Choke

Rating:
Summary: Obviously not a biography
Review: This book was recommended to me by a friend who has an affinity for today's edgy satiric novels. And, on an entertainment level, this book produces, and produces big. My first reading of a Chuck Palahnuik novel (advocates tell me I made a big mistake by not starting with either Fight Club or Survivor) and I am hooked on his style. He writes with a sarcsatic tongue that, while it could be considered excessive, never fails to induce an audible giggle.

However--he was way off on his subject matter. The topic of a true sex addict going to sexaholic meetings to hook up with women makes as much sense as an alcoholic going to an AA meeting to get hammered. Chuck should have at least interviewed a few men and women who attend these meetings to through some authenticity into the mix. His characters are bizarre, which is fine, but the outside world should still stay in balance--otherwise you are now writing science fiction.

That said, it is a good read, and it will keep the pages turning. Not for those with a shy eye to sex or those who hate depressing narrative.

Rating:
Summary: THEY DID WHAT???????
Review: Expect to say this phrase many a time. This is my favorite book by Chuck Palahniuk, and I've read them all, even his newest: Lullaby. Filled with Palahniuk's signature bizarro world style, this is a tightly woven and wonderful story of a man coming to terms with who he is and what he must do.... Read this book.

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Book
Review: I read it once, fast, then again right away, slow. I haven't read Chuck Palahniuk's latest book, Lullaby, yet (I hear it is extremely good); but Choke is my favorite of his first three, all of which I loved.

Choke is so uninhibited it's freeing to read it. It's extremely funny (black humor), the story of a sex addict who "supports himself", and gets love, by tricking people into saving his life.

The protagonist is a nut case, and relentlessly honest throughout.

Lots of entertaining sex scenes, too.

Rating:
Summary: Style Alone is Okay, So Long As the Style is GOOD.
Review: Choke is, to put it mildly, a terrible book. The subject matter, while described on the cover as "gritty" and "intense", is actually just a feeble attempt to shock and "push the limits", whatever those limits may be.

The novel reads like a reassembled 'Fight Club', with the main character frequenting sex addiction meetings, in order to get sex, very similar to Tyler and Marla's fondness for counselling sessions in 'Fight Club'. The style, while definitely unique and ever-present, is not particularly GOOD. The voice speaks in a staccato, hard-bolied interior monologue that simply describes events in the loosest terms possible, glossing over major plot points as though they were incidental.

In the most artless display of Palahniuk's inanity, he fumbles not one, but two major "plot twists". 1) The narrator's discovery that he could be Jesus is mishandled from the start, and 2) the realization that his nurse is actually a patient is apparent from her first scene. How did this thing sell!? Was it simply based on the success of the movie 'Fight Club?'

'Choke' is a poorly-written book without any redeeming features. No one should read it, save for English Students trying to understand truly awful novels that sell. This is not my opinion, this is a fact.

Rating:
Summary: What's wrong with this guy??
Review: Let me preface by stating this is only the second Palahiuk novel I have read. I understand what he is trying to do and say here, but heads up folks, this is not for the queasy. Nothing by the likes of Easton Ellis has ever really gotten under my skin like the two books by Palahiuk have. "Choke" is wrenching (pun intended.)

Rating:
Summary: Beyond the rocks of the underground lies freedom in Choke
Review: Choke is going to go down as one of the late 20th centuries' best statements about itself. People seem to be turned off by the amoralism of Palahniuk's characters, but I think that that misses the point: in this day and age amoralism is no less rational than honest living, it may even be more truthful.
The point of the book is that society is choking itself, or at least a big part of society, mostly young, is growing up choked: alienated from the past because of social destruction and afraid to face the future because of this same instability. In face of all this people are choking themselves off, buying into false utopias that promise a coherent, normal, view of what's around them while secretly hoping that reality does not intrude.

Palahniuk goes much farther than other writers in the underground genre with his critique. What get's savaged in the book isn't so much New Age utopias as it is the idea that a person can transcend this irrational existence by fighting back with sexual ecstacy and the transgression of moral codes. A hot topic in the underground scene. Palahniuk isn't opposed to these things, but he suggests that they're just another way of blocking out reality. Instead, he suggests a more radical alternative to get beyond choking, whether it be from the left or the right: to go beyond society itself, to go beyond a contest between the establishment and the underground, and create something radically new yourself based on a profound truthfulness combined with a view of life which instead of contesting power simply ignores it and pursues a good existence completely severed from it's games. Have fun!

Rating:
Summary: a natural step in the growth of palahniuk
Review: facts have to be faced: the artist tends to have a limited number of concerns, and revisits them in multiple works.
the first novel is usually raw; the second, still raw, but better, and then the books get much more polished.
'choke' is almost too polished.
for those who have read palahniuk, it is a clear step in the right direction after 'invisible monsters,' which was frankly a colossal dissappointment. 'survivor' remains my favorite, due to the freshness of the work. 'choke,' unfortunately, doesn't seem quite as fresh; at times, it feels like palahniuk is treading water, as if the idea is right on the tip of his fingers but can't be transmitted to the page. it gets frustrating to know that if he just went a little bit further, maybe that great revelation the author strives for might be there.
this criticism, however, is not an adequate reason to not read the novel. palahniuk is bright, his language is crisp, and the novel is very engaging. his thematic concerns may be very similar to previous works, but he is beginning to work with them more succinctly- he is becoming a more polished author. i preferred the raw, rough around the edges feel of his earlier work, but this is probably his bets 'literary' feat to date. really, a quite striking novel, with bizarre characters who are downright fascinating. good read, but he is capable of even more.

Rating:
Summary: A Teriffic Modern Satire
Review: In Chuck Plahniuk's book,Choke (his 2nd most recent)He once again shows his talent as a writer. Fight Club was an excellent book, and his others were fine as well, but nothing compares to the outrageousness and hilarity of this satirical novel. The Main Character goes to sex addict clinics and sessions to get laid. He becomes enfatuated with a doctor at the nursing home where his mother stays, works on a "historical farm" as an irish endentured servant with his friend, denny, who is a recovering masturbation addict. Denny collects rocks and dates a stripper. This book has wonderful twists in the plot, and has great writing style.. This is most definitely Palahniuk's best work i have read, and i suggest anyone who loves modern work to read this as soon as possible.

Rating:
Summary: one of his best works yet
Review: Chuck is an awesome writer. i have loved everysingle book of his that i have read.

Rating:
Summary: Another Brilliant Satire by Palahniuk
Review: My first experience with this author came from watching first "Fight Club" and then reading "Survivor". What intrigued me about this book at first was not only the title, but the cover art as well -- a skinless body serving as an antomical chart.

The novel introduces another of Palahniuk's interesting characters, Victor Mancini, a con artist, [] but still overall likeable guy. Mancini's journey is chronicled from his downward spiral into the depths of life to a final realization that acts almost as his salvation. Throughout the novel is documented Mancini's search for identity. It is interesting that he attempts to determine who he is through the many exterior roles that he plays. He purposely takes on facades which juxtapose with his search for one true identity.

The author gives us brilliant insight as to why this character has the traits that he does by giving the reader a series of flashbacks into the childhood of Mancini. Mancini is actually one of the best developed characters to arrive in modern literature in quite some time.

Palahniuk paints a satirical picture of the world and has a knack for being able to describe the seemy underbelly of society. Palahniuk is definitely not a mainstream author but this work should definitely catapult him into the forefront.