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Summary: A great book for devoted Christians!
Review: Hi! I am a deveoted Christian and I love this book! It may be hard for people to realize that you can have a deep, abiding faith in Jesus Christ and also enjoy powerful, emotionally sweeping fiction but, hey, you can. The way Palahniuk trashes American hipocracy at every turn in no way clashes with my belief in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour. His intricatly woven plot never once threatens my devotion to the Good Shepherd. And his crisply drawn characters never once made me long for Satan's cold embrace. So, I disagree. Devoted Christians can enjoy this book!
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Summary: Engrossing and funny
Review: Though I did not enjoy this book as much as either Invisible Monsters or Fight Club, it is one of the best I have read. The starting-at-the-end trick is very cliched at this point - three books written by this author and all three start at the end - but and added curiosity is the way the pages an chapters count backwards. Very original and a good way to keep the reader's mind on two parts of the story at once. I complain about how it starts at the ending, but honsetly, there could be no other way this book could be written. Parts of this are literally laugh out loud funny, and parts will disgust you. He seems to almost touch on the destroy-yourself-before-you-gain-anything theme of his other two books, but then completely avoids it - a plus thing, it shows that the theme of Fight Club is not all that he is going to talk about in his books. I am looking forward to more Palahniuk novels and will buy them as soon as they come out.
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Summary: Modern Youth Wake Up
Review: Yes...Chuck P. has his own style....yes he is novel....yes he has great social commentary....but I need MORE...I think that Chuck P. has something to offer us...he just chooses to do so in pithy segments of dialogue either externally or internally....as a whole I find the story line to be inconsistent and random...as though he is sitting in front of the computer coming up with the next random act of extremity...."what will shock the reader?"..."what wont they expect?"...it feels more like reading a mystery novel...waiting for the next piece of the puzzle to fall into place and yet the puzzle hasnt been created until the end of the novel...I think that this is a thought provoking novel...with creative attempts at ingenuity...however, the modern youth of america must wake up and smell the coffee cause nonconformity creates conformity
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Summary: Beautiful
Review: After watching fight club I had to go out and get every book Chuck Palanuick had written. And let me tell you, I'm not the reading type, in fact Survivor may be only the 3rd book I've read in my life that wasn't related to school work. I think this book has totally changed my views about books in general and it has opened my mind to a whole new world. Starting from the first page, or the last considering the reverse order, I was totally drawn into the story and all of the characters. I felt a bond with Tender and I felt his pain and suffering. Watching his relationship with Fertility Hollis grow to a "climax"(you'll get it when you read it) was also extremely entertaining. I also laughed harder at parts of this books than I can ever remember. Some of this stuff is just too god damn hilarious. Such a beautiful book, my only regret is that I'm finished reading it. So ask me if you should purchase Survivor. Go ahead ask me, no really ask me...
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Summary: The total ride
Review: "Survivor" is a kind of trick. Better yet, "Survivor" is a kind of puzzle. I've read the thing twice now and it's still got me beat. I mean, it's a great novel. Don't get me wrong about that. Pure entertainment. Dark as only the truly cruel can be. Just so you know, it's the story of Tender Branson, the last surviving member of the Creedish cult - which, in turn, is one of those cults everybody pretty much thinks they know all about. Within the cult itself, you learn only what you are told by the elders (which means you do as you are told and abhore sex). As far as the outside world is concerned, for "cult" read devil worship, child abuse and mania. The fact that the body of the cult committed what can only be described as seppuku on the verge of being discovered for its implication in child slavery (with instructions left for surviving members out there in the world to follow suit as soon as they become aware of the seppuku) only confirms general preconceptions. Of course it's more complicated than that. It's always more complicated than that. Example: Tender operates a late-night phone advice line. Sick people, sad people, lonely people, messed-up people. They all call Tender wanting kind words and expecting help. Tender tells them to kill themselves. A lot of them do. One of the people who calls Tender is called Trevor. Tender tells Trevor to kill himself. Trevor kills himself. Tender visits Trevor's funeral plot (a cremation plaque halfway up a wall, you need a ladder to get there) and