( 15 reviews )
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Posted: Jun 12 2009
Being a fan of the movie, "Fight Club", I decided to check out some of Palahniuk's other work. I didn't want to start with the, "Fight Club" book because I've already seen the movie and wanted to start with something new. So I picked this one. The reason being, I was interested in the person behind the movie phenomenon. At first, I was pretty happy. "Stranger Than Fiction" reads like the narrator talks in "Fight Club". This was pleasing at first because the first couple of stories really piqued my interest, not just for the narration, but because they were stories that I truly enjoyed. Palahniuk's insight in the first "story" was spot on, I could relate to it - and the insight in regard to writer's conferences I could relate to, as I'm a writer myself but have never even attempted to publish one of the many novels I've penned although that's soon to change. Further, the story about the combine derby sounded like fun to me and was well described. Monkey See, Monkey Do was pretty scary, but things I've already assumed were true. Unfortunately, the rest was rather dull. While I do find it interesting that people have built their own castles from scratch, or are attempting launching themselves into space, it just wasn't that much fun to read about here. Furthermore, some of these stories just did not interest me at all. I'm now convinced that Juliette Lewis is a complete idiot, even though I've never paid much attention to her in the past. Hearing her ramblings peppered with a series of questions that she asks people made me want to reach out and smack her, and the story of Marilyn Manson using Tarot cards just didn't do it for me. I could have appreciated them some what had they been written from Palahniuk's perspective - how he felt or what he got out of conversing with these people. But it isn't, these "portraits" as they're called in the book completely leave Palahniuk out of the picture, and might as well have been written by the celebrities in question, in a room by themselves. This didn't shed much light on Chuck for me. Last but not least, I was a bit dissatisfied that Palahniuk's personal experiences and insight later in the book is not really stranger than fiction. As a matter of fact, he talks about things that most of us already realize and understand, but just don't think about that often. The creative element is missing here (which is fine in a non-fiction work) but profound experiences do not take the place of the creative writing. What we're left with is a lot of boring reading with some parts here and there that really talk to us, and being that such a wide range of topics are covered, there is bound to be something you can really appreciate about this work. Having said that, most of it will likely leave most people bored. I tried to think of a better word other than, "boring" but none are more appropriate. However, the good parts were good enough to have me plow through the book in less than 2 days, looking forward to the next part I could relate to. If you're just starting off with Palahniuk, I'd take my chances with a different work. If you've read his other stuff and like him, then you won't be completely disappointed here if you're a fan already. I score it 3 out of 5.
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Posted: Mar 16 2009
Chuck is one of my three favorite authors, but this book is super dated and a bit trite. It has it's moments and is a fast read,but is the least of all his books. Reading it in 2009, his interviews with Juliette Lewis and, especially, Marilyn Manson are passe and ridiuculous. Repeated comments by him and others that they don't watch television are smug and supercilious. Yet it has some quick entertainment value and fascination. I can never quite figure out Chuck's pov. For example, his interview with Juliette Lewis seems to be a completely positive puff piece about a personal friend, but then he seems to let her hang herself by simply quoting truly absurd Scientology comment she makes. Interviews with Marilyn Manson and the Rocket Guy are just so out of date, it is worthless to read unless you want to relive the stupid spectacle, both pro and con, of Marilyn Manson's career. I wish I could recall the program which featured a MM imitator going house to house trying to "shock" people. it was dead on.
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Posted: Jan 8 2009
The book came in a timely fashion and was in great ocndition. I had no issues with the seller at all.
