Started this one and couldn't get into it, which is a shame. His books used to really hook easily. I really liked CP's first few books, but I feel that he really lost it later on. Maybe will try again someday, but not after I finish reading all Douglas Coupland, William Gibson, and selected Philip K. Dick titles. ( )

It took me a while to get into the narrative style--the whole book is told in a series of first-person accounts and anecdotes--none of which are the main character, Rant. As always, a lot of fun, imaginative ideas from Chuck. The end was a bit of a stretch, though. ( )

WTF? I think this was my first Chuck book. I'm debating whether or not it will be my last. Interesting take on the serial killer genre for sure, this story was such a mishmash of things. For a while I felt like I was dumped right in the middle of an encyclopedia--yammering on and on about rabies, coin collecting, demolition derby (which are all key elements to the story but didn't need to be beat to death). Thank God I listened to this on CD as the varied voice artists really kept me engaged in the story. The writing was unbelievably sharp mechanics-wise. A+ on the wow factor with his very descriptive voice; but the story was too disjointed. I did like the differing viewpoints each of the characters brought to the table about the same person or incident. But, if you are wanting a smooth flowing story that makes sense all along the way, this may not be the book for you. Sometimes things don't make sense until many CD's later --which translates to many, many pages later. For those of you having trouble with this one, the unabridged CD may be just the thing to help you through. Kudos to all the readers--they did a super job.

Okay. I've decided I'm going to try Chuck again. Maybe this wasn't the right story for me at this time to appreciate his interesting style. I don't mind the odd and quirky--and I'm not squeamish--in fact, I love when a creative person challenges and pushes boundaries. This just rang the boring bell for me too early in and I couldn't get re-engaged. I'm giving him 2 1/2 stars for the way he painted his word pictures. Vivid, sharp and in your face. But, again, the story? I wish I would have contracted rabies before I listened to it--it would probably have been much more interesting had I been mad, drooling and a bit bitey. ( )

The fact that Chuck Palahniuk has quite a sick fantasy was revealed in 'Fight Club' erkennen. 'Rant' isn't any less disturbing and passages of it are breathtakingly well written, but the longer it goes on the more tension and suspense is lost. Still the different and differentiated points of view that the insinuatedly oral accounts the story is made up of make it a fascinating read. ( )

I'm listening to it on audio and so far so good. It's wierd but chuck palahniuk always is. He's an acquired taste I suppose. ( )

First review: for those, who (like me) have previously followed Palahniuk's work with great interest and have read several of his other books. This one is a winner. It does use the anagnoresis formula that he refined in his early novels, but it does so better than ever. It also involves the praeternatural dynamics of stories like Lullaby and Diary, but this time the approach is science-fictional rather than fantasy-occultist. The "oral history" conceit plays to Palahniuk's strengths of idiosyncratic voices, unreliable narration, and epigrammatic punch. If you've read and enjoyed other Palahniuk books, you know you don't want me to tell you the plot, but the key themes include epidemiology, perception of time, control in urban societies, and messianic mythopoeia.

Second review: for the uninitiated. This book will take you for a wild ride. If you want a nice linear plot development where each piece immediately makes sense by being added to the ones that have come before, don't bother. In fact, the author exhibits the entire story on page four, in a sort of one-paragraph Shakespearean prologue replying to the question of how the speaker got such a good deal on an airplane ticket. But don't get too comfortable in the first hundred pages, because when you leave the small-town setting, you won't be in the world you had likely imagined. And you'll have no idea what's really going on until the last 20 pages out of over 300. What you will have is more sardonic humor, gutwrenching pathos, and profound ideas than you can shake a stick at. If you can take that sort of bewilderment, then by all means you should.

Third review: for my brother and sister Magicians. You never thought the Secret Chiefs could be like this! I'll see your Mahatma and raise him a Phil Dick and two David Cronenbergs. "Sun and moon give time the form of day and night. Sushumna is the eater of time. This is declared to be a secret." (Hatha Yoga Pradipika 4.17)

I might give something away here in terms of story. You have been warned.

