For the uninitiated, Chuck Palahniuk is the guy that wrote Fight Club upon which the movie starring Brad Pitt and Ed Norton was based. And yes, as is true 99% of the time, the book is far better than the movie.
Palanhiuk (CP from now on, as his name is hard to type) is primarily known as a "transgressional fiction" author. That's a rather new genre in which the protagonist is generally some sort of social outcast for whatever reason (deviant personality, interests, appearance, etc) and acts out against social norms as a form of redemption. CP's novels tend to focus on the theme of rebellion against consumer culture, as exemplified by "Project Mayhem" in Fight Club.
The best way I can describe CP's writing style is "the complexity of mastering simplicity." He uses fairly limited, rather than flowery and overly descriptive, vocabulary and imagery. In other words, he writes in a conversational tone, the way a normal person might speak if they were telling you a story. His simplicity masks a mastery of language, however, as his snappy, energetic tone draws you in and connects you with the characters. He then uses that connection he's established to, for lack of a better term, shock you.
Therein lies one of the major criticism's of CP's work. It's incredibly graphic and often shocking, even to those who might think they're desensitized to that kind of thing. It's easy to be desensitized to something when you're detached from it, but as I mentioned, CP's strength is his ability to emotionally connect you to a character. Once emotionally invested in a character, it's almost impossible not to be shocked when that character is involved in something horrible... either as the instigator or the victim. In that way, he forces the reader to confront the shocking topic on a more personal level.
That's what's so polarizing about CP's work. It's cliche, but you're either going to love it or hate it. The things some people criticize him for are the very things his fans love about him. For that reason, among many others, he's one of the most important authors of my generation.
Suggested Reading
You can't go wrong starting with Fight Club since that's his big hit, but if you were to only read one Chuck Palahniuk book, I'd recommend Survivor. It's the story of a man who grew up in a Branch Davidian-like religious cult and spends the rest of his adult life attempting to escape his past. The book begins at the end (the page numbers even count backwards)... he's hijacked a commercial airliner and is about to crash it into the Australian Outback, so obviously he's failed to overcome his past. We spend the rest of the book finding out why.
Palanhiuk (CP from now on, as his name is hard to type) is primarily known as a "transgressional fiction" author. That's a rather new genre in which the protagonist is generally some sort of social outcast for whatever reason (deviant personality, interests, appearance, etc) and acts out against social norms as a form of redemption. CP's novels tend to focus on the theme of rebellion against consumer culture, as exemplified by "Project Mayhem" in Fight Club.
The best way I can describe CP's writing style is "the complexity of mastering simplicity." He uses fairly limited, rather than flowery and overly descriptive, vocabulary and imagery. In other words, he writes in a conversational tone, the way a normal person might speak if they were telling you a story. His simplicity masks a mastery of language, however, as his snappy, energetic tone draws you in and connects you with the characters. He then uses that connection he's established to, for lack of a better term, shock you.
Therein lies one of the major criticism's of CP's work. It's incredibly graphic and often shocking, even to those who might think they're desensitized to that kind of thing. It's easy to be desensitized to something when you're detached from it, but as I mentioned, CP's strength is his ability to emotionally connect you to a character. Once emotionally invested in a character, it's almost impossible not to be shocked when that character is involved in something horrible... either as the instigator or the victim. In that way, he forces the reader to confront the shocking topic on a more personal level.
That's what's so polarizing about CP's work. It's cliche, but you're either going to love it or hate it. The things some people criticize him for are the very things his fans love about him. For that reason, among many others, he's one of the most important authors of my generation.
Suggested Reading
You can't go wrong starting with Fight Club since that's his big hit, but if you were to only read one Chuck Palahniuk book, I'd recommend Survivor. It's the story of a man who grew up in a Branch Davidian-like religious cult and spends the rest of his adult life attempting to escape his past. The book begins at the end (the page numbers even count backwards)... he's hijacked a commercial airliner and is about to crash it into the Australian Outback, so obviously he's failed to overcome his past. We spend the rest of the book finding out why.