Choke | Chuck Palahniuk | the best of the series.

Choke | Chuck Palahniuk | twisted & delicious.

books:

Choke

	Choke Chuck Palahniuk Anchor, 2002 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 478 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

the best of the series.

The author of fight club, Chuck Palahniuk's novel Choke is my personal favorite. Its about a guy on his fourth step in his sexalocholic class and has to visit his mother who is out of her mind. This novel is very good in humor and makes you want if your personality was shaped my you own mom. I recomemend that anyone who has like the movie fight club will like this book. I also recomenend his other books as well.

twisted & delicious.

After reading the novel once, I knew I had to own it. It's a must for any Chuck Palahniuk fan, or to those who haven't had the pleasure to enjoy his work, for anyone who likes things a little on the darker side. I couldn't live without a Palahniuk fix every day.

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For a very select audience

If you pick this book up, don't even bother looking at the back cover, what is written there cannot even begin to tell you what you are about to read. I picked this book up based off of a few different people's recommendations and hearing the author's name dropped by several of my favorite authors. I had been told over and over how absolutely hysterical this book is, so of course I had to read it.

First let me warn you this book is not for everyone... in fact it's not for most people, but there is a select group out there that this book is perfect for. In this book you will find addictions, depravity, sex acts of all kinds, death, pain, obsession, profanity, blasphemy, and enough repetition to drive an English major insane. But don't let that stop you from reading... this is actually a very strange yet disturbingly profound book.

Short Summary: Our title character is a sex addict who fakes choking in restaurants to make people feel like heroes... he's had a terrible childhood with a completely insane mother who kidnapped him on multiple occasions. She's now in a home and is fast approaching her end, while her son, Victor, attempts to deal with his past, his problems, and his future.

If you are looking for a book about redemption, this isn't it. Victor is a failed med student who is riddled with psychological problems raging from sexual addiction to severe childhood trauma. He wanders through life searching desperately for meaning, purpose and hope... all while fighting to keep from being a "good guy." The only truly multidimensional character in the story is Victor, and the book is told stream of conscious from Victor's point of view. Victor behaves badly and fights to mentally defend his behavior to both the reader and himself. We swap between the current day and his childhood, or actually his memories of his childhood which are told with a bitterness not toward his mentally unstable mother, but toward himself.

Victor is filled with a deep rooted self loathing that comes across clearly to the reader, however he constantly defends his actions and feelings but his defense is hollow. It is clear that he knows that his life is pathetic and his future is going to be devoid of true happiness should he continue on his current path. As a reader you follow his mental wanderings, excuses, and find yourself hoping that he latches on to something healthy.

I don't want to give too much of the plot away, although there really isn't much of a plot. This is more of a character study of an addict, and addict who knows that things should be different but rejects and rebels against society to the point that he cannot even comprehend a healthy existence. As I said this book will not be for everyone, it is harsh, gross, filled with bodily fluids, depraved sexual acts, profanity and bad choice after bad choice. Most of supporting cast is filled with stereotypes and one dimensional jokes, also the way that this is written is very repetitive and the style will be jarring to many readers. It is not an easy read to whip right through due to the way that it is written. I am glad that I read this book, but I don't really know who I know that I would recommend it to.

Oh, and yes, parts of this book are very funny... but on the whole I was left feeling rather sad for the people in it. Perhaps I'm just feeling sensitive today, but the hopelessness of the situations that these people put themselves into is a rather sobering idea. The concept that keeps reiterating itself through the book is the idea of reality and who we are, do we create ourselves or do we let society decide who we are... if we try to fight against society are we just dooming ourselves to unhappiness and ultimate misery?

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Viscosity and Vitality

Chuck Palahniuk is in love with viscosity, but that's just an affectation. Among the puddles, piles, and globules are some beautifully crafted sentences. He just dares you to wade through the ear wax, phlegm, ejaculate, and other human effluvium to get to them. What he seems to be doing is reminding us, on the most basic level, what it means to be alive. That actually works. His fluid exaggeration isn't, as some have accused him, a gross-out contest, the man simply embraces magic realism on a viscous level. He does a beautiful job of creating a compelling story that pulls you along and never turns out as you predict it will. The plot twists are well set up and frankly the whole book was redeemed for me by the point made on its very last page. So you need to read that far, and then if you're like me, you'll love what Palahniuk says about life. I have no doubt this guy lives it to the fullest, and despite his desire to try to create a reprehensible character crafted from birth to be as effed up as he is, this is still a book about hope, optimism, and the celebration of the fact that we get one chance at this life, however slimy, and we should all make the best of that chance.

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