meets Trevor's sister, Fertility. Fertility and Trevor share a kind of foresight (they know all about disasters before they happen). Tender can't help but be drawn to Fertility . . . Tender is telling you this - this and other stuff, so much other stuff, stories that read like the veins of a leaf, nervation - via the gift of the black box. I'm not giving anything away telling you this. You find this out on page one. Or rather you find this out on page 289. Because page 289 is page one. The book starts at the end and goes back (page by page, 289, 288, 287, 286) to the beginning (page four, page three, page two, page one). The book ends (begins, on page 289) with Tender aboard a plane he has hijacked with the intention of crashing into the ground. He is reading his story into the black box, with the knowledge that - whatever happens to him, whatever happens to the plane - the black box is safe, the story will get told. It's a puzzle, like I said. I saw Chuck Palahniuk do a reading and he said the book is a puzzle. He said not everybody gets it. He said there is a clue to the puzzle on page eight (whether he means the official page eight right at the end, or whether you count eight pages in from page 289, I don't know). Not that it matters whether you can figure out what you have to figure out. "Survivor" is a total ride. Palahniuk is one of maybe ten new writers worth keeping your eye on (and that's me being kind to everybody else). You never know what you're going to get. You can never prepare yourself for what he's going to throw at you. It's a total ride. And a puzzle that I can't figure.
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Summary: Surviving is Tough
Review: After seeing David Fincher's rendition of Chuck Palahnuik's "Fight Club", this author has been a bit of a role model for me. Palahnuik strives to uncover the depression that glazes over society ten-fold. He did it in Fight Club with Jack and Tyler Durden, and Tender Bransen is the next victim. From the first chapter (which is 49, and the last is 1), Palahnuik delivers a masterpiece outlining people's meaningless lives and their pursuit of happiness. Call it a twist of John Locke's ideaology, but Palahnuik improves with each book. Although Survivor is not as good as Fight Club, Survivor depicts the "15 minutes of fame" with unbelieveable truth. Palahnuik's novels are never a hard read, however, its disturbing sidenotes and descriptions make this book a tough one to forget. "Survivor" is a magnificent novel; a quick read with some great meaning and wonderful moral.
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Summary: Chuck Palahniuk is one of the best fiction writers working
Review: As with most of the disenchanted, I praise artists who are outsiders, who yell at or hold a mirror to our shallow bundt cake society. Palahniuk is a scathing critic of the status quo and writes with no fear. His second novel proves he's no fluke. Although, I would say this one is for people who really, really liked Fight Club. It's just as clever, strangely populated, and unforgiving. Buy this book so he'll write more.
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Summary: Most Memorable Book in Years
Review: Survivor, by Chuck Palahniuk, is a modernday masterpiece. I am guessing more people found it by typing "Survivor" into a book search engine looking for the lame Richard Hatch version. Well, this book is infinetly better. I am sure you have heard about the reverse structure of this book, but it is not at all distracting. What I love most about this book, however, are the images it provokes and the memories it will leave you. I can't look at a StairMaster without thinking of the "200th level" (you'll know what I mean if you read the book). And the Tender Branson Sensitive Materials Landfill is genius! Read this book, you will laugh out loud at it's satire on modern day consumerism and fascination with celebrities!
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Summary: Commercialism+bad social trends=survivor
Review: It is a must read novel about a soul survivor of a cult. After the media picks up on, Tender Branson, the main charachter's abuility not to commit suicide in the ritual that must be done in order to be delivered to God, the corporations and civilization in gulf him into a T.V. god who can solve all our problems. For example this character in the book sells a book of prayers for how to have an orgasm, finding a parking place, quit smokeing, and other comedic social problems in our ... lives. It is a must read if you want to ever see the world for what it realy is ... . For those who are not courageous or strong enough to step off the "circumfrance of civilization"(quote from inside flap of book) then don't read this, but if you are able and daring to enter another world then read this funny, dark, and mind blowing book! The novel also gives you tips on how to clean blood off of clothing, carpets and walls!
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Summary: Not what you expect!
Review: I read this book which was recommended by a friend and he gave me no clue on what it was about. But the book was so good I finished in two days cause I could not put it down.
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