Survivor: A Novel
by Chuck Palahniuk
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Book Reviews of Survivor: A Novel
Book Review: Big Dissapointment
Summary: 2 Stars
This is the third book by Palahniuk I've read, and I must say I wasn't very pleased.
About the book:
This book has an amazing satirical premise. The lead character is Tender Branson. He's the "survivor" of a cult that had it's own isolated comminity that was similar to the Amish, only this was a suicide cult, and he's the only survivor. That is, he's one of two survivors, the other survivor is killing other members of the "Creedish" cult to make it look like they were suicides.
Being the "Survivor" Tender Branson is made into somewhat of a hero on TV all across America, and he's turned into something like a Televangalist. ONly he doesn't have to work. ALl his agents do it for him. They write all his sermons, they make him handsome, they write all his books,
Until the book starts to get chaotic toward his downfall.
Sounds good, doesn't it?
I'm not going to spend a lot of time hacking it up. I'll simply say that with everything I've said so far, it makes for an interesting and wildly satirical plot, yet it just misses everything that moves the story to where I care.
I didn't care about the characters.
The narrator didn't seem to have real feelings like chuck's other books.
The imagery wasn't fleshed out enough. I just couldn't see the big stages and crowds and superbowl half-time effects. Maybe I don't have a good imagination, but the book seemed very rushed.
It was as though the author had this wonderful idea, and then just wrote a very rough storyline in order to work the plot he wanted.
If you want something that's similar to this by Palahniuk, only much better, read Choke. I recommend it.
I give this book two stars for the wonderful plot and for the few moments in the book that actually made me laugh out loud. I know people say that all the time in reviews, but I'm being honest to god, I laughed out loud on a few parts.
At least it didn't take long to read. It's a short book with little chapters. If anything, read it for the plot and laughs, but don't expect a masterpeice of literary genius.
Again, if you want something that's wickedly funny, wonderfully satirical with social statements, and a wonderfully weaved plot, read Choke. It wins where this book fails.
Book Review: Cult Classis
Summary: 4 Stars
Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk
I am a devout Christian and did not believe in things like Christian cults. I always thought that there were just different sects such Catholicism and Presbyterianism. This opened my eyes on new groups of people and their cultures. I did not believe that these other cults existed. The idea was just too silly for me. The idea of such cults was something of sci-fi film stuff to me.
Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk is memoir of a sort. The main character is Tender Branson who is the last remaining person of a cult called the Creedish. This was not an evil cult or anything like it. The Creedish were an isolated peaceful Christian society. Their beliefs were to wait for the coming of their savior. Apparently one some day the Creedish church elders declared that their savior has come and it was their time to join him. This was the signal for all Creedish in the world to commit suicide. Although most of the Creedish killed themselves right away, the ones that were sent outside of the society did not hear the news right away. "You might not find out for years, but the moment you found out, you had to find a gun, drink some poison, drown, hang, slash, or jump" (229). The government following these reports managed to stop a few remaining survivors and put them into care. Here is where we begin the memoir of Tender Branson, soon to be the last Creedish survivor.
This book impressed me by the way it was written. It is not sugar coated with things made to feel you happy; it instead tells the real cold hard truth. "You realize that people take drugs because it's only real personal adventure left to them in their time-constrained, law-and-order, property-lined world" (151). This is thing that I found the most enjoyable in this book. It views life though its miseries and problems and how people get over them or not get over them. There are a lot of religious and sociological concepts in this book. "You've never seen a crucifix with a Jesus who wasn't almost naked. You've never seen a fat Jesus. Or a Jesus with body hair" (151). These are the parts of book that were the most enjoyable to me. You don't see these kinds of facts flying around conversations. This book is definitely an eye-opener and a must read.
