Choke

Rating:
Summary: Your latest trick
Review: Blame "Fight Club". The movie and the book. Blame "Survivor" (the book, not the TV show). You see. Chuck Palahniuk has set himself up. He only has himself to blame. You go write two blazing, incendiary novels, people have expectations. Every novel has to be blazing and incendiary. More than that: each successive novel has to be more blazing and more incendiary than the one that preceded it. The conclusion I reached - ooh, about midway through "Choke" - was that, whilst making for a better read than (the unholy mess that was) "Invisible Monsters", "Choke" is not quite as good as "Survivor". Or rather, "Choke" is only as good as "Survivor" and - now that he has a back catalogue, as it were - it is time to raise the bar somewhat.

Which isn't really very fair, I know. Because "Choke" is a great book. A messy (but in a good way), diffuse look at what is rapidly coming to be a Palahniuk type (itself another problem: the narrators of his novels, be they men or women, are all the same voice): the post-outsider. Because Palahniuk's narrators are not just your average outsiders. They are former Cult members like "Survivor"'s Tender Branson, or models without a jaw like whatever the name of the character in "Invisible Monsters" was. Victor Mancini (the star of this particular fable) has a mother who used to be a sort of outlaw and is now dying from Alzheimers. To raise the money to keep her in a care home, he chokes on food each night in restaurants, safe in the knowledge that whoever saves him will inevitably feel beholden to him, for making them a hero. They send money. He pays bills. Victor is also a sex addict. He attends regular meetings (are you thinking "Fight Club"? me too) of sex addicts (except where they go to follow a twelve step programme, Victor goes to take notes). What else, what else? Well, he works in a theme park that seeks to recreate the educational aspects of 1734. Everybody who works there is on some kind of unprescripted medication. He has a sort of a romance going with his mother's doctor. His friend Denny collects rocks. Just your average collection of fruit loops and start-of-the-century madmen then.

And of course it is all hugely enjoyable. A kind of romp. A Palahniuk romp. It's just that we've had Palahniuk romps now. It's time for a new trick. Because if, as every Tom, Jick and Harry contend, he is the new Don DeLillo, the new Bret Easton Ellis, the new whatever, it is time he set himself a challenge, it is time he sent himself a bomb wrapped in brown paper through the post, it is time he gave us Palahniuk's "Underworld" or "Glamarama" or whatever.

Rating:
Summary: Ehh...
Review: Well... Choke provides some very interesting and funny moments; some profound others twisted. Where Chuck gets his material I dont want to know, wait maybe i do. The reason I didn't give this book higher marks is because it seems alittle less refined then Fight Club. It doesn't really break any new ground but it definitely is entertaining. Its got a bit of vonnegute's surreal weirdness mixed with Irving Welsh's brutality/ harsh reality. Maybe a little overly stylized... but its not as good/bad as people say.

Rating:
Summary: Choking never felt so good
Review: Thinking of spoiled cat food to keep from ejaculating is one of the funniest things I've ever read. Meet Chuck Palahniuk. His world is sick, twisted, demented, and you'll love every minute of it. This book had me laughing out loud several times. Victor Mancini reminds me of Patrick Bateman from American Psycho without of course murdering the women he sure as hell degrades them. Anyway, this is a good read, the end.

Rating:
Summary: Character development!
Review: This book was so impressively written. Chuck provides the reader (if paying attention) with everything they need to really understand this complicated character.....whether you like him or not isn't the point. What "happens" to him throughout the course of the book is an absurd sequence of events that in and of themselves mean nothing really.....but what does matter is how this character reacts to them. Reading choke reminded me of Camus' "The Stranger" except way more human.

Rating:
Summary: Great start, now finish the book!
Review: I loved Palahniuk's first three books. Like the first three, "Choke" is funny, irreverrant and brilliant social commentary. However, it reads as if the author had a deadline to finish a book by. I was just getting to know and enjoy the characters when the book came to a screeching halt. So many of the story lines could have been better developed and a few of the characters could have been more fully drawn. I'm still glad I read "Choke" and I think people who enjoyed any or all of his first offerings will like it as well. But I hope Palahniuk doesn't feel obliged to crank out a book a year. He's too important a voice to rush his words.

Rating:
Summary: An interesting premise that falls flat
Review: Palahniuk's unique prose that first came to light in "Fight Club" seems to wear out in the first few pages of "Choke". The main character, Victor is a stand-in for Jack from "Fight Club" it seems. Same frustration with commercialism and corporate power, same working class drudgery, same quirky angst. Yet the gentrified universe that Jack reacted against that Palahniuk created in his first novel seemed plausible through its absurdity. Victor never achieves that "everyman" status that creates strong empathy from the reader. His lonliness which manifests itself in the need to be sexually compulsive and to fabricate a false sense of closure for elderly people is not done well enough to hold interest.

The book has its moments and they are usually on a chapter by chapter basis. Palahniuk's style forms a short story of sorts out of each chapter which, if taken as such, is extremely well written. However the story is not successful when each chapter is woven together. Story elements are either not taken far enough or just do not make sense. That Victor might be the Messiah or that his love interest might be from the future (a point brought up way too late for the reader to even care) never solidify and contribute to the haphazard construction of "Choke."

Palahniuk clearly has something to say. If he could only mold less repetative characters and maintain that kick in the teeth that he is capable of.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting and thought provoking
Review: Reading "Choke" allowed me to live the life of a scumbag vicariously. I learned alot about sex addicts, altheimsers disease, slug traps and colonial theme parks. I thought that this book tackled some issues that were extremley controversial, yet managed to stay somewhat lighthearted and funny. I found myself laughing out loud at many places in this book. I enjoyed the character of Denny and his "rock" addiction, I thought this was hilarious, meaningful and useless all at the same time. I thought the worstcase scenario medical allusions were both hysterical and frightning. Overall, I enjoyed this book a great deal. I would suggest this book to someone who is interested in being intrigued.

Rating:
Summary: Illicit thrill and original narrative
Review: This book is a intimate picture of characters you will both revile and glorify. To quote the text: "freaks, legends". Palahniuk's brilliance of observation will take you further into this twisted world which toys with reality and perception.

Rating:
Summary: Original to say the least
Review: Great novel. Right up there with "The Grapes of Wrath" and "The Fountainhead."

Rating:
Summary: Palahniuk amazes me again...
Review: Oh jeez, I was completely dumbfounded when I finished reading CHOKE, and that means Palahniuk has done it again. I've read all his books, more than once, and CHOKE is a masterpiece none the less. It is hard to say if CHOKE is better then FIGHT CLUB, I really can't tell. But with such a original and plot twisting story as CHOKE it is bound to make your top ten list. Trust me on this, Chuck Palahniuk is my own personal Jesus Christ.