Choke
£3.02
Brave, extreme, funny and entertaining!- What more do you want?! - Brave, extreme, funny and entertaining!- What more do you want?!(NOT FOR- prudes, narrow-mindedness, and people who don t enjoy clever twists and well executed character development)This and Fight Club are his best works.
My all-time favourite - Choke is cult author Chuck Palahniuk s fourth novel, and there s a strong case for stating that it s also his best. Never one to shy away from dealing with society s less pleasant afflictions, Palahniuk tells the story of self-confessed sexaholic Victor Mancini, who, in an effort to cover the costs of his ailing mother s medical bills, cons diners into making donations by pretending to choke on a piece of food. The rationale being that the person responsible for saving Mancini feels indebted to him for making their own life seem meaningful. By cataloguing Mancini s despicable behaviour, Palahniuk makes short work of a plethora of complex, seemingly contradictory and unrelated issues, revealing the protagonist to be both a victim of his erratic mother s parenting techniques and of the inherently selfish motivations at the heart of modern American society. So far, so cynical. Thankfully, Mancini is possessed of other, more redeeming qualities which eventually enable him to break the mould, and in this respect Choke is an inspiring, inspirational novel. Furthermore, in dealing with traditionally delicate topics such as mental illness and addiction, Palahniuk succeeds by injecting a healthy dose of pathos and humour into his writing, resulting in one of the funniest and thought-provoking books to have emerged in recent years. Choke is certainly not for everyone - the language is spectacularly simple, occasionally profane and littered with graphic depictions of lewd sexual antics, while the dialogue is markedly dude -heavy. For these reasons, it will appeal primarily to men of a certain age and demographic. Similarly, his use of metaphor could only be missed by the most naïve of observers: Mancini s sex-addicted best friend Denny starts collecting rocks in an attempt to achieve sobriety , and ends up building something much bigger than he ever anticipated. But therein lies the beauty and, indeed, the artistry of Palahniuk s work, and of Choke in particular. By delivering his ideas in bite-size chunks, he gets the reader thinking on much grander scale and before you know it you ll be pondering Michel Foucault s theories on the connection between knowledge and power without even realising. Top stuff. Matt Pucci
silly but amusing - Choke is not as hard edged poitically or sociologically as say fight club, and it does wander off into a kind of new-agey ending, but nonetheless it s still and enjoyabale read and has many laughs within it. It s a bit on the light side though.
One Of My Favourite Books Ever! - i fell in love with chuck s style of writing when i was about 14 and picked up a copy of fight club because i loved the film and wanted to see how the book compared. since then, i ve been completely hooked on his work but i d have to say that choke is my favourite of his novels so far. as some of the other reviewers have said, it s not for people with weak stomachs or children but i d also like to add that it s not for people without a fair bit of imagination. a chuck palahniuk novel is always a massive extension of reality and that s what i love about them. the humour is sick, dark and surreal and nothing is ever what it seems to be. it s not something i d recommend to everyone but if you re looking for something with plenty of twists and are willing to see the funny side in the weird and wonderful then this is the book for you.
Brilliant - Strange, but brilliant and very, very funny. So glad I read it.5/5