Product Description
Sacred and Immoral: On the Writings of Chuck Palahniuk, edited by Jeffrey A. Sartain, combines the efforts of an international list of writers to explore the depths of Chuck Palahniuk's fiction. Scholars have paid attention Palahniuk's premiere novel, Fight Club, for years. Sacred and Immoral is the first anthology dedicated to scholarship focused on Palahniuk's work following Fight Club, which he has been producing at an average of a book a year for thirteen years. By collecting the work of an interdisciplinary group of scholars under a single cover, Sacred and Immoral extends the reach of Palahniuk scholarship beyond any previous publication. Sacred and Immoral provides the single most comprehensive and useful scholarly resource to date for anyone wishing to examine Chuck Palahniuk's fiction in an academic context. Some of the anthology's chapters situate Palahniuk's work within existing generic conventions, while other chapters are concerned with the theoretical underpinnings of Palahniuk's writing and the philosophical implications of his work. With eleven new critical analyses of Palahniuk's later novels, Sacred and Immoral drastically expands the range and depth of academic inquiry into Palahniuk's fiction commensurate with the prominent and exciting position Palahniuk's work occupies in contemporary culture. "Sacred and Immoral" also includes a new interview with Chuck Palahniuk, conducted by literary scholar Matt Kavanagh. Finally, Sacred and Immoral boasts the most complete primary and secondary bibliographies of Palahniuk-related materials to date. Sacred and Immoral is not an attempt to have the last word on Chuck Palahniuk's literature. Rather, this volume is a springboard for other projects that relate to Palahniuk's writings. The anthology provides a critical framework for Palahniuk's later literature that students, teachers, and researchers can use in their own classrooms and writing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Excellent and much needed scholary work!
This book is a valuable first in Palahniuk scholarship! It should be invaluable to film and literary scholars as well as culture theorists alike who study and teach the works of Palahniuk.The essays provide a good variety of critical perspectives from gender theory to Foucault. What is more it addresses Palahniuk texts beyond Fight Club, the texts often critically ignored, but as this collection shows, easily just as rewarding to serious study. The essays by Johnson and Riekki are particularly engaging and thoughful. In summary, a very much needed scholarly collection that also makes for a marvelously interesting read.

Pricey for a reason...
This book is expensive, but not because they are 'money grabbing' or trying to rip people off and make loads of money out of it. The following is a quote from the guy who made the book Jeff Sartain.....

The goal of this volume was to release a piece of scholarship on Chuck Palahniuk's work after "Fight Club." Since the film came out, there has been a lot of scholarship and commentary about the book and the film, but almost no scholarly work dedicated to Chuck's ever-growing catalog of great books. Sacred and Immoral is our effort to start filling in this gap in academic literature, so that scholars and teachers have tools to build projects and classes on Chuck's later work.

Unfortunately (as one Amazon troll so eloquently noted), the volume is a bit pricey. Unfortunately this is one of the downsides to academic publishing -- the audience for scholarly work is much smaller, so the price for each volume has to be proportionally higher to offset the printing costs for a relatively small run of books. Believe me, no one publishes scholarly volumes to get rich; the high price of scholarly volumes reflects the high overhead involved in producing hardcover books in small runs.

As such, the primary audiences for volumes like mine are scholars and libraries. If you don't want to buy the book yourself, but do want to read it, encourage your local or university library to purchase a copy for their collection. The access the library provides helps fulfill the volume's primary purpose, which is to expand the conversation about Chuck into new territory.

