Survivor
Chuck Palahniuk
Read June 2008
Copy borrowed from Ramsey County Public Library, White Bear Lake branch
Essay written Friday, August 1st, 2008
I think the Ramsey County Library's copies of Fight Club are a myth. The movie is there, that I can testify, I've seen it. Yes, the old VHS, but the movie nevertheless. The novel however, remains to be seen.
Certain "counterculture" books like Fight Club, and nearly everything by Charles Bukowski and Iceburg Slim, exist within library systems with only a very short half-life. The readers of such books don't return them, willfully or accidentally, or they drop them in the tub, or burn them with cigarettes, or whatever. It's kind of predictable and sad.
This was not Fight Club, however. I've never read that one because, as I've mentioned, it's never in, never been in, is lost, is in transit, whatever. So I picked this up in my hasty moments of looking for lightweight fast fiction to fill my month of June before the Solstice and the big non-fiction summer experiment.
It was okay. Similar to the writings of Max Barry in its apocalyptic outlandishness, but takes itself too seriously, unlike Barry.
Spectacular cover though. The kind of cover art that makes you say, "That's gotta be the doing of Chip Kidd," before you know that it actually indeed is.
I wonder if Chip Kidd reads all of the books he designs covers for. He can't possibly, there are too many. The publisher must contact him and say: "Here's the title, here's the author, try to incorporate the imagery of airplanes and religion."
I very much liked the gimmick of numbering the pages backwards. Page 289 (or whatever) at the beginning, and 1 at the end. Not that clever really, but golly, I don't think I've ever seen that done before. How is it possible that nobody has ever done that before? Or rather, that I haven't heard of it? I'm sure it's been done, but I'm ignorant.
Back To Books
|
