Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Lullaby
Book Review: Creepy story stays with you after you put the book down
Summary: 4 Stars
This story by Chuck Palahnuik stays with you long after you put the book down. The premise is creepy--SIDS and other unexplained deaths are "explained" by the reading, thinking, or reciting of an ancient African culling song included in a book of children's nursery rhymes from around the world.
Fortunately, the actually culling song is not included, so while the story will captivate you, and the idea freak you out, the song isn't there to send you over the edge.
Book Review: Dark, twisted, and very very funny
Summary: 4 Stars
This is the first novel by Palahniuk I have read (have seen the movie adaptation of Fight Club of course), and I must say I was impressed. Palahniuk's writing style is lucid, sharp-witted, and fast. I burned through Lullaby in a few days and loved most every minute of it. It made me laugh out loud at times. Palahniuk's writing reminds me somewhat of Mark Leyner: intelligent, sarcastic, bitter, but with a bit more heart.
Book Review: Don't Look for Depth
Summary: 2 Stars
The best part about "Lullaby" was the summary inside the front cover. The premise sounds exciting enough: an African culling song can kill with words and the heroes, Helen Boyle and Carl Streator, are out to destroy all copies to redeem them from their previous sins. Seems like something original, occult, and obscure enough to be fresh, right? It isn't. Palahniuk is a connoisseur of good ideas but can't present them. The author falls back on bad angst, juvenile anti-civilization commentary, and mindless repetition to bludgeon readers into believing that he is a brilliant modern writer. He exploits the fascinating philosophy of nihilism without even offering entertainment in return. His characters are indistinguishable and all speak with the same voice - his. Ultimately they can't express what he wants to say with this book, so he falls back on blatant, preachy, tiresome comments about society which provoke little or no thought. His tone inevitably loses what wit it originally possessed (and let's just say he's no Douglas Adams, either) and deteriorates into self-righteous condescension.
"Lullaby" yearns to be brilliantly avant-garde, artistically misunderstood, and appealing to only a selective, free-thinking minority. Unfortunately, it only manages to be shallow and irritating.
If you can put up with Palahniuk's style, you might enjoy this book. Just don't expect too much.
Book Review: Entertaining but not Tight
Summary: 2 Stars
A journalist researching a story on "crib-death" makes some scary connections between a series of infant deaths and a book of poems from around the world, leading him and a small crew of odd companions on a nationwide quest.I can't say I really liked Lullaby, but I can't say I didn't either. It was entertaining, and it moved at a good, fast clip. I was always interested. But then there were a few things that just didn't sit well with me. There were times when the characters failed to act in ways we had been taught to expect them to act. Then events start lining up "Hollywood" style; things happen because, well, that's what needs to happen next. It was all too convenient.
Regarding the magic, Palahniuk falls into the ancient trap of letting his magic go unrestricted. All fantasy readers know magic needs to be controlled or it will ruin a good story, so Palahniuk casts his spells then waves his hands to keep us from asking too many questions, which, if he were pressed to answer, would force him to rewrite some chapters and come up with a new ending.
Entertaining, but not very tight.
Book Review: Entertaining, yet distrubing. Like a car wreck, hard to look away...
Summary: 4 Stars
This is my second Chuck Palahniuk book, my first was Choke. But I'd heard really interesting and positive stuff about this book. And African culling song that s used to kill people at will. Pretty great plot. This is one of the craziest things I've ever read!
"Carl Streator" is our hero, or anti-hero, I suppose. He is a highly disturbed man, who unwittingly kills his wife and child by reading them a seemingly innocent poem in a collection of poems for children. Years pass, Streator is living on his own, working as a journalist, and continually despising the noise and "quiet-ophobics" in the world. Until one day, he discovers that all the "SIDs babies, and also children and parents that have passed on mysteriously lately are connected by this one special page in a book...a book he knows and recognizes.
You can read this book purely on a surface level as a "scary" book about spells and magic, or you can read it as a treatise against the world we are all currently living in, full of people, noise, greed, nonsense and a lot of evil. This book is highly readable, but has nightmarish quality about it. I can't go into details, because I would NEVER want to ruin this book for anyone else, but just steel yourself for disturbing imagery!
I give the book 4 stars, but it is more of a 3.5.