Oh hey, are you interested in an audiobook you can listen to in your car without developing a paralyzing fear that a cult member and/or murderer is on your tail all the way home at night?
Then Survivor, by Chuck Palahniuk, is probably the worst possible choice for you.
Someone whose tastes I occasionally appreciate, and who begrudgingly uses the library even though he is convinced we are tracking him everytime he checks anything out, returned this book on CD awhile ago and told me he'd listened to the whole thing in one sitting. The other night, as I was searching for something to bring home with me, slim pickin's on the shelf meant it was basically a choice between Norah Roberts and Palahniuk, and when in doubt, I always try the darker, hipper option. I haven't slept much since.
Seriously, this book is terrifying. It opens with the narrator inexplicably telling his life story into the flight recorder of a plane he's hijacked, and if you can believe it, the story plummets downhill (downwind?) from there. He's one of the lone survivors of a Waco-esque cult. He's obsessed with death. He's routinely abused by the people he works for. He advertises his phone number as a crisis help hotline and advises the people who call to kill themselves. He quotes highschool home ec minutiae ad nauseam to the point where you will pick up seventeen different home remedies for blood in your carpet.
Wow, you're probably thinking, what a feel-good story.
And yet, I cannot stop listening. This book on CD is the audio equivalent of rubbernecking at a car crash (which, frankly, is not the best jumping off point for something you're going to be listening to while at the wheel of your car). Like all Palahniuk, there's something strangely hilarious about the morbid, morose, hopelessness of it all. This book isn't for the faint of heart, but if you feel like something wildly different and wildly disturbing, check it out. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll maybe feel queasy. It'll be better than Phantom of the Opera. (Not really, though.)
I don't recommend listening to it all at once, though. You will probably need frequent music breaks between tracks of insane confessional. I recommend this song as your first pause.
Cute as a bug's ear, that one.
I read Diary or Choke (can't remember which because I tried to block it out) and remember it having a similar effect. I thought "he wrote Fight Club, how bad can it be, right?". Since we share a brain we may also share the tendency to paranoia and being unfairly influenced by our surroundings in our subconscious. I usually have fucked up dreams but some of my recent ones (involving torture, terrorism, and people hiding bombs in my body and then shoving me in a piano) have been particularly nasty.
ReplyDeletei read one of his books on holiday in january, Rant, and it was sooooo messed up too, although less murderous. what a guy!
ReplyDeleteum, yep, intense scary dreamer over here. i feel like maybe we're mind twins, you and i, and if we ever meet again the universe will somehow explode.
We didn't explode in Newfieland ... I say we live on the edge and try it again, because that was damn fun (the city, not necessarily the conference). Are you also unhealthy like me? I had a nasty test at the hospital today which left me in pain and also helped to confirm that I have the insides of a kid (my organs seem to be smaller than they should for an adult). Maybe I should be sending you a message about things like this and not sharing with all your blog friends.
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