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Chuck Palahniuk

Personal Information

Born February 21, 1962 (64 years old)
Pasco, United States
Also known as: Charles Michael "Chuck" Palahniuk, Charles "Chuck" Palahniuk
30 books
4.0 (232)
1,534 readers

Description

Charles Michael "Chuck" Palahniuk is an American transgressional fiction novelist and freelance journalist. He is best known for the award-winning novel Fight Club, which was later made into a film directed by David Fincher. He lives near Vancouver, Washington.

Books

Newest First

Rant

4.1 (14)
60

"Like most people I didn't meet Rant Casey until after he was dead. That's how it works for most celebrities: After they croak, their circle of friends just explodes...."Rant is the mind-bending new novel from Chuck Palahniuk, the literary provocateur responsible for such books as the generation-defining classic Fight Club and the pedal-to-the-metal horrorfest Haunted. It takes the form of an oral history of one Buster "Rant" Casey, who may or may not be the most efficient serial killer of our time."What 'Typhoid Mary' Mallon was to typhoid, what Gaetan Dugas was to AIDS, and Liu Jian-lun was to SARS, Buster Casey would become for rabies."A high school rebel who always wins (and a childhood murderer?), Rant Casey escapes from his small hometown of Middleton for the big city. He becomes the leader of an urban demolition derby called Party Crashing. On appointed nights participants recognize one another by such designated car markings as "Just Married" toothpaste graffiti and then stalk and crash into each other. Rant Casey will die a spectacular highway death, after which his friends gather testimony needed to build an oral history of his short, violent life. Their collected anecdotes explore the possibility that his saliva caused a silent urban plague of rabies and that he found a way to escape the prison house of linear time...."The future you have, tomorrow, won't be the same future you had, yesterday."--Rant CaseyExpect hilarity, horror, and blazing insight into the desperate and surreal contemporary human condition as only Chuck Palahniuk can deliver it. He's the postmillennial Jonathan Swift, the visionary to watch to learn what's --uh-oh--coming next.

Stranger Than Fiction

3.0 (2)
21

From the bestselling author of Fight Club and Diary, a collection of essays and journalistic pieces that prove that real life has imagination beaten cold in the strangeness and wonder departmentsChuck Palahniuk's world has always been, well, different from yours and mine. The pieces that comprise Stranger Than Fiction, his first nonfiction collection, prove just how different, in ways both highly entertaining and deeply unsettling. Encounters with alternative culture heroes Marilyn Manson and Juliette Lewis; the peculiar wages of fame attendant on the big budget film production of the movie Fight Club; life as an assembly-line drive train installer by day, hospice volunteer driver by night; the really peculiar lives of submariners; the really violent world (and mangled ears) of college wrestlers; the underground world of iron-pumping anabolic steroid gobblers; the immensely upsetting circumstances of his father's murder and the trial of his killer--each essay or vignette offers a unique facet of existence as lived in and/or observed by one of our most flagrantly daring and original literary talents.

Invisible Monsters

4.6 (11)
96

Shannon McFarland, splendida top model, dalla vita ha avuto tutto quello che si può desiderare: l'amore, la carriera, un'amicizia sincera. La sua esistenza viene però sconvolta quando, mentre sta guidando la sua auto, una misteriosa fucilata la raggiunge al volto, lasciandola orrendamente sfigurata e incapace di parlare. E da affascinante centro di attrazione Shannon si ritrova a essere un mostro invisibile, evitato da tutti, tradita dal fidanzato Manus e dall'amica del cuore, Evie. Ma tutto cambia quando in ospedale Shannon fa conoscenza con la Principessa Brandy Alexander, cui manca ancora solo un intervento chirurgico per diventare una vera donna. Brandy non solo la trascinerà in un viaggio delirante con il proposito di aiutarla a vendicarsi di Evie e di Manus, ma soprattutto le spiegherà come reinventare se stessa. E le insegnerà che niente e nessuno è mai quello che sembra a prima vista...

