Rating:  Summary: Great Read Review: I really enjoyed this book, but I do believe that you have to be a Fight Club fan to appreciate this book. Like Fight Club, it is very dark, but very well written. I read this book in one sitting and highly recommend it!
Rating:  Summary: Recommended Read Review: I highly recommend this book as an individual work very distinct to Chuck Plahniuk's style, and an overall enjoyable experience. I laughed aloud repeatedly while reading this book and I spent a lot of time thinking about it when I was finished. This will probably be a movie some day so I suggest you read it before it does, that way you can brag to everybody about how you read it before it was popular.
Rating:  Summary: "Perhaps his best?' Review: It is difficult to review Palahniuks work. While compelling and narrative, his books have an eerie emptiness about them. There are always several stories within the story. In this story Victor Mancini works in a replica early colonial village. All of the village employees are drug or sex addicts. Victors best friend, Denny also works there, he is hopelessly addicted to masturbating. Victors neurotic mother lives in an expensive convalescent center, so victor fakes choking to death in every restaurant to pity customers into giving him money. Victor goes to sexaholic meetings to pick up women for sex. He tells of his mothers erratic and abusive behavior towards him when he was young, etc. etc., well you get the idea. If you are into twisted tales, cool. If not, leave this book alone, don't read it. You may be sorry.
Rating:  Summary: I think Chuck "Choke"d Review: The jacket lured me in but I can't say the author delivered the goods. Incredibly depressing, gross and bizarre characters and behavior doesn't make for an interesting read. His style can be entertaining but repetition of certain motifs really wears thin even in 256 pages. His attention to detail led to some interesting characterizations but just too weird to really be enjoyable. Think of a young John Irving trying a little to hard to be cute.
Rating:  Summary: Just short of genius. Review: This has been my first Palahniuk read, and I quite enjoyed it. Well written and layered with the same sarcastic narrative and theme movement that I'd expected after viewing Fight Club. Unfortunately, I must say it is certainly not for the timid ... on any subject. The main charactor of the novel is a massive sex addict, and his acts are described quite in detail, which, although it may make you grin or grimace, adds an almost embarassing realism to the book. Definatelty not one worth passing by.
Rating:  Summary: Another Look Into Madness Review: See Schizophrenia. See Dementia. See Hysteria. Chuck Palahniuk's newest novel "Choke" amusing look at a medical quack who sees the world as disintegrated and segmented, therefore needs to be analyzed like any biological disease. From here a treatment can be puesued. Yet, like the main character, Victor, his own needs are seemingly never met, as they stem from, like any good Oedipal Complex, the mother. It is the mother that holds the secret. The secret not only to his past, but also to his own psychological past that keeps interupting his sexual and social gratifications. Palahniuk has written a compelling story with a clever and witty style, one that is modern and fresh. See Fight Club. See Survivor. See Invisible Monsters. I highly reccomend this book for anyone interested into experiential insights to madness of the spiritual kind, as well as prose that has a flair for the darker side of comedy.
Rating:  Summary: Not a Fight Club, but a memorable one Review: After reading Survivor and Fight Club, I was expecting a lot from Choke. But I don't think Palahniuk quite reached it in this one. It had an original idea, but I thought the delivery could have been better...
Rating:  Summary: An excellent novel Review: Much better than the Fight Club. A new style, a great writing and a non-conventional story.Don't lose it.
Rating:  Summary: Amazing. Review: This book is amazing. Palahniuk's writing is so good that it plays funny games with my awareness of reality. The story is jolted, but its simply a reflection on society, reminiscent of Orwell's writings. Simply amazing.
Rating:  Summary: Disjointed, but not in a good way Review: I feel like Chuck's been holding back a bit. It's like he's not sure which direction he wants to go. Like he's straddling the notions of serving the mainstream or pushing the envelope and going more toward the other extreme. Fight Club is hard to follow-up, but seems like there's a bit of a rut here. Very odd. Anyone reading his books out of order might suggest that this was one of his first efforts, and Fight Club his latest. The repetition gimmick gets a bit old, really. That said, I'd still say it's a safe bet that I'll buy and read any other books Chuck has to write.
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