I did not particularly care for this book. And yet, I keep coming back to it.
The story begins in a certain fashion, and goes pretty strong in that direction for about half the book. Then, the book turns a corner. This happens somewhat sloppily, and left me with the feeling that the author had no idea where to take the first story he was writing. He ran out of consistent plot, so he just threw the mother of all Monkey Wrenches into it, made it divert into a new field entirely.
He made it bad science fiction.
Despite this, a single pearl can be found here.
In all Science Fiction, at some point the author must explain to us a few things about the world he is writing. He has to explain to us how it differs from our world, normally in some piece of technology that allows for some greater plot function.
Here, Palahniuk handles that bit, which is normally the absolute worst part of any science fiction novel, with an incredible mastery. The trick was to introduce the bit of tech through the back story of a certain character.
As a stand alone short story, I would be applauding it till days end.
Here, it was simply the only note worthy part of a longer book I can only vaguely remember. ( )

I know I've said in the past that I was not going to read any more Palahniuk books because they were, frankly, just too weird and a bit disappointing. But this one promised a serial killer, so I fell for it and bought "Rant". It wasn't bad, but the whole "Party Crashers"-time travelling suplot left me cold. For Palahniuk fans only. ( )

I will always remember this oddly structured book: vivid and livid!
And I got a signed copy at the author reading. Chuck Palahnuik is the best of the best live!

"When Shot said "rabies', I thought he'd said "babies". The results came back negative, thank God, but I think I asked for the wrong test." p.205 ( )

Palahniuk's books are usually difficult for me to put down. Unfortunately "Rant" was not. I could not even get past the 10th chapter. ( )

All of Chuck's books are crazy and fresh and stimulating to read. I love all of his writing. ( )

Rant and Diary best of his books so far. I love this guy. ( )

A fun, strange, imaginative wholly enjoyable science fictionish black comedy that becomes stranger and more surreal as you go along and the deeper levels of Palahniuk's concept are revealed. There are some extremely memorable characters here and I fairly raced though this. The ending, while entirely fitting, did not quite live up to the quality of the rest of the book, but it wasn't the sort of drop off that diminishes enjoyment. Very cool stuff. ( )

I liked this book, but to describe what it is about would be impossible. It is about family, car crashes, rabies, time travel . . . and so much more. An interesting read. ( )

http://12frogs.com/reading/reviews/20... ( )

The style of this book confused me on my first attempt, but when I tried to read it again sometime later it made much more sense. The Oral Biography concept was a bit difficult to grasp for me, but at that point I'd only ever read conventional books with one narrator. Once you've got your head around it the storyline is good and it is intriguing and goes together well at the end. A very good book once you've got your head around the oral biography concept. ( )

It's probably unfair for me to rate this book seeing as how I didn't finish it, but it's because I couldn't finish it that I gave it such a low score. A little bit too much shock for my taste. ( )

Um, WOW. How is it possible that he just keeps getting better and better and more incredibly fucking AWESOME?

This was a slow starter. For most of the time I was reading it, I'd pick it up and read a bit here and there, then put it down and not read any more for days. But once it gets going, it really gets going.

When he first started adding supernatural elements to his stories (Lullaby? I think was the first, but Diary had some, too, IIRC), I was less than thrilled. Don't get me wrong, I love both those books, but I liked the fact that his earlier books were bizarre and surreal without being sci-fi/fantasy/supernatural. I hesitate to use the word realistic in relation to them, but in that respect, yes, realistic.

It seemed at first as if Rant was going to have some supernatural stuff as well, but actually it was...time travel! Oh, Chuck! Palahniuk + cyberpunk + time travel = AWESOME. No doubt.

At first I just thought Rant went back in time and became Chester, but then Chuck went and added Green into the mix. I just sat reading the last quarter or third of the book with my mind just blown as everything came together. I'd forgotten how good he is at that.

And the cyberpunk! I love how it's so casually introduced. And I love how...ordinary, how same the world is otherwise. Especially Middleton. It's some nowhere town that could be now or could be twenty, thirty years ago, but it's the future. They've got jacks in their heads. (That's what I love about cyberpunk in general, how it can be about the ordinariness of the technology and how so little of the rest of the world is changed.)