Fight Club

4.0 (131)
837

A man who struggles with insomnia meets a colorful extremist, and they create a secret organization together. Chuck Palahniuk showed himself to be his generation’s most visionary satirist in this, his first book. Fight Club’s estranged narrator leaves his lackluster job when he comes under the thrall of Tyler Durden, an enigmatic young man who holds secret after-hours boxing matches in the basement of bars. There, two men fight "as long as they have to." This is a gloriously original work that exposes the darkness at the core of our modern world.

Lullaby

4.4 (11)
73

"Carl Streator is a solitary widower and fortyish newspaper reporter who is assigned to do a series of articles on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. In the course of this investigation, he discovers an ominous thread: the presence on the scenes of these deaths of the anthology Poems and Rhymes Around the World, opened to the page where there appears an African chant or "culling song." This song turns out to be lethal when spoken or even thought in anyone's direction - and once it lodges in Streator's brain, he finds himself becoming an involuntary serial killer. So he teams up with a real estate broker, one Helen Hoover Boyle, who specializes in selling haunted (or "distressed") houses (wonderfully high turnover), and who lost a child to the culling song years before. Together they set out on a cross-country odyssey. Their goal is to remove all copies of the book from libraries, lest this deadly verbal virus spread and wipe out human life. Accompanying them on their road trip are Helen's assistant, Mona Sabbat, an exquisitely earnest Wiccan, and her sardonic ecoterrorist boyfriend, Oyster, who is running a scam involving fake liability claims and business blackmail. Welcome to the new nuclear family."--BOOK JACKET.

Diary ..

0.0 (0)
0

The diary of Philip Henslowe, owner of the Rose Theatre in London during the 1590s, remains the most valuable source of information about the workings of the Elizabethan public theatres. Discussions of theatres and drama in the age of Shakespeare routinely refer to Henslowe, whose 'diary' touches on every aspect of the day-to-day operations of the Rose and the companies of actors, especially the Admiral's Men. The diary preserves the account-book of an Elizabethan theatre owner who was also the father-in-law of the leading actor, Edward Alleyn, and contains many miscellaneous and personal entries. The first edition of Henslowe's Diary, published in 1961, has long been out of print. It provides a thorough introduction to the manuscript, a full transcription of the document itself and several helpful appendices and indexes. For this second edition one of the original editors, R. A. Foakes, has added a new preface and reading list.

Fugitives and Refugees

0.0 (0)
0

The author takes readers on a walking tour of Portland, Oregon, revealing the city's quirky, cheap, and wild side as he visits unusual museums, offbeat annual festivals, scenes of ghostly hauntings, and strange local customs.

Damned

3.0 (1)
2

THEIR ONLY SHOT AT SALVATION WAS EACH OTHER... Police officer Ty McIntyre was cursed to find a girl no one had seen in twenty years. And it was his job to save her from the dark forces swirling around her. He found her locked away in a psychiatric hospital, where she thought she was losing her mind. Born a witch, Irina Cooper was able to read other people's thoughts. She had never known the source of her power, or her true heritage--until now. Irina could read Ty's true intentions and sense his deepest desires. But with a witch killer seeking to destroy the Cooper legacy, could these ill-fated souls embrace Irina's gift and end her family's curse? And beyond that, would they be able to save each other?

