Survivor: A Novel
by Chuck Palahniuk
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Book Reviews of Survivor: A Novel
Book Review: A Review by Dr. Joseph Suglia
Summary: 1 Stars
A review of SURVIVOR by Chuck Palahniuk
There are those who consider Chuck Palahniuk to be a good author. There are others who consider him to be a bad author. I deny that he is an "author" at all. He speaks; he does not write. There is no trace of effort or revision in any of his books, and effort and revision -- in a word, reversibility -- are the traits of authorship. SURVIVOR is not "writing" in the strong sense of the word -- it is, rather, recorded speech. With the greatest arrogance, Palahniuk vomits onto the page whatever comes to his mind. His sentences bear a queasy resemblance to lyrics by Van Halen or Bob Seger.
Palahniuk describes his fiction practice in the following way: "I write in the way that people talk." But who ARE these people, exactly? one is tempted to ask. Twelve year olds? The uneducated? The messiness of his "prose style" is astounding. An Insta-Book, SURVIVOR was randomly generated by an illiterate.
Although he may claim that he is deliberately writing in a crude style, Palahniuk does not give the impression that he could write eloquently, even if he wanted to.
Generally speaking, it is better for writers of fiction to prefer intelligence to stupidity. Palahniuk seems to prefer the opposite. There is nothing clever in SURVIVOR. At the crux of the novel, a character named Adam narrates the origin of his brother Tender's sexual neurosis. Tender was traumatized to the point of no longer wanting to have sex when he witnessed a lethal childbirth. Palahniuk's Adam describes the trauma in this way: "She screamed, and the baby died" (34). This kind of deadpan summary does not inspire much confidence in the writer's intelligence or verbal skills.
Works of popular culture should be considered in terms of their function. At least it could be said of Stephen King's work that it succeeds in fulfilling a function: that of horrifying and disgusting his readership (to his credit, there are a few successful short stories to his name). King would never claim to be an artist, only a showman. Palahniuk, however, seems to have serious pretentions at artistry.
Hardly a work of art, SURVIVOR is very much a McDonald's novel. In its post-consumer stage, the book is then discarded and quickly forgotten, like the wrapper in which a McDonald's hamburger is contained.
You will learn in this easily digestible book how to eat a lobster. Never mind that this passage seems to have been taken word-for-word from a book on eating etiquette. Never mind that the lobster-eating passage is completely unrelated to its immediate context and the subject matter of the novel.
Much like FIGHT CLUB, SURVIVOR espouses a mindless athleticism and jock-fascism. FIGHT CLUB does not merely imply, but states in the most obvious manner, that bare-knuckled fist-fighting makes effeminate men more virile/manly/masculine. Similarly, SURVIVOR suggests that you are a better person if you gain more muscle. So does CHOKE. Both Tender Branson and Denny lose their unsightly fat, gain muscle, and thereby become "holy." To propose that bar-brawling muscleheads are superior to the flabby or skinny is repulsive AND fascistic. Palahniuk's jock-fascism is jockalicious.
The writer spells out the book's meaning in a series of painfully stupid cliches. The few glimmers of originality in this book can be found in the work of other writers and film artists who preceded Palahniuk. The scene in which Branson screams, "I WANT TO GO TO PRISON!" (54), for instance, passes uncomfortably close to the film AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON; the reverse pagination was already practiced in GLAMORAMA, a novel by a writer whom Palahniuk has spent his career imitating.
If Hell were a library, SURVIVOR would be burned on the eighth floor.
Dr. Joseph Suglia
Book Review: The end of the world is near, and Chuck Palahniuk wants you to be prepared...
Summary: 5 Stars
Suicide death cults, psychics, mass murderers and Super Bowl halftime riots only make up a small yet essential part of this wildly entertaining and completely original tale of one man's journey from outcast to celebrity. Leave it to Chuck Palahniuk to paint such an intriguing and twisted tale. I've been a fan of his for some time now, so my adoration of this novel wasn't much of a surprise for me, but I must say that even I was floored with how impressively captivating this novel really was. I remember back when I was first getting into Palahniuk. This particular novel didn't seem to strike me very much; I actually thought it sounded rather boring. Instead I read `Invisible Monsters' and `Choke' and `Diary' and I became more and more intrigued at just what this man was capable of. Chuck is the type of author that can astonish even when his novel is less than brilliant. Even the likes of `Choke' and `Diary', his two least effective novels for me (I have yet to read `Snuff' though) completely captivated me and still linger in my subconscious; so it's safe to say that he is above and beyond talented and remarkably memorable.
So that brings me to `Survivor'. I don't know if you know this about me yet (I've mentioned this in a few reviews) but I am definitely a `mood reader' or whatever you want to call it. What I mean is that I like to try and put myself in the atmosphere best suited to the novel I am reading. When I read `Blindness' I read it in the dark, only at night, with a flashlight shone solely on my book. I wanted to feel the blindness surrounding me. When I read Ballard's `Crash' I read it in my car on my lunch breaks. I had to feel the confined spaces which permeated the novel. So, with `Survivor', I read it in an airplane on my way to vacation this past week.
