Chuck Palahniuk
On the 21st of
February 1962, in the city of Pasco, Washington, the world stood still for a
baby boy who would soon wield the pen that would write the stories about the
darker side of human nature.
Chuck Palahniuk is a distinguished American novelist and
freelance journalist. Palahniuk is one of the most notable and successful
writers in the transgressive fiction genre. Palahniuk’s overall writing style
focuses on characters that have become rebellious and anti-social mainly due to
the high demands of the prevailing culture and society. He was
practically raised by his grandparents
after his parents separated and divorced. A career in writing was soon
underway as Palahniuk graduated with a Journalism degree from University of
Oregon on 1986.
Chuck Palahniuk
started writing in his mid thirties and his first published work was a short
story entitled “Negative Reinforcement” in 1990. At the same time, he also
wrote his first novel, “If You Lived Here, You’d be Home Already” but this was
never published. His next attempt was “Invisible Monsters” which was also
rejected by agents because its tone was not pleasant. His breakthrough came
with his next title, Fight Club, which got him a deal with a major publisher. At this time, he was
able to get an agent, Edward Hibbert, and Fight Club was accepted for a movie
deal.
Fight Club
became the gateway to Palahniuk’s fame. In 1999, two titles, Survivor and Invisible Monsters, which
had been re-written, were both published.
Despite his great
success as a writer, Chuck had a tumultuous and dramatic childhood and life in
general which has been a great source of inspiration in the books he has
written so successfully. One event relates to his grandparents on his father’s side whom he never
met. It has been said that his grandfather shot his grandmother to death and
then killed himself after he could not find his three-year-old son (Chuck’s
father) who was hiding under the bed. His book Lullaby was written after the
untimely death of his father who was murdered in 1999.
Protagonist
Tender Branson in Survivor, by Chuck
Palahniuk, is a 33-year old suicide cult member on a Boeing 747 that crashes.
He has dreams that make his reputation with the Creedish Death Cult grow. His
girlfriend, Fertility Hollis, shares his gift of prophecy. He becomes a murder
suspect when his agent dies suddenly at a Super Bowl game.
Tender does not seem
happy with what his life used to be. He feels he missed out on the good life.
He records his story into the "black box" as the plane nosedives into
the Australian outback. He is not a murderer and has gotten all the passengers
but himself off the plane before the dreadful moment. He calls himself stupid
for not understanding the prediction that his girlfriend gave him
He is
a cynic, believing that life is a waste, that people like to have problems,
that everyone wants to die.
Setting
The book Survivor by
Chuck Palahniuk starts off in plane, namely Flight 2039. However as the book
goes on, different locations in the USA are shown such as New York, Louisiana
and Nebraska. All the events in the book take place in the late 1990's.
Quotes
- "People don't want their lives fixed. Nobody wants their problems solved. Their dramas. Their distractions. Their stories resolved. Their messes cleaned up. Because what would they have left? Just the big scary unknown."
- You have a choice. Live or die.
- "The only difference between a suicide and a martyrdom is press coverage."
- "A girl calls and asks, 'Does it hurt very much to die?'
Every breath is a choice.Every minute is a choice.Every time you don't throw yourself down the stairs, that's a choice. Every time you don't crash your car, you re-enlist.Well, sweetheart, I tell her, yes, but it hurts a lot more to keep living."
Personal Analysis
I was quite
surprised, at first, to discover that the numbering of the pages begins at the
end (page 289) and ends on page 1. The chapters are also back to front,
probably representing the fact that the story begins at the end. However, it
wasn't off-putting at all, and I quite liked the way that I could constantly
tell how many pages I had left until the end. The chapters are a great length -
usually no more than 5 or 6 pages - which makes it perfect for putting down and
picking up again. And the fact that the story is so memorable means that it is
hard to forget what had happened previously.
liked this
book a lot. It is very different from the type of fiction I would usually
choose, but that made it refreshing, and I will most certainly be looking out
for other books by the same author. I would recommend that people go into it
with an open mind and see where it takes them - I have my opinion of what it
all means, but it is up to the individual to make up their own minds. It
probably won't sound like most people's idea of a good read, but it actually is
suprisingly readable. Definitely recommended.