Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
"In Chuck Palahniuk's world, the ride is fast, often disturbing, and there is never any holding back." The New Orleans Times-Picayune
Review
"Eccentric, idiosyncratic, and often entertaining." The Onion
Review
"[A]n uneven collection....But Mr. Palahniuk's candor and humor can get him through just about anything; each piece here is studded with small but priceless grace notes from an exceptionally droll and sharp-eyed observer." Janet Maslin, The New York Times
Review
"Some of the pieces fall flat....Most of the time Palahniuk nails his subjects, even as and especially when they provide alternate angles." Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Review
"[Palahniuk] has formidable journalistic skills...an instinct for good stories; an ear for telling quotes; a clear, direct, sometimes staccato style; and a willingness to let the facts...speak for themselves, rather than passing judgment or showing how clever he can be." Dallas-Ft. Worth Star Telegram
Review
"Step into Palahniuk's dark worldview and watch for what crawls out. These stories are true to him and no one else." The Oregonian
Synopsis
Whether discussing his father's murder or encounters with cult figures like Marilyn Manson, each vignette in Palahniuk's first collection of nonfiction offers a unique glimpse into the life of a daring and original literary talent.
Synopsis
Chuck Palahniuk's world has always been, well, different from yours and mine. In his first collection of nonfiction, Chuck Palahniuk brings us into this world, and gives us a glimpse of what inspires his fiction.
At the Rock Creek Lodge Testicle Festival in Missoula, Montana, average people perform public sex acts on an outdoor stage. In a mansion once occupied by The Rolling Stones, Marilyn Manson reads his own Tarot cards and talks sweetly to his beautiful actress girlfriend. Across the country, men build their own full-size castles and rocketships that will send them into space. Palahniuk himself experiments with steroids, works on an assembly line by day and as a hospice volunteer by night, and experiences the brutal murder of his father by a white supremacist. With this new direction, Chuck Palahniuk has proven he can do anything.
Synopsis
A first nonfiction collection by the author of Fight Club documents encounters with Marilyn Manson and Juliette Lewis, the challenges faced by the author when Fight Club was made into a movie, the lives of submariners, the violent experiences of college wrestlers, and more. Reprint. 75,000 first printing.
About the Author
CHUCK PALAHNIUK’s six novels are the bestselling Diary, Choke, Lullaby, Fight Club—which was made into a film by director David Fincher—Survivor, and Invisible Monsters. He is also the author of the nonfiction profile of Portland, Fugitives and Refugees, published as part of the Crown Journeys series. He lives in the Pacific Northwest.
Table of Contents
People together: Testy festy ; Where meat comes from ; You are here ; Demolition ; My life as a dog ; Confessions in stone ; Frontiers ; The people can ; The lady -- Portraits: In her own words ; Why isn't he budging? ; Not chasing Amy ; Reading yourself ; Bodhisattvas ; Human error ; Dear Mr. Levin -- Personal: Escort ; Almost California ; The lip enhancer ; Monkey think, monkey do ; Brinksmanship ; Now I remember... ; Consolation prizes.