Transcript Chuck Palahniuk Choke

Chuck Palahniuk
Choke
Title: Choke
Author: Chuck Palahniuk
Format: ebook
Language: English
Pages: 231
Publisher: Anchor, 1027958400
ISBN: 1400032709
Format: PDF / Kindle / ePub
Size: 5 MB
Download: allowed
Description
Victor Mancini, a medical-school dropout, is an antihero for our deranged times. Needing to pay
elder care for his mother, Victor has devised an ingenious scam: he pretends to choke on
pieces of food while dining in upscale restaurants. He then allows himself to be “saved” by
fellow patrons who, feeling responsible for Victor’s life, go on to send checks to support him.
When he’s not pulling this stunt, Victor cruises sexual addiction recovery workshops for action,
visits his addled mom, and spends his days working at a colonial theme park. His creator,
Chuck Palahniuk, is the visionary we need and the satirist we deserve.
Insightful reviews
Kristen: If you pick this book up, don't even bother looking at the back cover, what is written
there cannot even begin to tell you what you are about to read. I picked this book up based off
of a few different people's recommendations and hearing the author's name dropped by several
of my favorite authors. I had been told over and over how absolutely hysterical this book is, so
of course I had to read it.
First let me warn you this book is not for everyone... in fact it's not for most people, but there is a
select group out there that this book is perfect for. In this book you will find addictions, depravity,
sex acts of all kinds, death, pain, obsession, profanity, blasphemy, and enough repetition to
drive an English major insane. But don't let that stop you from reading... this is actually a very
strange yet disturbingly profound book.
Short Summary: Our title character is a sex addict who fakes choking in restaurants to make
people feel like heroes... he's had a terrible childhood with a completely insane mother who
kidnapped him on multiple occasions. She's now in a home and is fast approaching her end,
while her son, Victor, attempts to deal with his past, his problems, and his future.
If you are looking for a book about redemption, this isn't it. Victor is a failed med student who is
riddled with psychological problems raging from sexual addiction to severe childhood trauma.
He wanders through life searching desperately for meaning, purpose and hope... all while
fighting to keep from being a "good guy." The only truly multidimensional character in the story
is Victor, and the book is told stream of conscious from Victor's point of view. Victor behaves
badly and fights to mentally defend his behavior to both the reader and himself. We swap
between the current day and his childhood, or actually his memories of his childhood which are
told with a bitterness not toward his mentally unstable mother, but toward himself.
Victor is filled with a deep rooted self loathing that comes across clearly to the reader, however
he constantly defends his actions and feelings but his defense is hollow. It is clear that he
knows that his life is pathetic and his future is going to be devoid of true happiness should he
continue on his current path. As a reader you follow his mental wanderings, excuses, and find
yourself hoping that he latches on to something healthy.
I don't want to give too much of the plot away, although there really isn't much of a plot. This is
more of a character study of an addict, and addict who knows that things should be different but
rejects and rebels against society to the point that he cannot even comprehend a healthy
existence. As I said this book will not be for everyone, it is harsh, gross, filled with bodily fluids,
depraved sexual acts, profanity and bad choice after bad choice. Most of supporting cast is
filled with stereotypes and one dimensional jokes, also the way that this is written is very
repetitive and the style will be jarring to many readers. It is not an easy read to whip right
through due to the way that it is written. I am glad that I read this book, but I don't really know
who I know that I would recommend it to.
Oh, and yes, parts of this book are very funny... but on the whole I was left feeling rather sad for
the people in it. Perhaps I'm just feeling sensitive today, but the hopelessness of the situations
that these people put themselves into is a rather sobering idea. The concept that keeps
reiterating itself through the book is the idea of reality and who we are, do we create ourselves
or do we let society decide who we are... if we try to fight against society are we just dooming
ourselves to unhappiness and ultimate misery?
Peter: Fairly standard transgressional fiction, full of paranoid social deviants, conspiracy
theories abound, femmes fatales, a twist ending…you get the idea. Choke is not drastically
different from Palahniuk’s earlier (and better) novel, Fight Club. In fact, it’s far too similar.
In Fight Club the primary metaphoric device was underground street fighting. In Choke, it is
sexual addictions. Author works hard to shock the reader with graphic descriptions and
sometimes funny slang, but the (intentionally) limited vocabulary of the narrator tends grates on
the nerves due to incessant usage of the same childish slang terms, over and over again.
Author has an irritating penchant for starting his chapters in medias res. The problem is, the
combination of his fragmented writing style and the bizarreness of his scenes result in a mess
that is more frustrating to the reader than intriguing.
Author also loves to create metaphors and revisit them throughout the story. Much like the “I
am Jack’s raging bile duct” from Fight Club, here it is the hourly bird calls from an alarm clock in
his “mother’s” extended care bedroom, or medical school mnemonics, or various other
rhetorical devices. But the author is not above the more tired metaphors, such as a character
fiddling with a jigsaw puzzle while trying to uncover the “puzzle” of the narrator’s life. Yawn.
Occasional flashes of insight aren’t enough to carry this novel. It’s not surprising that Palahniuk
has moved on from this limited genre.
Kecia: I just couldn't do it! I could not read this drivel. It's not subversive. It's not funny. It's not
interesting. It's not shocking. It is juvenile.
Franzen's The Corrections, Roth's Portnoy's Complaint, and BBE's American Phycho are not in
my favorites by any stretch of the imagination...but at least these three have ideas and can
actually write even if I didn't want to read what they were writing about.
And PLEASE don't compare this guy to the genius who was Kurt Vonnegut! Just don't even go
there.