Man, I don't even have anything much coherent to say about this right now, but I'm going to be thinking about it for ages. I've been paging back through it a little, finding things that make sense now after the reveal. Chester's speech when Rant leaves town. The man showing up and saying he was Rant's real father and Rant's grandma freaking out and calling him the devil. And all the references to Rant starting Party Crashing...well, it wasn't Rant, but Green is, what, a different Rant who went back in time.

Also I loved this reference to his other works:

Smaller examples of liminoid spaces include religious pilgrimages, "road trip" vacations, fight clubs, and Party Crashing events.

I like all his books so much, it's hard to rank them, but I think this is up there in the top three. ( )

Rabies, demolition style races, graphic sex and time travel are all included in Palahniuk's Rant. This novel is not written in the traditional way, but is a collection of interviews from the people involved, so you get many different perceptions of the same event. I'll admit it was an awkward read, but it was a good read. I would have preferred Palahniuk not stray from his writing style, but this was a decent endeavor on something new and fresh. Great character development, as always. ( )

Graphic and nauseating in spots, sexually explicit in others, and weird through and through, this book is definitely not for the squeamish, the nice-story and happy-ending seekers, and don’t even bother picking this book up if you aren’t willing to fulling suspend logic for the duration. But if you are the type of person who would hide out at the freak show until after closing time, just to see what might crawl out of the cages, this book is for you.

Click for my full review: http://thekoolaidmom.wordpress.com/20... ( )

Ever since Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk has been one of my favourite writers, and his latest novel, Rant, was mental as ever.

Palahniuk has an unstoppable imagination. He takes recognisable themes, then runs off with them, seducing and corrupting them like a Machiavellian cad. He's my favourite kind of speculative fiction writer, as he's actually writing about tomorrow. Not a year from now or ten or a hundred years from now, but as close to now as you can get... except it's a now where everything that's fucked-up about the world has been turned up to eleven. He also has a rabid appetite for research, his novels are always crammed with fascinating information and ideas. Much of this is unbelievable fact, mixed in among the writer's perverse imaginings. Needless to say, you're never entirely sure whether he's spilling astonishing truths or pulling your pudding. And you never know where he's taking you, so a story that starts out down one path can often end up in another world entirely.

Read the full review at my blog. ( )

Another bizarre work by the one and only Chuck Palahniuk. This time in the form of an oral biography of the life of one Buster "Rant" Casey as accounted by the people around him after his death in a spectacular highway crash but not before first becoming the numero uno disease transmitter of all time. We are taken on a ride where the world has become a twisted place separated into daytimers and nighttimers, of party crashers (ppl who crash their cars on other participants' cars for the fun of it), and lastly to a mind-bending out-of-this-world future where going back in time is believably possible.

A novel that is still and so Chuck Palahniuk.. ( )

Rant may be the most disjoint and uncertain of Chuck Palahniuk's novels with respect to the fact that it feels like it has two distinct trajectories: one that works rather well and one that doesn't quite hit the mark.

The novel opens by introducing the reader to its conceit as an "oral history," an interesting approach that goes somewhat counter to Palahniuk's preferred first-person style: this time, we're most concerned about the one "I" we are not privy to. The trick works, to a certain degree, by allowing Palahniuk to delay certain revelations later on, and to intersperse a lengthier narrative with short digressions -- all of which ruins the mood just a little, but one gets used to the style.

What truly inhibits the novel is that the first half feels far too unfocused, as if it is truly nothing more than the coming-of-age of a natural-born hellraiser. The truth, revealed in the novel's fast-paced, harrowing second half is about as far from this as you can imagine, but it isn't until the very end that everything comes together and it all makes sense (kind of), but by then, it may be too far gone.

The salvation of the book IS that second half, which is gloriously over-the-top and bizarre in a surprisingly convincing and coherent way. Its craziness feels totally at home, unlike the random grotesqueness of the first half, much of which feels placed there by Palahniuk simply because he could.

In the end, the whole thing does end up making quite an impact and is, almost despite itself, a good novel. You just need to work your way through half of it to realize it.

http://jmgold.blogspot.com/2008/05/ra... ( )

Rabies, party crashing, incest via time travel, and the oral history style make this a favorite of the Palahniuk books. Highly recommended for anyone who has ever felt like a misfit lost in an endless, ordinary world. ( )