Read in November 2006.
Unfortunately this is the worst Chuck Palahniuk book I’ve read to date. It is a seemingly clever concept, but overall his attempts to use vulgarity to gross out the reader fall on deaf ears (am I that desensitized already?). The idea that greed drives us to do terrible things, including mutilating ourselves – under the guise that society expects a victim, an enemy, and a hero – though interesting – when drawn into a 400+ page story gets old and repetitive.
The character development seems forced, and the reader is hardly interested in the characters by the time they all start hurting/killing each other. The gruesome that is Palahniuk trademark seems stale and boring. I’m glad that I’ve read further books by Palahniuk, written chronilogically after this one, so I know he picked up his creative style in future stories.
Read it if you want to complete your Palahniuk collection, otherwise let it sit on the library shelf.
Read more about it from Amazon.com here.
