Rating: 
Summary: The Best Palahniuk Yet!
Review: I am a 16 year old reader. I have been in love with Palahniuk since Fight Club, his first book. I think that Survivor is the best book that he has ever written and it is definitely one of my all time favorites. The twists and turns are brilliant, the writing, the story, the character development. I completely reccomend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: I really did want to like Palahniuk.
Review: I've read glowing praise of Palahniuk's work everywhere, not least of all by the eminent Bret Easton Ellis. I am a huge fan of Ellis's novels and know from previous experience that he doesn't recommend crap so I had high expectations on what Palahniuk would deliver. None of these were realised.
The writing is sub-par with many jarring stops due to blatantly inappropriate punctuation. There are more fragmented sentences in this book than I could care to count. I have always been under the impression that sentences must make sense; apparently not when you're Chuck Palahniuk: word-smith extraordinaire. To me this represents not avant-garde post-modernism but plain incompetence and disregard for the laws of the english language making the work near unreadable.
In addition to his shoddy grammar, the plot of this book is just plain bizarre. I have nothing but respect for the right of the writer to compose his work in any fashion necessary to best illustrate the concepts and emotions he is trying to convey and I realise that the perverse and bizarre are often necessary in order to do this, but there comes a point where the writer must display some self-restraint and ask himself "does this make sense?". It is in this spirit that I criticise Survivor's plot.
The story is narrated by Tender Branson via the black box of Flight 2039. The entire time. That. Tender is recouting his. Poorly punc. tuated. Story. the plane is getting closer to ground zero. In my opinion this has the potential to be an absolutely brilliant literary device creating a sense of constant action and immediately engrossing the reader; not so in the hands of Palahniuk. Tender knows nothing of when the plane will crash other than that it will crash soon, yet gives us all the irrelevance of his life-story. I simply cannot believe this. The man has hi-jacked the plane with the sole intent of clarifying misconceptions yet goes on to devote an entire chapter reminiscing on how he gave a couple instructions on how to eat a lobster. Who cares?
The entire narrative style is inappropriate to a man rushing out his story with death approaching at any moment. Rather than being hurried and urgent it is slow and meandering with Tender taking time out to recall the appearance of plastic flowers and remedies for semen stains. Who cares? There are so many inconsistencies: it is meant to be a recount of his life, yet it is set in the present tense.
A novel is meant to suspend your disbelief in its fictions. It can be as outrageous as it likes so long as it can sustain your belief. Palahniuk failed at this in the worst way.
"Maybe our generation has found its Don DeLillo" muses Ellis. Certainly not.
Palahniuk is a hack, trying so hard to shock with his anti views and out-there plot lines that he appears to have forgotten or perhaps never knew what constitutes a good novel. This is very immature writing.
Rating:
Summary: The most weirdest and one of the best books I have read...
Review: Lots of novels start out from the beginning where we meet the characters and get to know them...in Survivor, this is not it. Instead it is going backwards with the life story of Tender; a former cult memeber called the Creddish Society which they comitted a Jim Jones mass suicide. So now 30,000 feet in the air and getting ready to crash into the Australian outback, he then tells his story of the famous black box (which is really orange), and so he tells his story about being saved from the cult, and how is psycharicist tells Tender to make up syomptms he does not have so she can chart his success overcoming the disorders. He then goes around his daily routine; cooking, cleaning, and he has his own suicide help line which he tells people to kill themselves because they really dont have anything to live for. So now, the suicide level has risen, and he thinks that his brother Adam is killing people he knows and making it look like a suicide. So now, Tender is then found out that he is the last survivor of the Creedish Cult, and now he is famous all over the world. Before he gets famous, he meets a woman named Feternility which she can predit tragic events before they happen. So now that Tender is famous, he then has people write his autobiography (which he didnt write), and has a huge following which they think that he is a messenger and can heal the sick, and make everyone feel better. So now, with this in hand, Fetternility then tells Tender that there is going to be a hijacking of a plane and it is going to crash; that is all she knows. So now, Tender then gets on the plane and hijacks it, but their is no one inside it so now, we then meet Tender again saying 'testing 1, 2, 1, 2...'I felt this was a very unique novel by Mr. Palahniuk, and if you thought Fight Club was weird, boy do he has a surprise for you. I didnt expect like another Fight Club, but I expected something orginal and I got it. Good job.
Rating:
Summary: Bizarre, Strangely Informational, & a Great Read!!
