Survivor: A Novel
by Chuck Palahniuk
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Book Reviews of Survivor: A Novel
Book Review: I really did want to like Palahniuk.
Summary: 2 Stars
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.
Book Review: "According to my daily planner....."
Summary: 5 Stars
"Testing, testing. One, two three. Maybe this thing is working. I don't know. If you can even hear me, I don't know."Tender Branson is on an airplane all by himself, cruising on autopilot at about 39,000 feet above the ground. The only other thing on the plane is the black box, which he is planning to recite his life story into it, so there are no mistakes about his life when he is found dead. So nobody calls him a monster, or a murderer.
What he is about to reveal is his life in the so-called Creedish Death Cult, and how he came about to being the last survivor Twisted and unpredictable events land him into the spotlight, bringing unexpected fame and recognition in this hilarious and dark satire, "Survivor." Chuck Palahniuk strikes once again, bringing life and wickedness to this wildly entertaining novel. You are about to find out all about Tender Branson, and all of the things that had happened to him, leading up to where he is now, alone on the plane, and ready to face death. Although according to his daily planner, he should probably be cleaning one of his many employers' houses, or telling them how to eat a lobster the right way. This novel will stun you from start to finish, and will never let go of you until the final sentence.
As impossible as I would've thought, I actually enjoyed this novel more than "Fight Club," and that is one of my favorite books. This book had me laughing aloud in so many parts and so many places. I think it's a much better novel than "Fight Club." I know not many people will agree with me, that is fine. This is strongly my opinion and nothing more. The narration and dialogue is so crisp, so sharp, so dark, and yet so funny and entertaining all at the same time. The writing is so original an groundbreaking. To think that I used to hate first-person narrations. Palahniuk is a very impressive author, and is able to show us that he isn't afraid to tackle on issues that may be frowned upon by others. This is a great satire that takes a bitter look at fame and organized religion. It also proves to be a much more funnier novel than "Fight Club," or at least I think so.
It is so refreshing to come upon a talented author, such as Palahniuk. This is by far one of my new favorite books, and I have just got done reading it for the second time. You'll be sad when you finish it, but will be excited to re-read it. "Survivor" is a magnificent and unforgiving tale of fame, religion, and superstardom. Take nothing for granted and expect the unexpected. Once you start, you cannot stop reading.
I must go now, because according to my daily planner, I'm supposed to be somewhere else and try to better myself as a human being. Besides, I don't want to give too much away. The greatness that lies within this terrific read is that you cannot predict what's going to happen next. Read the novel and take the trip.
Book Review: A Must Read! You Won't Be Sorry To Buy It!
Summary: 5 Stars
Did you think Fight Club was strange? It only scratched the surface of Chuck Palahniuk's satirical psyche, only served as a warmup for this deadpan media/religion scather that concludes in an even more over-the-top fashion than Palahniuk's debut novel. That the pages and chapter numbers of Survivor count down instead of up is only the most superficial aberration.You'll recognize some of Palahniuk's devices from Fight Club immediately -- the short paragraphs, choppy sentences, narrator dialogue not distinguished with quote marks. The all-knowing consumerism and dead-on ideological emptiness. And, of course, the beginning that reveals the ending and spends the rest of the book arriving at that point through flashbacks.
As Survivor opens, our protagonist, Tender Branson, is waiting for the 747 he's on to nosedive into Australia. The passengers were let off some time ago, and the pilot parachuted out shortly after. Now it's just Branson and the black-box flight recorder, into which he is dictating the story of his life.
Our narrator possesses an insane prescience of home remedies. He pretty much has to; his work assignment is to baby sit a wealthy couple who doesn't know the cocktail fork from the grapefruit spoon. Who require explicit instructions on how to consume the catered food at dinner parties they've been invited to and not make fools of themselves.
Everyone in Branson's cult had work assignments. The Creedish church he grew up in was a compound not unlike the Branch Davidians or Heaven's Gate, and in predictable fashion, almost all committed mass suicide at the first sign of FBI invasion. The remaining members, it seems, are committing suicide (or are they?) one by one, and all Branson has is his equally disturbed therapist and crammed daily planner to keep him going.
That, and he's set up flyers all over town bearing his phone number, inviting the suicidal and desperate to give him a call. Those who call are encouraged to go ahead and kill themselves, and Branson visits the graves of those who do. It gives him some odd comfort, and it's how he meets Fertility Hollis -- this book's Marla Singer -- whose brother killed himself after having disturbing dreams of the future. Dreams she's also started having.