$60 bucks? What is this, a textbook?
I hope it tanks. And based on its blatant money-groping price, it's off to a great start. Though, I suppose this all figures when it's published by Cambridge. But that doesn't drag the cost any closer to being half-worth it. What can someone say about Chuck Palahniuk's writing that his own doesn't already, or his most learned fans? Join a forum, help group, or recommend him to your friends. I checked the link to this and was, at worst, mildly curious about the notion, but found myself compelled to rant over this verbally masturbatory monument to money. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

read in a day
This book came recommended by a friend and he said I'd read it in a day. He was right. It's an odd little page turner from the author of Fight Club. Very graphic, even pornographic. Not for the faint of heart. ... Read more

Product Description

Reading Chuck Palahniuk examines how the author pushes through a variety of boundaries to shape fiction and to question American identity in powerful and important ways. Palahniuk's innovative stylistic accomplishments and notoriously disturbing subject matters invite close analysis, and the new essays in this collection offer fascinating insights about Palahniuk's texts, contexts, contributions, and controversies. Addressing novels from Fight Club through Snuff, as well as his nonfiction, this volume will be valuable to anyone with a serious interest in contemporary literature.

Product Description
The hyperactive love child of Page Six and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? caught in a tawdry love triangle with The Fan. Even Kitty Kelly will blush.

Soaked, nay, marinated in the world of vintage Hollywood, Tell-All is a Sunset Boulevard–inflected homage to Old Hollywood when Bette Davis and Joan Crawford ruled the roost; a veritable Tourette’s syndrome of rat-tat-tat  name-dropping, from the A-list to the Z-list; and a merciless  send-up of Lillian Hellman’s habit of butchering the truth that will have Mary McCarthy cheering from the beyond.

Our Thelma Ritter–ish narrator is Hazie Coogan, who for decades has tended to the outsized needs of Katherine “Miss Kathie”  Kenton—veteran of multiple marriages, career comebacks, and cosmetic surgeries. But danger arrives with gentleman caller Webster Carlton Westward III, who worms his way into Miss Kathie’s heart (and boudoir). Hazie discovers that this bounder has already written a celebrity tell-all memoir foretelling Miss Kathie’s death in a forthcoming Lillian Hellman–penned musical extravaganza; as the body count mounts, Hazie must execute a plan to save Katherine Kenton for her fans—and for posterity.

Tell-All is funny, subversive, and fascinatingly clever. It’s wild, it’s wicked, it’s  bold-faced—it’s vintage Chuck.


From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (6)

Grab your dictionary
I love Fight Club in both book and movie form and I love the fact that the story makes you think. So picking this book up seemed like a must for any Fight Club/Chuck Palahniuk fan.

I'm only two essays into it and my interest is already losing traction. The first essay was painfully overwritten considering the context of the book and the audience who will probably be reading it. If you don't have your dictionary and a good understanding of philosophy both basic and advanced, you'll probably struggle through it hoping the book gets better as I did (it does). Long, complex sentence structures, insane words and hybrid words I recognized but didn't know the meaning of and philosophy references that I had never heard before all conspired to ruin this first essay for me rather quickly.

Another major complaint I have--again with the first essay since I've only read two so far--is that there is no spoiler alert at the start of the essay. Well let me just warn you now, the first contributing essay will ruin a good majority of Chuck Palahniuk's novels if you haven't already read them. The author goes off endlessly and in detail about his theories on Chuck's other books, describing in detail certain aspects of the story and the book's overall outcome. So annoying trying to skip over stuff that seemed spoiler in nature. I haven't read Chuck's other books yet and now I don't need to; the surprise is ruined.
And that brings me to one other complaint about the first essay, it's only about 50% about Fight Club. The remainder is mostly a discussion on Chuck Palahniuk and his other books. Its an overall discussion and a damn confusing one at that.

Good news is the second essay is a breath of fresh air that focuses solely on Fight Club and is comprehensible enough to hold the reader from beginning to end.

If you like Fight Club and discussing your opinion on stuff, you'll probably get something out of this book. Complaints aside, I'm excited to finish this book.

Up it's own butt, but...
If you are like me and think that Fight Club was a self help book cleverly disguised as a gritty misanthropic tale of one man's escapism turned into a rampant global underground upheaval of society, then you should read this book.It expands on many of the book's fundamental ideas.And if you're into the book not so much for its entertainment value as for its ideas, then this is a worthy supplement.