Book Review: One, two, three... testing
Summary: 5 Stars
By Chuck Palahniuk, just like Fight Club, and with much the same theme: a man who is different from everybody else, who is placed outside society (in this case, a member of a religious sect), becomes famous and powerful by saying what people want to hear, only to give it all up in the end. To be more precise, there's a man on an airplane that is going to crash, and he is telling his story to the black box of the airplane, leaving titbits here and there (like on how to get blood off of ivory, or on the history of fake flowers), before the plane finally crashes into the ground on page 1. Seriously, as this book as its pages backwards: it starts with the last pagenumber (248) and ends with the first (1) while the story goes in both directions (forwards and backwards) at once. Confusing? Not at all. Let's do a short recap. The main character is a member of a religious sect that has sent him -together with many other members of the same creed- into the world to work as cleaners and maids - that sort of job. While he is happily cooking away and telling people how to eat lobster (one of the most shocking scenes I've read since American Psycho), the whole of the sect he is a member of commits suicide. All of them? Well, almost all of them. Those who don't kill themselves for one reason or another all end up dead sooner or later anyway, until the main character is the only one of that particular sect who's left. The only one? Well, perhaps not, as it looks as if a number of sect members didn't off themselves, but rather were offed by someone else. At the same time, the main character 'helps' people who are depressed in making the decision to kill themselves by pretending to have a helpline for people in need, and telling each and every one of those people to end their lives. Very tempting. Through this 'helpline' he meets a woman who knows what is going to happen way before it happens. Some kind of clairvoyant. And she, in a roundabout way, guides the main character towards his destiny. Which is ending up on a plane that is going to crash. How, what, why and when I'll leave up to you to find out, as I implore you, much the same as I would with Fight Club to read this novel. Please?Book Review: I Couldn't Put This Book Down!
Summary: 4 Stars
After having watched the movie "Fight Club", I decided to try reading something by author Chuck Palahniuk. "Survivor" is the book that I happened to pick, and I think it is an excellent book. Chuck Palahniuk's writing style reminds me of Kurt Vonnegut on a good day. His satire and style are sharp and insightful.The book "Survivor" tells the story of Tender Branson, a man who was raised in a bizarre cult. Palahniuk takes Branson, a man raised in a conservative fashion similar to the Amish (if the Amish were a death cult!) and juxtaposes his simple but strict upbringing against such new American "institutions" as pornography, suicide hotlines, and televangilist/mass media new-age gurus. Palahniuk leaves few oddities of American life untouched, incorporating 20th century products ranging from pre-fab homes that are brought to the homeowner on semis to incomprehensible self help books.
I found his satire of modern life to be both hilarious and full of thought-provoking ironies. While I noticed that some of the previous reviewers of this book took issue with Palahniuk's writing style, calling it "choppy" and saying that it jumped around too much, I completely disagree! I think that his writing style reflects the chaotic and lightening-paced world in which we live. His writing is spare and without the flowery descriptive prose that one might find, say, in a 19th century English novel, but that's what makes this book work! The writing style sets the tone and pace of this novel. A few reviewers say they found the book hard to follow, but I think that if you are capable of following a movie such as "Pulp Fiction", then you should be able to easily follow this book. Another reviewer had a problem with the highly improbable, schizophrenic plot. What a reader needs to understand going into this book is that Palahniuk is not striving for realism. He is using his plot as a device to make his revelations about society. This is a common practice among satirists.
I would advise anyone who likes to contemplate the strange and ironic to give this book a chance. I cannot wait to read more Palahniuk!
Book Review: You know, from the beginning, that his plane will crash.
Summary: 5 Stars
This type of writing is following the Vonnegut rule, which is to disclose all information early. Suspense created by lack of information is usually tedious and annoying, and not suspenseful at all.This book is amazing, simply because of this: at first, you have a man called Tender Branson, who is part of a cult that declared the Apocalypse ten years ago (like every good cult does when the law finally gets involved). So, as a member of this sect, he should had killed himself ten years ago, but he decides to keep living (even though he regularly thinks about getting it over with).
Suddenly, he is the last member of his sect that is still alive (the Survivor), and an agent turns him into a superstar overnight.
His name is put on many products supposed to be spiritually improving: for example, he releases a book of prayers (the title of the book escapes me) featuring prayers to deal with everyday problems, like: The Prayer To Find Good Parking Spaces; The Prayer To Help Quit Smoking; The Prayer To Hlp Fight Hair Loss; and it goes on. Some prayers are even shown to the reader, and we can't help but find them hilarious: to put it flatly, the prayers are corny as hell. Potboiler material (of course, to add to the satire, the prayer book still ends up selling millions of copies).
The entire book is Tender Branson recording his last words on the black box in a plane, which he plans to crash with himself in it. How he got himself in that position is nothing short of genius on the part of Palahniuk (which involoves a friend of Tender's, who can see the future. And strangely enough, it doesn't seem to amaze anyone in the book) and the general way the text is written is simple, direct and without useless sentences.
Also, just in case you're interested, the book starts at page 200-something, and ends at page one. In my opinion, it really goes well with the idea of the book.
I beg you all to read this book. (And please, everyone, stop comparing it to Fight Club. Who cares if it's better or worse? They're two entirely different books, and both amazing. Case closed.)