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Chuck Palahniuk is a somewhat confrontational writer. Not in the somewhat grotesque, if occasionally insightful sense of Irvine Welsh, but in the truly jaw-dropped, sphincter clenching, stomach-turning sense of a deadly car wreck involving a vehicle of clowns. You don’t want to look, but somewhere in between the tragedy and humour, you find you can’t pull away. Haunted is a series of short stories tied together with an overarching plot. A collection of writers, known only by their life-determined pseudonyms, decide to attend a writer’s camp under the promise of uninterrupted creativity and soul-searching opportunity. Of course, they get more than they bargained for in the process. Any more, and I’ll ruin the major surprises, so I’ll leave it by saying their own personal journey is one more of the self-destructive nature of humanity, punctuated by personal anecdotes, than one of enlightenment and self-discovery. The stories are highly creative , if frequently graphic and confronting. This isn’t a book for your grandmother, at least not unless she likes up-close and personal descriptions of sexual fetishes, masturbation, cannibalism, statutory rape (with a twist), and other fairly taboo subjects. One can’t help but feel that Palahniuk’s main intention for the novel was to collate his most nauseating short stories into the shock-jock novel to end all novels. Despite that, it’s good. Not as good as some of the other stuff he’s written, but it’s unique. And, while most of the stories are probably best described as dressed up urban legends with a veneer of gross-out, some of the stories are fairly thought-provoking. And, all come with a twist. I enjoyed it. The graphic nature of the novel is probably not suitable for all (definitely not suitable for kids), but if you can get over that, Palahniuk’s got some serious creativity, and his writing chops are well honed. Worth reading, but only if you’re interested in this sort of stuff or are looking for something a few miles off centre. |
Recommended? "yes"