My twentysomething nephews & nieces rant & rave about Chuck Palahniuk all the time so I decided to finally give one of his books a chance. After reading Rant with it's theme of youthful rebellion I now understand his appeal. A bit to much "out there" for me , but overall fairly entertaining stuff. ( )

After reading Fight Club, which blew me away due to the innovate approach, I decided to read others, this one included. The authors attempt at telling the story via what he calls an oral biography is in my opinion, lame. Far too much back story via anecdotes from those who knew or were associated with the character, it meanders continually without continuity. You find yourself asking, when will the story begin? Rather than trudge through the incongruity, I decided to let sleeping dogs lie. ( )

3.5/5 ( )

I've read almost everything to come from the scattered and twisted mind of Chuck and in the beginning this book seemed to hold the freak flag as high as the rest. The banner slid down the flagpole as the book moved along, but still the icon of brutality and the smile of shame could still be seen. The book seems to run in three seperate parts, one when the main character, Rant, is a child and the depraved and deadly things he gets into. The next part is when Rant moves to the city and begins his life in the world of Party Crashing (not to be misconstrued with showing up at stranger's house, oh no, that would not be weird enough for Chuck to write about, this is a sub-culture of people who drive around at night looking to hit each other with their cars). Lastly, spawning from the metallic mayhem of Party Crashing, comes the third section dealing with time travel and the inevitability of fate and destiny. Personally i felt the beginning was the strongest section and definitely the most shocking in terms of what we are used to from Chuck, after that the book is still interesting, but kind of peters out by the time the last empty white page is turned. I would still recommend reading it, but don't expect to be moved (or visibly shaken) as many were by his last book, Haunted. ( )

goofy