Rating: 
Summary: choke is fight club for sex addicts
Review: Choke has much similarities with Fight Club. To some extent one could say that Choke offers more of the same, but the way Palahniuk creates his universe is so dazzling, sharp and funny, that it is hard to resist.
I saw David Fincher's movie first, then read the novel Fight Club and then the novel Choke.
I have only one request: please make Choke into a film, starring Edward Norton and directed by Fincher.
Because this could take controversy to a higher level!
Choke deals with issues not often used by filmmakers. The political issues, healthcare, the position of elderly, sex as a taboo, are just screaming to be put on screen...
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable Satire a la Chuck
Review: "Because nothing is as perfect as you imagine it."
That summed up Choke for the first 150 pages or so for me(at that point I would say 2 stars), but unlike Fight Club and Survivor(which started so strongly), Choke rallied in the latter half with Palahniuk's signature sardonic wit and biting humor accompanied with great soundbites and quotes worth writing down for future regurgitation. Choke proved sadistically humorous with the ongoing masochism that pervades throughout the ripe pages of Choke - confinement to the stocks for Denny in Colonial Dunsboro, the incessant choking of Victor, the starving of "The Mommy", and of course the countless sex acts of Victor including the oh-so painful... All of this embodies their escape from both reality and confrontation into their ostensibly safe glass houses: a very deluded 1734, a mental hospital where all is not as it seems, a multitude of unsuspecting restaurants, and the innumerable sex spots for Victor - all of which provide a supposed safe haven from the heartless and cruel real world. Palahniuk advances many themes throughout Choke, not the least of which mandates not to escape from reality, but instead to create your own new reality. Because escape isn't as perfect as you imagine it.
Rating:
Summary: interesting
Review: .. i'm not going to give you a history lesson on how i got about to reading all chuck palahniuk's books but i just wanted to say it started off with "choke". yes, i was a little late to notice the genius, nonetheless chuck palahniuk is an amazing author who always keeps things moving and even has a message. any of his books are worth reading. this is a highly entertaining, very funny book with an interesting plot and not so predictable ending. definately worth buying..you'll probably want to read it again.
Rating: 
Summary: All Choked Up
Review: "Choke" had very little to say on the real world issues threatening to blow the gentle political machinations of the Zambian aristocracy apart like a Russian MiG targeting a carvival sideshow stack of bottles. It's shameful that Chuck couldn't use his "novel" platform to better safeguard the future wellbeing of young Zambians. It makes me want to vomit.
Rating:
Summary: Achievement in love
Review: What can I say he did it again? This is Palahniuk's funniest book yet and more odd than any other, even "Invisible Monsters". I was taken aback by "Choke" because it is not the same as the others. It has a special additive of fantasy entwined in it, which captivates the reader. As usual the main character, Vincent Mancini with his numerous sexual encounters and hilarious moments, leads the story into a web of uncertainty, confusion, and explicit sexuality whether in another woman's bedroom, the mile high club, or in the hospital where his mother is dying. I loved this book and recommend it to any one looking for a bizarre story that has a tremendous heaping of humor in it.
Rating: 
Summary: one more trip down the same road
Review: It's not that Chuck Palahniuk is overated. He deserves some, if not all the attention that he's been getting for being a truly inventive and amusing author. The problem seems to be that his books are never quite capable of pulling off a genuine interest and concern for the misled and troubled characters. Palahniuk's skewed view of the world his books take place in adds enormously to their cynical humor and biting sarcasm, but effectively keeps us from viewing the characters as basically good people, or even as true humans. This problem kept me from ever really enjoying the truly original ideas and complicated subplots. In Choke, Victor Mancini is a sex-aholic who supports himmself and his hospitalized mother by going to resteraunts and pretending to choke on a piece of food until someone 'rescues' him. His theory is that once a person saves your life, they feel responsible for it forever. As in all of Palahniuk's books, multiple plot lines that seem unrelated pop up constantly, revealing facts about Victor's childhood with his sociopahtic mother, his day job at a colonial reenactment village, his best friend and fellow sex-addict, and a doctor at his mother's hospital. These all tie in to the ending, which was personally a let down to me considering some of the other great endings his books have had. Choke has all the outward makings of a good book, but it lacks emotional depth and human interest, which prove vital in the end.
Rating:
Summary: My ears are bleeding from this great Mind-F#ck
Review: "A Bukowski and Braughtigan love child" isn't the right description for who I think Palahniuk is, but it's the first description that comes to mind.
Read this book.
Rating:
Summary: The best new writer of our generation
Review: I've read all of CP's books (except Lullaby...yet) and I find him amazingly original. In a nutshell, this is a fantastic read. It's a little bizarre (not a bad thing), but I wouldn't recommend it if you're a first time CP reader. I'd say read "Fight Club" first. Book sheds interesting light on maternity and humility.
Rating:
Summary: Okay, but not great
Review: I was handed this book by a friend who just read it, said it was "okay, but not great." That pretty much sums up my opinion as well. I can see how someone could really like this book. It's quirky, has some dark humor, and I suppose it's even shocking if you've not been exposed much to similar literature. It's just that I've read books that do the same sort of thing a lot better, and it's also not the style of book I tend to enjoy. I found the story to be a bit lackluster and repetitive. A lot of chewed up food, a lot of sex in uncomfortable places, and a lot of depressing nursing home description. The narrator eventually reaches a sort of epiphany, but by the time he does, I really didn't care any more. The book held my attention long enough for me to get through it, but had no real effect on me. I'm surprised in reading the reviews how many people describe the book as "shocking" or "not for the squeamish or faint of heart." It made me wonder if I've read a few too many explicit books. Yeah, there's a lot of sex in the book, but it's no more graphic or shocking than in other books I've read. In fact, it's often described euphemistically enough that it's like reading about a sexual act as described by a sixteen year old boy, someone who's enthusiastic about sex, but still a little embarrassed when it comes to actually giving sexual organs and experiences their real names.
Rating:
Summary: Also See; Fasination
Review: Truely this was an excellent book. I got wrapped up in the story and it's mystery that I read it in 2 days. It was funny, intelligent and very sexual. I recommend it.
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