Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey
by Chuck Palahniuk
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Book Summary Information
Author: Chuck PalahniukEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-05-01
ISBN: 0385517874
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Doubleday
Book Reviews of Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey
Book Review: "Rant" or "Tyler Durden Gets A Car"
Summary: 2 Stars
"Rant" started off with promise. We meet Rant Casey in a manner that dictates how we will know him throughout the rest of the book: secondhand. (In this first instance, through a used car salesman, the embodiment of disingenuousness, which also dictates how one should approach everything else you are told throughout. How reliable can any narrator be, much less the dozens we face in "Rant"?)
The first one hundred and five pages are a delight and reminds a long time fan (such as myself) why s/he loves Chuck Palahniuk (whom I like to affectionately refer to as "Unckey(Uncle) Chuck"). His twists into the graphic and disgusting are used just as much to move the characters along as it is to disgust us. His antecdotal stories remind us of the greats, definite flavors of "Grapes of Wrath", "Tom Sawyer", and "Catcher in the Rye" are palpable as we go through the childhood and adolescence of this apparent sociopath (in the beginning, Rant displays all the telltale signs).
Not that this section is flawless. Rant's "Animal Fishing" and desire for self-destruction remind us very much of Tyler Durden: Rant too finds a religion of self-destruction and a kind of salvation through alienation. But with the solid writing in these sections, one doesn't mind reading about Tyler Durden... again.
The fresh country air is good for Unckey Chuck, even if he is only getting it through his characters. THEN we go to the city.
And this is where we tread very familiar waters.
Most of the reviews I have read don't go beyond description of the first 105 pages. Some may say this is so as not to give any important plot points. I challenge that it's because this is where the story falls apart. One doesn't really know where to begin description. There's no commitment to any one of the many directions Unckey Chuck is pulling us. A facist society wherein half the population is marginalized to live solely at night, rabies epidemics, the underground culture of "Party Crashing" (teams in cars playing road tag in costumes), Matrix-esque plugs on the backs of people's heads, alternate concepts of time... just as one idea seems to be going in a direction that will carry us through the rest of the book, Palahniuk changes his mind and distracts us from realizing no conclusive point was made by telling us another gross story in which a main character beats a small animal to death. We are spared no details.
My problem is not at all the graphic nature of the novel: I would expect nothing less. Chuck has made a living and a philosophy off holding nothing back in the brutality department. But the details I am getting regarding the biting off of a strippers toes, I would PREFER to be devoted to furthering the plot or characters. It can be done: the writing in one particular rape scene in the book is grotesquely vivid and, as writing, is gorgeous even though the subject matter is so disturbing. Throughout the majority of the book, however, it just seems... disappointingly empty. No major point was made in this book that hasn't been made in any of his others, or by other writers. The violence was masturbatory.
I almost didn't buy "Rant". Palahniuk has been writing the same book since "Fight Club". Note I didn't say "Hasn't written a good book since Fight Club". "Choke", for example, is amazing. It knows where it's going, every fabulously vile description has its purpose and leads us to something great, somewhere we may have seen from a distance, but haven't actually VISITED yet.
A lack of direction and originality characterize "Rant" and while I certainly don't regret reading or even buying the book, I can't help but feel like even Palahniuk has to be getting bored...
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