If you think it's funny when an adult says the word "bugger" you might like this book. Otherwise,
don't bother.
Darwin8u: “It is typically a suitable reaction to fact to head insane.” ? Philip K. Dick, VALISI
quite cherished this book. In loads of methods it can be my favourite Palahniuk novel (so far).
you could inform CP is leaving loads of his personal emotion and blood within the narrative. Do i
believe it really is autobiographical? definitely not, yet i believe it can be outfitted out of stones
that Palahniuk has lifted. he's in a position to weave some of the subject matters he'll stopover
at time and again into this novel. The fight of addiction, the fight to be human in a dehumanized
world, the explosive have to no longer comply with what's being offered is all here.There is a
interval in smooth lifestyles if you happen to get up and discover that you're the beakless chook
destined to spend the remainder of your existence in a battery cage so small you can't even
stretch your wings. Society will proceed to feed and water you so long as you retain pumping
these eggs out. so much people get up to this lifestyles and both pray or beg for it to finish
quickly. we would search to muffle our lifestyles with drugs, or religion, or sex, or exercise, or
another type of psychological escape. all of us seize for a few opiate of the egg farm. Palahniuk
is a kind of infrequent writers, a kind of infrequent birds who will not take a seat nonetheless
within the cage. he's a poultry that turns out absolutely ready to burn the farm DOWN.
Will M.: My first and final Palahniuk book. i'd make an exception for struggle membership simply
because I enjoyed the movie, yet my hatred towards this novel is basically making me keep
away from the other novel of his. i am not even going to write down a whole evaluation
anymore. I in truth simply wasted my time completing this piece of...
Noce: "E se invece Gesù avesse passato los angeles giovinezza a commettere errori?Prima di
azzeccare il suo primo miracolo?"Divertente, brillante, delirante, vorticoso. A partire
dall'incipit:«Se stai in step with metterti a leggere, evita. tra un paio di pagine vorrai essere da
un'altra parte. Perciò lascia perdere. Vattene. Sparisci, finchè sei intero. Salvati. Ci sarà natural
qualcosa di meglio alla tv. Oppure, se proprio hai del pace da buttare, che so, potresti iscriverti
a un corso serale. Diventare un dottore. Così magari riesci a tirare su due soldi. Ti regali una
cena fuori. Ti tingi i capelli. Tanto, ringiovanire non ringiovanisci.»Palahniuk è un maestro nel
capovolgere gli eventi; le sensazioni stesse che il lettore prova in keeping with i suoi personaggi
vengono ribaltate senza sforzo, seguendo il corso naturale e bizzarro degli eventi. Il
protagonista, Victor Mancini, sessodipendente che vive di espedienti cercando di mantenere l.
a. madre in fin di vita, vuole trovare una ragion d'essere, snocciolando critiche sulle miserabili
vite degli altri, comprese le nostre:« È pazzesco quanto una donna può fraintenderti se in line
with sbaglio, mentre le affondi il muso tra le chiappe morbide, dici: ti amo. Dieci volte su dieci,
l'uomo che pronuncia quelle parole intende dire: amo quello che stiamo facendo.»Il suo amico di
sventure, Denny, vive nel suo strampalato mondo dove tutto ha una logica, alla disperata
ricerca di un progetto da realizzare..In un movie verrebbe definito come l. a. "spalla" del
protagonista, in realtà alla wonderful della storia, anche il suo ruolo si inverte. E nel frattempo ci
regala le riflessioni su cui inciampa durante i voli pindarici della sua mente: «A volte è come se
fossi io a voler essere picchiato e punito. Va benissimo anche se Dio non esiste, però qualcosa
da rispettare lo voglio lo stesso. Non mi va di essere il centro del mio universo.»La madre di
Victor, una donna che vive da anni in un nichilismo cosmico, e che ha cresciuto il figlio
impartendogli regole di sopravvivenza dalla validità assoluta:«-L'unica frontiera che ci rimane è il
mondo dell'intangibile. Tutto il resto è cucito troppo stretto.-Per intangibile los angeles Mamma
intendeva Internet, i film, l. a. musica, le storie, l'arte, le voci che corrono, i programmi in
keeping with computer, tutto ciò che non è reale. Le realtà virtuali. Le simulazioni. l. a. cultura.
Perché l. a. realtà non arriva mai al grado di perfezione cui può spingersi l'immaginazione.
Perché soltanto ciò che è intangibile, le idee, i concetti, le convinzioni, le fantasie, durano. Le
pietre si sgretolano, il legno marcisce. l. a. gente, bé l. a. gente muore.» E poi vi rimane il resto
del libro, un carosello di personaggi sbandati, disillusi o troppo creduloni, ma pur sempre umani.
Se vi aspettate un linguaggio formale e pulito, avete sbagliato libro. Ma anche in questo
Palahniuk è costante. Le espressioni sboccate, il sesso ovunque, l. a. degradazione al massimo
livello, son tutti elementi che se all'inizio fan storcere il naso a chi non è abituato, di pagina in
pagina diventano elementi indispensabili della storia. E los angeles rendono completa:
l'ennesimo ribaltamento del libro. los angeles stellina mancante, è dovuta al fatto, che ho finito
di leggere il libro ieri, e come ogni lettura intensa va digerita prima di poterla sigillare con un
giudizio definitivo. Però una mezza in più gliel'avrei info volentieri, anche a caldo. Un consiglio,
non seguite l'avvertimento dato nell'incipit. Continuate a leggere: ne vale los angeles pena.
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