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Survivor : A Novel

Survivor : A Novel

List Price: $13.95
Your Price: $10.46
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awesome
Review: A dark and potent fable of religion, media, society, and personal identity. My favorite book of last year -- I still can't get it out of my head. Not for the easily offended or intellectually rigid -- Pahlaniuk asks more questions than he answers, and he's not afraid to take his black humor to the most disturbing extremes. But if you're the sort of person who can laugh at plane-crash jokes, and isn't embarassed by occasional fits of Bukowski-like honesty, this one's for you!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Tender is not Tyler....get it..got it...good!!
Review: When I asked for this book, I thought that it would be some kind of Fight Club sequel. I am glad I was wrong, and once I realized it, I was able to truly enjoy this book.
I am glad to see that Chuck did not suffer the normal sophomore slump that we see in many artists.
Much like Fight Club, the characters make the book, although I would have to say that the main character was the least interesting of the bunch. The secondary characters make the main character.
Other than the first few pages, the book is a little slow to start, but once the first engine goes out (you will understand once you read the book), the story progresses at a much better rate and picks up speed as you go along.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: at times well written...
Review: if you like kurt vonnegut, then youll most likely like this novel.lets read about the future.lets read about characters with annoying characteristics like knowing everything in the future.like cats cradle stuff like that.like most kurt vonnegut. i will begin by liking the book, but eventually i will tire of its overused ploys: word/phrase repetitions, ironic monologues. sighhhhhhh!the most annoying thing(one of the most, whatever)was how the author wrote in reverse, but didnt really write in reverse.i dunno.this isnt an apt review, but i suppose im lazy.futures; cults; messiahs; cassandra; suicide in relation to the future and the masses: its not so much the super-familiarity of these subjects that bothers me, as the meshing of all said topics in one atmosphere.by the way, he writes like vonnegut too. something about the "i want to send a message but im too lazy, or inept to place it properly" dosen't sit too well with me.ok, that wasnt too nice. ill just stop.writing is hard enough without reviewers, no?hmmm. i dunno, if you like it you like it. i just dont like this kinda stuff.it seems like one step above pulp to me.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fly or Fall
Review: This book written far before the Television show existed has pushed Palahniuk past the ranks of one hit wonders. You begin your sadistic voyage with Tender Branson, a Creedish man who lives as a basic slave in infamy. As the pages begin to count down (literally) so do the number of Creedish cult members after a mass suicide in their community. Tension builds as the Branson is shot into the glare of the public eye being the sole survivor. Palahniuk illustrates the downfalls of selling your soul to a religion and correlates them with selling your soul to the public. His gift for inserting trivial facts of knowledge and combining it with demented characters add up for a book you keep by your side until it's finished. Not exactly Fight Club but a perfect complement to it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: you cannot go another day until this book has been read!
Review: I love this book. I don't expect to read about 85% of the books in my collection more than once, but this one will be read over and over. It's a great entertainer and says a lot more than you may realize. There are some of the most wittiest and brilliant scenarios in modern fiction here. check it out.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The ending falls flat, but the rest is worth the trip...
Review: This book is a very weird but fascinating read. It concerns the last surviving member of a strange religious cult that sends all but its eldest children out into the world to work as menial laborers, sending back their wages to make the cult rich. When the scam is discovered, all members of the cult -- both in the colony and working out in the world -- kill themselves, except for the narrator. His notoriety as the last survivor of the cult take him on an incredible journey as a celebrity evangelist, with his twin brother pursuing him, and aided by a girl who knows everything that's going to happen to him and everybody else. The book sweeps you along fairly well until the very end, when things pretty much fall apart. But up until then, it's well worth the trip.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Popular Nihilism
Review: Chuck Palahniuk writes in a very specific style, its just a shame that I find said style so irritating, his novels can be likened to Irvine Welsh, but none of his characters have the substance of the great Mark Renton, they are mere toys whom Palahniuk uses to make a point, and make it he does.
His novels are filled with social commentary and interesting facts, but this lack of substance means you only read Palahniuk on the off chance he might have something interesting to say about sex or drugs, not for the characters nor the story.

Frankly this is a book for teenage boys and Marilyn Manson fans, gimmicky and "nihilistic", another way to alienate your parents and look cool at the same. Want real writing? Want real characters and nihilism, go read Trainspotting

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: He's done it again
Review: After reading "Fight Club", I had to buy more of Chuck Palahniuk's books. He succeeds yet again in presenting a side of life that is chillingly psychotic, yet amazingly possible. This novel is wonderfully and creatively set up with the narrator telling his autobiography to a black box on a plane that is going to crash. The page numbers and chapters go in reverse in a morbid countdown to the final moment of the narrator's life. Palahniuk weaves an intriguing tale of suicide cults and televangelists, of brother against brother and brothers assisting each other, and of a twisted love story that is as shocking as the one in "Fight Club". In the end, Palahniuk yet again leaves the reader guessing as to what actually will occur, leaving valid arguments for the different possiblities. I can't wait to read his other novels.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: It's nearly 3:00 AM and I can't sleep now!
Review: I just put SURVIVOR down and it was one of the most stunning pieces of literature I have come across. I was truely impressed by Paluhniuk's writing and the characters he created in this novel. I am still pondering many aspects of the novel and can't wait to read it again to pick up on anything I may have missed the first time around. Anyone who has a very dry, cynical wit will absolutely love this book. Happy reading....

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Superb nihlism, innovative and interesting!
Review: The humour of 'Fight Club' is clearly translated to this work, yet it is structurally more mature and innovative, and considerably darker and nihlistic than the forementioned, if such a feat is possible.

Initially, it was impossible to put down, however I felt that the novel lacked its early vigor in the mid section. I also felt that the ending was mildly predictable, and that Palahniuk's constant climatic tone lead to a somewhat anti climatic conclusion.

However, clearly, the composer deserves immense praise for his amazingly cynical style and his criticisms of man's fickle ability to adapt and readapt; to turn a martyr into a murderer and to naively fall for the falsities of marketing and materialistic and slightly self-improving nature of modern man.

I was taken by the interesting manner in which the author counted backwards, and found the characters, though somewhat distant and unobtainable, exciting and bordering on insanity.

The above description of the characters, in retrospect, is a fine description of one of the most nilistic and cold books I have completed this year, and whilst it is no 'Chocolat' or Oprah best seller, it is a fresh and innovative style of writing by an author with weighty talent and a cyncial twinkle.


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