Adventure 3: Make something up stories you can’t unread, Chuck Palahniuk

My third week of reading introduced me to Chuck Palahniuk’s short stories, and reiterated why he’s the one of the most captivating storytellers out there. ‘Make something up…’ was one of the books I could literally not put down. Witty, dark and nihilist, the Fight Club’s author definitely knows how to captivate his audience.

There is no broad, overarching theme to this collection, which makes writing a plot summary for this book a little difficult. Some of the memorable stories involve the one on rave parties involving a clown, a date gone horribly wrong, and an the story of a young boy who fakes his sexuality to get into a ‘correctional’ facility, only to find that it is not what he imagined it to be. Palahniuk also addresses drug abuse, animal abuse (in more ways than you can perhaps imagine.), the crazy job of marketing — you name it. There is sure to be a surprise in everyone of these stories, and of course, the internal cringes you get accustomed to while reading ‘Make Something Up…’ (or just any of Palahniuk’s work, to be fair.)

If you want to experience a raw, cold, and unabridged version of human feelings, and the horrors we are subject to or subject ourselves to in pursuit of happiness or pleasure, this is it. There were multiple times during the book where I cringed, and the vivid pictorial depiction of the stories do nothing to work up your appetite either. But that being the whole point of these stories made me more eager to turn to the next one. And Palahniuk doesn’t disappoint. Every tale gets more bizarre, and you are glued on, just to see what happens next. He has an uncanny way of describing the most bizarre and horrific of situations in an off-handed, casual and matter of fact way, with characters reacting more to changes in the depictions, than to the strangeness of the situation in itself. This adds to the scenario, and scandalizes the moral reader in you further. Perhaps what works best for the stories, though, among loads of other things, are the completely unexpected conclusions they have. Unexpected, would perhaps be understating them. Bold, raunchy, conscience tearing, and absolutely flabbergasting in every sense of the word, may do a little more justice.

A definite read if you want to go “WTF — “ for every page. Oh, and if you are a Fight Club fan (Who isn’t), watch out for the little surprise at the end too!