I mean, when a novel opens with a man hijacking an aircraft only to record his personal life story and then plummet to the ground in a horrific plane crash, where else are you going to read it?
One thing that I've found about Palahniuk as an author is that to review his novels in any real detail does him, and the eventual reader, a huge disservice. It makes things very hard for me, because if you've read any of my reviews you know that I like to talk; a lot. I have a lot to say about just about everything I watch and or read and or listen to, so same goes for `Survivor'. For your sake though, and for respect of the author, I'll keep this brief.
In my opening paragraph I mentioned that the whole `cult, psychic, murder' thing was small part of the story, and I know many people reading this that have read the novel will be quick to scream "no, it's the whole shebang", but the thing is; this novel is about something much bigger than that. `Survivor', first and foremost, is a social commentary unveiling the ugly truth behind the media circus that is celebrity. The truth that lies behind `Survivor' is that anyone can become a celebrity whether they want to or not, and if you will make someone else rich then you better be prepared to find for you life because you will quickly become nothing more than a puppet in a sick and twisted world of fame.
As fabricated and far-fetched as `Survivor', and really just about any of Palahniuk's novels may seem, there is a blatant honesty that permeates each page.
I've read just about everything Mr. Palahniuk has written (I'm halfway through `Rant' and have yet to read `Snuff', `Haunted' or his latest `Pygmy') and I can honestly say that while he is not my favorite writer he is one of the most intriguing, original and engrossing novelists working today, and it is a pleasure to read any and everything he puts out there. `Survivor' is without doubt one of his best works and is a must-read for any fan.
Book Review: AND A WEIRDO SHALL LEAD THEM
Summary: 5 Stars
Reading Survivor I couldn't help being reminded of Renaissance era writers and thinkers. Their minds were always aware of their own mortality, witness the presence of a skull in a lot of the art of the period. Youth was seen as fleeting and to be enjoyed while it lasted because it would never come again. In our time, thanks to plastic surgery and the illusion of the media, one can become immortal, whether they deserve it or not. Chuck is of the former era. He sees past all the illusion of modern life and chronicles it with not only Swiftian satire but also with great sensitivity and beauty. I know that must sound like a paradox. In the character Tender Branson, Palahniuk gives us not a hero for our times, but an everyman. I know, not everyone has grown up in a Branch Davidian type religious cult. Or haven't we? What is television? And what are the movie stars but our ever present angels that we wish we could be?
Back to the book. It starts backwards with the pages descending from 289 to page 1. Because in essence it is being told that way. Branson has hijacked a plane, and right here let me say that he tells us he is not a muderer. All the passengers were let off the plane beforehand. His plan is to crash into the aboriginal wastes of Australia. While he still has fuel left, he begins to recount how he came to be on the plane, namely, his life story to be preserved by the flight recorder.
Tender grew up as a member of The Creedish Death Cult. As one of its tenents, it requires that at a certain age its members go into the world to take up the most menial, meaningless jobs. What is better than to serve mankind in its most basic needs. He becomes the housekeeper of a faceless rich couple. They are so ghostlike that he never sees them. He only communicates with them over the phone. To Branson, life is so hollow. This is symbolized by the fact that to fulfill his role as gardener he plants the yard with fake flowers he steals from mausoleums. And noone notices the difference.
With a stroke of luck (or is it?) his life changes. Someone calling a crisis hotline rings him by mistake and Branson gets the idea that he likes having the power of life and death over his callers and advertises his own hotline. Of course, he tells his callers to commit suicide based on what mood he is in. When he meets up with Fertility Hollis, the sister of one of his victims who just happens to have the gift of prophecy, his life begins to evolve beyond his control. And besides, someone is stalking ex-Creedish cult members and murdering them, further complicating his life.
I loved this book. One of the hype quotes from Bret Easton Ellis says with Chuck "our generation has found its Don DeLillo". I have to correct that because Palahniuk is his own writer. And a greater writer than DeLillo whose Underworld almost made me have a seizure because of boredom. Chuck is the best speaker for our times that I know about. America has lost the ability to know what truth is because we are surrounded by so much illusion. This author is one of the very few who is not afraid to go against political correctness and to illustrate the spiritual unhinging of our country. That's not to say that he is mordant or depressing. What you feel in this work is a sense of loneliness but at the same time, hope. In some ways Palahniuk reminds me of the zen wandering for comfort and love that Jack Kerouac exhibited at moments. Chuck is better than him also. I look forward to his evolution into a great writer.
Book Review: Strangely twisted & morbidly funny
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a fascinating, outrageously satirical novel that will appeal to anyone who finds humor in morbid places. Often I'll read a novel and then later have a hard time remembering what it was about. Not so with Survivor. The novel, if nothing else, is memorable.