Make something up

0.0 (0)
55

"Stories you'll never forget--just try--from literature's favorite transgressive author. Representing work that spans several years, Make Something Up is a compilation of 21 stories and one novella (some previously published, some not) that will disturb and delight. The absurdity of both life and death are on full display; in "Zombies," the best and brightest of a high school prep school become tragically addicted to the latest drug craze: electric shocks from cardiac defibrillators. In "Knock, Knock," a son hopes to tell one last off-color joke to a father in his final moments, while in "Tunnel of Love," a massage therapist runs the curious practice of providing 'relief' to dying clients. And in "Excursion," fans will be thrilled to find to see a side of Tyler Durden never seen before in a precusor story to Fight Club. Funny, caustic, bizarre, poignant; these stories represent everything readers have come to love and expect from Chuck Palahniuk"--

Pygmy

3.8 (6)
36

The Manchurian Candidate meets South Park--Chuck Palahniuk's finest novel since the generation-defining Fight Club."Begins here first account of operative me, agent number 67 on arrival Midwestern American airport greater area. Flight . Date _. Priority mission top success to complete. Code name: Operation Havoc."Thus speaks Pygmy, one of a handful of young adults from a totalitarian state sent to the United States, disguised as exchange students, to live with typical American families and blend in, all the while planning an unspecified act of massive terrorism. Palahniuk depicts Midwestern life through the eyes of this thoroughly indoctrinated little killer, who hates us with a passion, in this cunning double-edged satire of an American xenophobia that might, in fact, be completely justified. For Pygmy and his fellow operatives are cooking up something big, something truly awful, that will bring this big dumb country and its fat dumb inhabitants to their knees.It's a comedy. And a romance.

Beautiful you

2.0 (1)
16

Penny Harrigan is a low-level associate in a big Manhattan law firm with an apartment in Queens and no love life at all. So it comes as a great shock when she finds herself invited to dinner by one C. Linus Maxwell, aka "Climax-Well," a software mega-billionaire and lover of the most gorgeous and accomplished women on earth. After dining at Manhattan's most exclusive restaurant, he whisks Penny off to a hotel suite in Paris, where he proceeds, notebook in hand, to bring her to previously undreamed-of heights of orgasmic pleasure for days on end. What's not to like? This: Penny discovers that she is a test subject for the final development of a line of sex toys to be marketed in a nationwide chain of boutiques called Beautiful You. So potent and effective are these devices that women by the millions line up outside the stores on opening day and then lock themselves in their room with them and stop coming out. Except for batteries. Maxwell's plan for erotically-enabled world domination must be stopped. But how?

The Invention of Sound

5.0 (1)
16

Gates Foster ha perso sua figlia, Lucy, diciassette anni fa. Da allora non ha mai smesso di cercarla. All'improvviso, un nuovo scioccante sviluppo gli fornisce il primo indizio su quella drammatica vicenda in oltre un decennio. Questo potrebbe significare che finalmente Foster è sul punto di scoprire la terribile verità sulla sua sparizione. Nel frattempo, Mitzi Ives si è guadagnata una grande fama tra i rumoristi, gli artisti che, foggiando suoni sempre più coinvolgenti, conferiscono ai film di Hollywood la loro autenticità. Usando le stesse tecniche segrete di suo padre prima di lei, è diventata un'esperta nel settore dei suoni che si accompagnano alla violenza e all'orrore, e ora è ricercatissima nel mondo degli studios proprio per questa sua straordinaria capacità di creare urla tanto agghiaccianti da sembrare reali. Com'è inevitabile, ben presto Foster e Ives si troveranno in rotta di collisione e le conseguenze di questo fatto rischieranno di mettere a nudo tutta la terribile violenza che si nasconde sotto la facciata scintillante e apparentemente perfetta di Hollywood. "L'invenzione del suono" non è solo una storia sopra le righe, ma è anche una sorprendente e inquietante riflessione sulla mercificazione della sofferenza e sul pericoloso potere dell'arte, e ci regala un Palahniuk all'apice dei suoi sinistri e affascinanti poteri di stregone letterario

