obviously mixed in with the currrent narration are fantasies of an extreme nature, usually involving sexual relations. The flashbacks relate to a little boy whose Mother moves erratically in and out of his life.

Victor Mancini is a drop out from medical school who now works at Colonial Dunsboro where he pretends to be an Irish indentured servant from the 18th century. His Mother, Ida, is in a nursing home suffering from Alzheimer's, and Victor is her guardian. Since the $6 per hour he makes at Colonial Dunsboro doesn't pay for much nursing home care, he supplements his income by pretending to choke in restaurants. He does this with great panache until someone saves him. The grateful hero often wants to stay in touch, often sending some money to help Victor out. Do this often enough, and you can pay for nursing home care.

However, it's complicated because his Mother doesn't quite recognize him any more, and she's stopped eating. What should he do?

Much of the story development will strike you as needless repetition, yet it is all carefully calculated . . . so be patient. If you make it all the way to the end, you will like the book and the story much better. In fact, you may find that you will want to read the book a second and third time to rethink what you believed during your first reading. Pay close attention as you go.

After you read this story, you definitely should think about why you do what you do. How much of it is simply a cry for love? Can you find better ways to earn and enjoy love? Perhaps. It's worth exploring.

May you enjoy even more love than you give. Be generous!

Rating:
Summary: Great writing, never comes together as a story
Review: This is an unforgettable book, and that's why I found it somewhat disapointing. It's the story of Victor Mancini, a sex-addict developing a con scheme to pretend to choke in restaurants to pay for the medical care of his dying mother, and the author certainly pushes the envelope hard. Victor had a wild childhood which consisted of his mother escaping from prison or metal institutions to teach him important life lessons while engaging in reckless activities such as stealing school buses. Palahniuk creates a number of memorable scenes, especially those when he visits his dying mother. A few chapters about Victor's sexual exploits come across as Penthouse letters taken to the highest possible art form. There are numerous witty and scathing observations throughout the book.

The problem I found is that it never came together as a story. The characters are effectively without much further dimension than their various dysfunction's. Various scenes barely connect. It becomes hard to care about these characters with a plot that barely hangs together, and the slightly gimmicky ending has a muddled payoff. So as with Victor's countless sexual encounters, something is missing which prevents satisfaction at the climax.

Rating:
Summary: a fulfilling return from the author of Fight Club
Review: This may prove to be Palahniuk's breakthrough novel, following as it does the success of the film Fight Club. Critics of the movie may cite the shortage of character development and seemingly superficial responses to the complex and compelling problems of the contemporary American male. But no one can say that Victor Mancini, Palahniuk's newest protagonist, is not a nuanced and well-drawn young man. A sex addicted med school dropout with a pencant for pretending to choke on food at restaurants to solicit the help (and, eventually, the money) of his fellow restauranteurs, Mancini's mother seems to hold a dark secret about his identity. Unfortunately, she's dying of Alzheimer's. Meanwhile, Victor and his best friend work in a Colonial Williamsburgesque seventeenth century Living Hell. This is probably Palahniuk's funniest novel to date, and also his saddest. It's this accomplishment, mixing the depressing monotony of middle-class suburban life with the hilariously tragic ways we try to escape our existential crises, that makes this novel stand out from the library of absurd, sardonic American fiction. (see also: Tom Robbins) The prose itself shows more literary marksmanship than even Palahniuk's popular Invisible Monsters, and Victor's imprecise grasp of the language (Choke is largely a first person narrative) is wonderfully evocative of a 20something finding his way. Again and again, he can't find the exact word for a feeling, and settles for "the first word that comes to mind." Brilliant isn't the right word for Choke, but it's the first word that comes to mind.

Rating:
Summary: Masterpiece isn't the right word...
Review: What we have here is a novelist whose time will never come. Chuck Palahniuk will never be as praised as he deserves to be, and I for one hope that this never changes. From Invisible Monsters to Fight Club, Survivor, and now Choke; I look on the bestseller lists, and I'm glad to not to have to see his name. For those fortunate enough to have read and enjoyed his previous work, you will hardly be disappointed. The narrative is constantly babbling in your ear like some deranged lunatic, but it is so well-balanced that, like everything else Chuck has written, it starts to make perfect sense. And then it happens: it's called a changeover, and the audience has no clue. In this book you will be asked questions, and you will ask yourself questions. You will be presented with perspective, and just as quickly it will be taken away. You will laugh and cringe all in the same note. It's hard to make reference to anything without wanting to spew it all out. Suffice it to say that when reading this book, be careful not to confuse the narrator's voice with your own...