Chuck Palahniuk :: Survivor

“The first rule about fight club is you don’t talk about fight club. The second rule about fight club is you don’t talk about fight club.” If ROCKET SOUP had existed six months ago, I would have posted a short review of Chuck Palahniuk’s first novel, “Fight Club.” The just of this short review would have been that, while being a fantastic first work by an up and coming author, “Fight Club” was a slight bit disappointing; it was too similar to its silver screen adaptation. (Although, of course, by no fault of its own.) Not having a silver screen adaptation, Chuck Palahniuk’s second novel, “Survivor,” immediately sidesteps this criticism; although I think that it goes much further than that. “Survivor” is the tale of Tender Branson, last surviving member of the so-called Creedish Death Cult, ultra-sensationalized media messiah, and last passenger of flight 2039. (The tale is a first hand account, read into the flight recorder as flight 2039 makes its terminal journey to crash into the Australian outback.) A satire of modern American life, “Survivor” maintains the dark ambiance of Palahniuk’s earlier work. The scope of the story seems to grow exponentially as the plot twists and turns at break-neck speed; don’t get too comfortable, or your head will be spinning next chapter. And, as with “Fight Club,” Palahniuk has littered “Survivor” with examples of his prowess to write succinct yet quite memorable passages. One of my favorites, taken from “Survivor:”

“And maybe this is just a trick of the light, but I’ve eaten almost the whole lobster before I notice the heart beat.”

All things told, “Survivor” has to be one of the better novels that I’ve read in the past few years. I can’t recommend it to everybody, strong themes of suicide and exploitation may make it uneasy for the faint of heart, but if you enjoyed “Fight Club,” and are looking for a good, quick, read, I wouldn’t hesitate to pick up a copy.

More to come soon.