(I have an ARC copy of this book in which each story end with a black QED halmos box. I hope they keep that with the actual publication. It makes me think proof done with the end of each story.)
I haven’t read Chuck Palahniuk in maybe ten years. I had the period in my twenties where I read Fight Club and Lullaby and Survivor, but then Palahniuk’s American nihilism gets to be so unremittingly dour. It almost feels like a performance, a humourless performance. At least there’s dark humour with Houellebecq, you know. Palahniuk everything just feels so heavy, weight pressing everything into a polluted and stinking earth. It’s demoralizing. I started out, after my decade break from Palahniuk, really engaged in the stories. Somewhere around page 100, I started to lag. By page 200, I was despairing. By page 300, I was ready to give up, even with only eighteen pages left to go. I got to the end though, but why?
There are a lot of stories in Make Something Up. We have callbacks to Tyler and Fight Club in a few stories. Others are on their own. Thematically, people are horrible doing horrible things to other horrible people. (Do you ever wonder if Chuck Palahniuk is this really happy friendly guy because he puts all of his anger and disappointment into his books, leaving only sunshine and rainbows in his personality? Or is he as sour and disillusioned as his characters, sucking whatever happiness you have in you out so he can feed on it and leave you a desiccated carcass with no hope at happiness ever again? These are the questions I had while reading.) The under-title of the book is Stories You Can’t Unread but with such similar styles and purposes, they all run in together until I can’t rightly recall at least half of the twenty six or so stories. They are all just so similar and so unhappy. I wish these people could have at least a little lift or humour or even a wry smile instead of constant disappointment.
I am now reading a book about sheep solving a mystery. I think I have dangerously veered to the other extreme.
I still like Fight Club though.
Make Something Up by Chuck Palahniuk went on sale May 26, 2015.
I received a copy free from Goodreads in exchange for an honest review.