As you might have guessed just from the plot details, Survivor is actually more messed up than Fight Club, and the strangeness only compounds as the book goes. As the atmosphere continually changes, so do Palahniuk's possibilities for satire -- by the last third, it's almost entirely a dissertation on fame and the media. Disturbing, yes; satisfying, almost, but Survivor is definitely worthwhile reading for anyone who stomached and appreciated Fight Club. Two other quick Amazon picks: odd little novels I enjoyed -- WILL@epicqwest.com by Tom Grimes, The Losers' Club by Richard Perez
Book Review: Mind-Boggling!
Summary: 4 Stars
Am I surprised that a radical writer of Palahniuk's stature should arise from the creative quagmire of Oregon's artistic backwaters? Not at all. I, too, am an Oregon resident, and I encounter semblances of Palahniuk's philosophy in daily conversation.But to encounter such a passionate and cohesive worldview within the scope of a single book--and a relatively short one, at that--is mind-boggling!
Following the near-emotionless life of Tender Branson, we move from reluctant respect or revulsion to a downright sympathetic view as we realize his past. Tender is a survivor--eventually, one of the last--of a religious death cult. He failed to follow through on his own suicide, and now ekes out a robotic existence as a cook/housekeeper of sorts for a pathetically materialistic couple. As the story moves along, we discover Tender's past and watch him become a media darling, a "messiah" thrown to the starving masses like a piece of meat. Only in facing his own fears and inadequacies does Tender Branson take flight towards freedom...an open-ended freedom that leaves us wondering whether he escaped his past or his future as well.
Some will be offended and use the semi-blasphemous nature of this story to discount its underlying truth and anguish. Others will relish the shock-value and overlook the bitter heartache and despair that breed such feelings of impotence and aloneness. For those who are willing to use "Survivor" as a magnifying glass, this story brings into stark detail the horrors of religion breeding with commercialism and the travesty of community that loses sight of its individual members.
"Survivor" will certainly shock and offend--and maybe that's the point. Palahniuk seems driven by the need to jolt back to life a generation that's grown devoid of direction and meaning. In a world innoculated by entertainment violence and extremes, he puts those very weapons in our hands--in the form of a novel--and challenges us to count the cost...Do we believe in something more? Something greater than ourselves? Something worth living for? Or should we cave in to society's sheep-mentality and allow ourselves to be herded through the 40 hour work-chutes week after week until the day of sacrifice?
To be honest, I don't come away with any more answers than I arrived with...but I come away from Palahniuk's novels convinced not to settle for status quo, convinced to rise above the cesspool of commercialism and search for deeper meaning than the air-brushed advertisement babes want to sell me.
"Survivor"? Yes, for those willing to look beyond the surface.
"Survivor"? A cry for understanding in a society that's stripped itself of moral and ethical constraints...and found itself lacking.
Book Review: Unique Look at Modern American Life by a Great Author
Summary: 4 Stars
I read Survivor because I really liked Mr. Palahniuk's first book, "Fight Club", and I read "Fight Club" because I thought the movie was great. "Survivor" is a great book, despite it's thematic similarity to Fight Club. The plot on the other hand is very different, although some of the characters seem very familiar to ones from the author's first book. I wanted to be sure not to spoil the plot, one of the difficulties I had with "Fight Club" was my knowledge of the basic premise through having seen the movie (although I do feel there are enough differences to merit a reading of that book), however the entire plot is spelled out on the back cover of the book. Avoid that if you would like some surprises.Mr. Palahniuk has again succeeded in creating a very unusual plot, which is as good as that of "Fight Club", but its primarily used as a vehicle to provide the same lambasting of modern society that "Fight Club" provided. The lambasting takes some new turns and has a few new targets (although cornflower blue does make a return), but the method is the same. The characters are written in much the same method and the book-ending cataclysm is very similar. While I do hope that the next book of his that I read, "Monster" is different than his first two books, I was still very pleased with "Survivor". The reason is very simple, while the two books are similar, they are both so drastically different in both style and character development than the rest of the books out there that they are very compelling and thought-provoking reads. There are few authors capable of delivering the same sophisticated, yet still blunt, critique of both the excesses and shallowness of modern American mass society. In this end, the author succeeds in reaching a more convenient tone than have many other authors with similar messages, such as Pynchon, Camut or Thoreau.
It is the delivery of this critique that makes Mr. Palahniuk such a promising author (please note as of this review I still haven't read his third book, "Monster"). Criticism of the many contradictions of modern society is as easy to find in literature as the faults themselves while walking the street, however, the author delivers the blows using a masterful combination of both hyperbole, subtlety and the voice of his characters that the words are received with both laughter and disdain. If Mr. Palahniuk continues to use these methods as he has in his first two books, his works can only become more interesting. I thought this was an excellent book, and would recommend it to anyone with an interest in modern literature.