Chuck Palahniuk: Haunted (2006, VINTAGE (RAND))
Paperback, 432 pages
Published May 4, 2006 by VINTAGE (RAND).
Still not completely sure how I feel about Chuck Palahniuk and his writing. But I can say that it was an interesting time and I finished it so yeah, there's that.
I think I will save my comments for later...
This is the first time I've read Palahniuk and probably the last time. Though at first I was intrigued by the modern casting of Bocaccio's Decameron in a gruesome Creepshow-like setting, the thrill (and gimmick) quickly wore off. The prose felt rushed and ill-considered, the literary allusions devolved into trite little illusions of deeper meaning, and eventually, the shock value of each story got tiresome. I was finished with the book after about three quarters of my way through it. Perhaps there are better examples by this author, I'll allow for that based on the movie version of Fight Club. There were occasional brush strokes of narrative that alluded to a more masterful author but these moments were quickly eclipsed by superficial parlor tricks and vague, lazy storytelling.
Meh, This book had a good premise, and started off well, if a bit over the top, but then it just began to fall apart. The stories got less interesting, and more disjointed until I gave up on chapter 16 or so. It seemed like Chuck got bored with the story and just phoned the last half in.