Fight Club 2

2.8 (6)
64

"Fight Club 2 is available exclusively as a Graphic Novel! Some imaginary friends never go away. Ten years after starting Project Mayhem, he lives a mundane life. A kid, a wife. Pills to keep his destiny at bay. But it won't last long, the wife has seen to that. He's back where he started, but this go-round he's got more at stake than his own life. The time has arrived. Rize or Die. New York Tomes bestselling novelist Chuck Palahniuk and acclaimed artist Cameron Stewart have collaborated for one of the most highly anticipated comic book and literary events of 2015--the return of Tyler Durden. The first rule of Fight Club 2 might be not to talk about it, but Fight Club 2 is generating international headlines and will introduce a new generation of readers to Project Mayhem. Praise for the comics that comprise Fight Club 2: "At turns deeply poignant and very funny, Palahniuk's freakish fables capture a twisted zeitgeist and add an oddly inspirational and subversive voice to the contemporary canon ... In the post-9/11 present, a hyperactive, Internet-obsessed, war- and recession-weary America apparently needs Tyler again."--THE ATLANTIC "The book is fantastic, my highest recommendation ... Excellent work by Cameron Stewart and David Mack, and by our awesome friends at Dark Horse Comics."--Brian Michael Bendis "If Tyler Durden needed a resurgence, there's no time like the present for his return ... Fight Club 2 is a comic that taps back into everything great about the source material, and one that makes Tyler Durden's warm nihilistic embrace a welcome draw back into a familiar world of cynicism, violence, and anarchy ... "Tyler Lives," and I couldn't be happier by the prospect of more bedlam."--NEWSARAMA "Palahniuk is delivering a worthy sequel to his most beloved story."--THE NERDIST "Entertaining."--COMIC BOOK RESOURCES "Excellent."--THE BEAT "An amazing piece of work. You do not want to miss out on this."--COMICVINE "Perfect."--FORCES OF GEEK "We have a worthy sequel on our hands ... A must read."--COMICOSITY "Cameron Stewart truly outdoes himself on every level in this book."--BLOODY DISGUSTING "Clever and beautiful."--COMICS ALLIANCE"-- "Ten years after starting Project Mayhem, Sebastian lives a mundane life. A kid, a wife. Pills to keep his destiny at bay. But it won't last long, the wife has seen to that. He's back where he started, but this go-round he's got more at stake than his own life"--

Consider This..

5.0 (3)
15

"In this spellbinding blend of memoir and insight, bestselling author Chuck Palahniuk shares stories and generous advice on what makes writing powerful and what makes for powerful writing. With advice grounded in years of careful study and a keenly observed life, Palahniuk combines practical advice and concrete examples from beloved classics, his own books, and a "kitchen-table MFA" culled from an evolving circle of beloved authors and artists, with anecdotes, postcards from the road, and much more. Clear-eyed, sensitive, illuminating, and knowledgeable, Consider This is Palahniuk's love letter to stories and storytellers, booksellers and books themselves"--

Tell-All

2.5 (2)
18

Soaked, nay, marinated in the world of vintage Hollywood, Tell-All is a Sunset Boulevard–inflected homage to Old Hollywood when Bette Davis and Joan Crawford ruled the roost; a veritable Tourette’s syndrome of rat-tat-tat name-dropping, from the A-list to the Z-list; and a merciless send-up of Lillian Hellman’s habit of butchering the truth that will have Mary McCarthy cheering from the beyond. Our Thelma Ritter–ish narrator is Hazie Coogan, who for decades has tended to the outsized needs of Katherine “Miss Kathie” Kenton—veteran of multiple marriages, career comebacks, and cosmetic surgeries. But danger arrives with gentleman caller Webster Carlton Westward III, who worms his way into Miss Kathie’s heart (and boudoir). Hazie discovers that this bounder has already written a celebrity tell-all memoir foretelling Miss Kathie’s death in a forthcoming Lillian Hellman–penned musical extravaganza; as the body count mounts, Hazie must execute a plan to save Katherine Kenton for her fans—and for posterity. Tell-All is funny, subversive, and fascinatingly clever. It’s wild, it’s wicked, it’s bold-faced—it’s vintage Chuck.