Review: I read the book in about 4 and half hours and couldn't put it down. First book I've read of Chuck's and so far the one I like best , after reading invisible monsters, and fight club.(good but not survivor good!)-cliff
Rating: 
Summary: Chuck is Chuck
Review: Chuck Palahniuk is if anything predictable. His books seem to always explore the big picture through details. He seems to take the normal and dissect until it is absurd. Survivor is his standard example and innovated brilliance in as much of a combination as you can get. For those of you who watched Fight Club and enjoyed figuring out how soap making could degrade social destruction by way of the essence of male bonding; you will enjoy how the darkness of an employer can be describe through the cleaning of their dirty laundry and how it is used to hide a man's own laundry. This was Chuck's innovated book, with the continual countdown of pages and chapters telling you how close to the hero's self destruction you are getting. However, reading three of his books in six months became a little repetitive for my tastes. If you are sensitive to the September 11th tragedy, you will want to avoid this book.
Rating: 
Summary: "Think of your life as a sick joke."
Review: In the nearly decade since the publication of FIGHT CLUB Chuck Palahniuk has carved a name for himself in the literary world. Each of his novels are jammed-packed with media and social criticisms that often involve realistic characters in unusual circumstances. SURVIVOR, Palahniuk's second novel, includes his signature style of taking the reader on a trip that is difficult to forget. This jolting journey of the mind is what one expects when they pick up a Palahniuk book, and SURVIVOR does not fail in this aspect. The format of this book is constructed in a fashion of a big countdown: pages and chapters are numbered in reverse. The moment the ball drops is when a jumbo jet is going to crash into the Australian Outback with Tender Branson as the sole passenger. Tender has led an unconventional life. He is a surviving member of the Creedish doomsday cult. His comrades participated in a mass suicide to avoid government intervention. As the novel progresses he is recruited by a savvy agent and transformed into a major media icon that performs miracles by foretelling the future, with courtesy to his friend and co-inspirer Fertility Hollis. But the future isn't all Hollywood for Tender as there are dark secrets concerning activities by the Creedish elders during his youth that are determined to confront and destroy his assumed innocent childhood. Deep in social satire SURVIVOR is a fun and entertaining read which kept me interested until the last page. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite Palahniuk novel
Review: Yea, Survivor is my favorite book by Chuck Palahniuk, but I'll try and give an unbias opinion. As with most of Chuck's fans, they all seem to identify with his books in their own unique ways. I found Survivor to be an entertaining romp. It always had me turning the pages, and it always had me guessing where it was leading. As with most of Chuck's writing style, it's quick and very action oriented. A greater use of verbs then adjectives. More plot points then expisition. Now, this is the neat thing that made me such a fan of this book. After a single reading, it doesn't appear that there is anything overtly special about it. It's entertaining, but Survivor will leave a lot of unanswered questions. Then visit the official website and read some message board comments on the "truth about Survivor," then the fun starts. The book then reads out like a big puzzle.
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: I definately enjoyed this book.... It was a little slow and nonsensical at times but overall it's a great read... some people think the ending was bad but I think it's interesting as well as slightly disturbing and I couldn't see it ending other way. As with Palahniuk's other books, you may be confused a little at first, but towards the end there's a chapter or two that just makes you go, "ooohhh... i see" and that makes for a very satisfying read. Maybe not as good as Lullaby but still a great work.
Rating:
Summary: A bit of a sophomore slump, but still a good read
Review: As his second book, Survivor is not as good as Fight Club, or as good as some of the books that the author wrote later (Invisible Monsters is truly wonderful). But it is still a good book, and a fun, quick read. I do agree that the ending was not what I had expected, (I won't give it away here), but it does make sense with the bigger context of who Adam is and the setup in the rest of the book. This book has some memorable scenes, and some really funny parts, but after awhile the non-ending references to cleaning techniques got tiresome, and some of the plot jumps are almost sci-fi in nature. It isn't as believable as Fight Club or Invisible Monsters because of some of the "unusual mental power" of one of the characters, and some of improbable plot jumps. If you're a fan of Chuck's then you would probably enjoy reading this book, and at around $10, it's more fun than a movie or watching tv. But it's not his best work. If you want to understand what his work is all about I'd recommend Fight Club or Invisible Monsters.
Rating:
Summary: Different to Fight Club and more enjoyable
Review: I was hoping for another Fight Club and I got something totally different* and better. Chuck makes a habit of taking his protagonists to hell and back and the journey that Tender takes is one that you won't forget. If you get halfway through the book you will find you won't want to put it down. It treads a fine line between intelligent thoughtful insights and an entertaining read. It delves into subjects such as the institutionalisation and commercialisation of religion and sex, as well as the power of these things for societies and individuals. If this sounds a bit too heavy going then you may want to skip this and try Green Eggs and Ham (also a great book).
|
