Choke by Chuck Palahniuk Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Choke
Book Review: "Killing the future to preserve the present."
Summary: 5 Stars
Reading a Chuck Palahniuk novel is a guarantee for a unique and often frightening reading experience, and CHOKE is no exception. I devoured this book in one setting and would rate it as one of my favorite Palahniuk books. CHOKE is full of social satire and rude and gutsy humor that makes one examine the world around them in an entirely different light. There are virtually no sentences that are not affected by Palahniuk's social commentary.CHOKE is centered around Victor Mancini, a sex addict and con artist who works at a Colonial living museum with co-workers who tend to dabble in pot smoking and other insidious drugs while on the job. When not at work he likes to eat out at restaurants and pretend to choke in order to make unsuspecting heroes when the other patrons save his life. It is safe to say that Victor has not had a so-called normal childhood; his mother continually performed stunts at the expense of others and society when she was not in jail and was known to kidnap him and teach him important life lessons.
Palahniuk creates brilliant and original scenes that highly entertained and made me chuckle out loud numerous times, including Victor's relationship with the elderly patients at the nursing home and his best friend's obsession with rock collecting. Highly recommended.
Book Review: "Waste of time" isn't the right word, but it's the first...
Summary: 2 Stars
Choke by Chuck Palanhuik starts out with a bang, but quickly boils down to nothing more than a whimper.
Many people have compared Palanhuik to genius Kurt Vonnegut, but Palanhuik should never be mentioned in the same sentence as Vonnegut. Vonnegut uses the weird as story telling devices, while Palanhuik's books are weird for the sake of weird.
The story starts out by grabbing the readers attention, by talking about the trials and tribulations of the main character, Victor Mancini. Victor was kidnapped at an early age by his "mother", is a sex addict, pretends to choke on food to get money, is a medical school drop-out, and thinks he is the second coming of Christ. All of those might seem to make for an interesting character, but like the rest of the characters in the book, he never changes or grows.
Palahnuik tries to satirize the empty, chaotic mess of society today, but it seems as though his book is nothing more than a product of the times. The book uses profanities, "plot twists", and gross out tactics only to reach out to the target audience, rather than use them to tell a meaningful story.
At the end, the reader is left cold and upset. Since Palahniuk never establishes his characters well enough, the reader doesn't care what happens to them at the end. Also, the ending is very anti-climatic, that it seems to defeat the entire purpose of reading the book. At the end, nothing is learned, nothing is gained; no one learns anything, and the reader learns nothing about the human condition.
Choke is nothing more than entertaining tripe, that has a weak plot and a pointless existance.
Book Review: "Choke" is right
Summary: 2 Stars
After seeing the movie Fight Club, I became interested in author Chuck Palahniuk. He seemed to have such a fiendish sense of humor and made some very provacative commentary with Fight Club, so I decided to read Choke. That was in December. This is July, and I still have not been able to finish. Don't get me wrong--this book has the same cynical view that endeared me to Fight Club, but it just seems a bit pretentious with its dictionary-style addenda spattered throughout and the character's odd choices of phrases such as "For serious, dude."Ughhh... it makes me shudder just remembering how tedious and annoying this had become.
My flight was delayed for 8 hours in Mexico City yesterday, and even THEN, faced with utter boredom, I still did not reopen Choke for another go. I guess I will finish it eventually, but I sincerely hope the next Palahniuk book I read is ALOT easier to swallow.
Book Review: "Intriguing isn't the Right Word, But It's The First..."
Summary: 4 Stars
Killer story, the typical Chuck characters and imagery, but I felt a little empty with the lack of climax, but then it all makes sense afterwards...That's the whole point. We're all just striving for one climax after another, when life is really just meant to be lived. Easily a necessity for any Palahniuk or postmodern literature fan.Book Review: 'For seriously'...a great book
Summary: 4 Stars
Choke was the third novel I have read by Chuck Palahniuk, and once again I was not disappointed (until I finished and found myself wanting to read on!). Palahniuk's extra-ordinary insight into the ridiculousness of today's society continues to make me smile and shake my head in awe at the accuracy with which he picks apart the most minute idiosyncrisies of ourselves. The book reads almost like a candid journal- as if the narrator just sat down and told his story start to finish exactly how it came into his mind. This style is (in my opinion) brilliantly mastered by Palahniuk in this novel as well as in Fight Club and Survivor. Palahniuk is one of the few authors who can convince me that the narrator is telling the story- rather than the author trying to fabricate a new persona and going back and revising and changing details. Palahniuk really seems to "know" his characters- the novel reads as though he has absolute confidence in what his characters would do, as opposed to some novels in whic the author seems to hold back and play it safe with regards to the situations the characters are placed into. Palahniuk pushes his characters to the limits and is not afraid to take risks making his writing thoroughly enjoyable and delectable. I look forward to reading more of Palahniuk's work!
Highly recommended!