Choke

The author of fight club, Chuck Palahniuk's novel Choke is my personal favorite. Its about a guy on his fourth step in his sexalocholic class and has to visit his mother who is out of her mind. This novel is very good in humor and makes you want if your personality was shaped my you own mom. I recomemend that anyone who has like the movie fight club will like this book. I also recomenend his other books as well.

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?

Something really cool happens in this book: you're not too sure where it's going, but it's someplace funny and ridiculous and you're almost there when....

But I won't give that away. You have to find out that out for yourself.

This is the first book I've read by Chuck Palahniuk and I really enjoyed it. The choppy style really suits the absurd story and tangling thought processes of the bizarre characters. If I had any problems with it, it would be that if Palahniuk could find something really disgusting and revolting to describe in any scene...he did. Whether it's bodily secretions or questionable hygiene or something else smelly or crusty, he made sure to point it out during the story.

If you can get past that--and very graphic descriptions of sex acts and elderly neglect--you'll have some really good laughs.

Dude is nuts! Completely original. Writing and story is a bit choppy, but by design. I'm going to read more of Chuck's stuff.

I had high hopes for this book. Most of my friends who read Palahniuk reccommended this one saying that it was one of their favorites. I've read about half a dozen Palahniuk books now and this one might be my least favorite. Reading the premise of the story on the back of the book it seemed promising. Don't get me wrong the book is still pretty good just not as good as his other work. Palahniuk has always had semi-erotic content in books but went a little overboard on this one (of course, it's sure to be worse in Snuff) and the entire book seemed to revolve around sex instead of him choking for money to pay the hospital bills for his mother's care. Overall, I give the book 4 stars and would give it 5 if only it would've been less sex and more focus on the main plot of the story. The ending of the book is pretty good which is preceeded by a couple of twists (classic Chuck) and was worth the read. I'd reccommend this book for anyone wanting to read something a little different but beware of excessive sexual content but don't let this be your first Palahniuk read - try Survivor or Fight Club first.