Chuck Palahniuk may not appeal to everyone but I have to say that I was fascinated by Survivor's strangely twisted plot and morbid humor. True, Palahniuk is treading on familiar ground here (the `unlikely media messiah' bit has been done more than a few times before) but the author manages to put his own spin on things. The novel is uneven at times and I couldn't help but feel that it started to fall off the rails a little near the end, but all in all, it is an entertaining read(riotously funny at times) and definitely makes an impression on the reader.
My primary criticism of this novel is that I found the characters behavior inconsistent and I never fully accepted them, even as satire. Admittedly in satire, the author can take liberties and exaggerate character traits to the point of absurdity but the reader still needs to feel that their actions, even if it's hyperbole, is `true' to the character. Through most of the novel Tender is unable to think for himself, a perpetual follower who does what the church tells him, what his case worker tells him, what his agent tells him, what Fertility and his brother tell him. In contrast, he treats his employers with disdain, ignoring them at times. He is shoplifts, takes the initiative to set up a fake suicide hotline and decides which of his callers should live or die. Maybe it's just me, but I had trouble reconciling the two very different Tender Bransons.
My other beef is similar. In satire, the plot can be (should be) absurd. But even so, things have to make sense within the context of the novel. I know things like this shouldn't irritate me, but I couldn't help thinking that if the agent choreographed the wedding at the Super Bowl and pre-recorded the entire ceremony in advance, that he would never have permitted Tender to make his prediction unrehearsed and without knowing what it would be. And why would the agent have wedding rice dropped on an empty parking lot? The grand gesture would be entirely lost because there is no one there to see it. The obvious answer is that the plot required it. I realize the novel is a parody and isn't suppose to be realistic and I'm not complaining about the plausibility of things like the small book of prayers (which is hilarious) or the fact that an actress is hired to fill in for Tender's future wife during the wedding ceremony (also hilarious). These kinds of things are consistent with the tone of the novel and make sense in their satirical way. The plot developments that seemed to serve no purpose except to move the plot in one direction or another bothered me.
As for the ending (and I'm not giving anything away here because the novel ends at the beginning) it would appear that the narrator dies in a fiery plane crash. The ending though is actually a little ambiguous. My personal opinion is that Palahniuk doesn't kill Tender (there are a few clues to suggest this). My personal preference (not that it matters) is that Tender die. His survival (if he did survive) would feel like a 'cop out' to me.
You'll have to decide for yourself how you think the novel ends.
Book Review: Never be content with normal
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a novel that reaffirms its author's position among the best and most interesting people to read in a long time. Never content to be categorized as "normal", Chuck Palahniuk's follow-up to his masterful "Fight Club" is just as engrossing, dark, disturbing, satirical, and downright hilarous as its predecessor. This wildly original novel about the last survivor of the imfamous Creedish death cult dictating his life into a flight recorder on a hijacked airplane during his last moments grabs you from its opening chapter and hurls you through to the end at breakneck speed, giving you tons of little Palahniukian tips for cleaning along the way. Who would've known there was one specific way to get blood stains out of a couch?The title character of this book is named Tender Branson (not so much a name as a rank), a man who is, as mentioned, one of the last surviving members of a dying religion which trains its members to be cleaning machines, then sends them off into the world to make money and send it back to th church. Basically slave labor. Here's the catch though: The ultimate doctrine of this faith governs that when the time of "Deliverance" comes, everyone must deliver themselves to God by, ya know, committing suicide. Branson is one of the few left who have not, and it is after he has all but given up on life when he meets the mysterious Fertility Hollis, sister of a man whom he told to kill himself on his own help hotline. Fertility isn't just abnormal in the fact that she requests phone sex from the same help hotline her brother called to get his judgment from Branson, but it soon becomes evident that she is extremely clairvoyant. She sees the future with such stunning accuracy that she actually begins keeping a planner filled to the brim with dates of upcoming disasters, one of which is the day Branson becomes famous. And he does, in spades, when agents recognize him as the last Creedish and set about building him into a religious leader. This transformation slowly kills Branson with all sorts of medication, requiring more and more of him in the way of predicting miracles and putting out books of prayer which give him authorship although he's never even touched one, let alone cracked it open and read a few. (The Prayer to Prolong Sexual Activity, The Prayer to Get a Large Tax Return, etc. Just what the world needs, new age prayer with a contemporary spin.) And as if Branson's life weren't out of control enough, it seems as if he may not be the last surviving Creedish. There just may be someone out there with the malicious intent to make it look like the Creedish committed suicide... but it could've been hardcore homicide. *shrug* You'll have to read to find out.
Palahniuk populates this book with memorable characters, his own unique descriptions, and his even more precisely chosen dialogue. Like David Mamet, Palahniuk's choice of words is just off normal while still sounding quite right. His characters engage in so many flights of varying fancy that it's no wonder they talk as they do. This is not a fictional novel for the faint of heart, either. The subject matter and viciously detailed description definitely make it for an audience above a certain age. High schoolers, unless they are as precocious as I was, won't get it; people older than a certain age might be offended. But hey, who ever said art had to be in good taste?