Sure, you get the inevitable essay that's way too far up it's own butt and aims more at being clever than at actually providing useful or even usable information.And you also get the tiresome comparisons between the book and the film, which you will already know if you have watched and read both.

Regardless, it's still worth reading.[...]

Not bad-Mostly film related
I agree that the majority of the work is film related. I was a little disappointed by this, but the cover image resembles one of the covers of the DVDs I own. Using "Chuck Palahnuk's" name implies book related, but in truth he just writes the intro.

I love the discussions and am one that likes to push the envelope in making something relevant. I agree that at times I caught myself rolling my eyes at some of the comparisons, but I like the idea that the writers were tying this to something concrete (something they found to be a cultural mile stone).

I don't know that Chuck has become a first name member of the great and holy canon of American Literature, but do feel he has much to say about the last 10 years, culture and society. I personally am intrigued by Will Christopher Baer and would love to see something similiar written on his work. I also like Charlie Huston and Denis Johnson (I throw these names out more as a point of reference of what I see as similiar material and to give my bias as a reader than anything else).

It isn't the best criticism ever written, but if you like criticism that is relevant to the changes in society and dares try to get in the head of "Fight Club" (be it film or book-although, I do wish it was more novel related), this is not a bad read.

not what I thought it was, but still a good buy
While I had assumed this was a new book by my favorite author, and it wasnt, it would still be a necessity for anyone in a highschool or college english class for analyzing Chuck Palahniuk's book, Fight Club. Besides the foreword by Chuck himself, there are 17 different interpretations of Fight Club the book, Fight Club the movie, and even Mr. Palahniuk. You really get a good feel for what people took away from the story, and a new view on every angle of the plot and characters.

Book reports, mostly written by people who only saw the film
I have newfound appreciation for grade-school teachers.

"Weekend spent correcting book reports, most written by people who only saw the film" not only serves as fair analogy to reading this collection, it's every bit as awful as it sounds.

All the essays here come from metaphilm, a Web site. As such, the essays tend to focus on the film version of Fight Club. Most at least acknowledge the differences between the book and the film, but where there are differences, the focus is on the film version.

Unfortunately, the only criterion for inclusion seems to be spurious comparison to some other film or cultural icon. Within 16 essays, comparisons and direct likening are made to Lord of the Rings; Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde; the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip; the Oedipus myth; and in one amazingly ham-fisted entry, The Matrix, American Beauty and Pink Floyd's The Wall, all at once; to name a few.

There is no instantly recognizable film or literary critic in this collection.

There are a few essays from theology Ph.D. students, a pair of professors from colleges you've never heard about before and a particularly self-important, self-absorbed attempt at omnibus insight from a lecturer at Temple University. Otherwise, the academic credentials of these critics are nonexistent.

No one has a social sciences pedigree. No one claims professional expertise in film making, screen writing or any related discipline. Few take the time to follow academic rigor of any sort -- and I don't mean just the essayist who goes on and on about the "Force" of martial-arts kicks and punches, when punches and kicks actually possess momentum.

Consider:Virtually every essay here mentions the 1999 film's depiction of imploding skyscrapers, directly comparing the scene to the 9/11 attacks two years later. Not one, however, notes that "Fight Club" was written in 1995, just two years after the first terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center -- which used a car bomb, just like Project Mayhem did.

We're treated to six pages claiming Tyler Durden, and possibly Chuck Palahniuk, are the products of a government mind-control program, but not one essayist can make obvious comparisons between the anti-consumerist, anti-technology beliefs of Islamic jihadists and those of Tyler Durden, even as he goes for the wrong terrorist attack that equates the two.

Another problem is the total fascination with "homoerotic" undertones that nearly every essayist feels compelled to point out. Yes, Palahniuk is gay. Yes, fist fighting is kind of gay, too; one only need watch mixed martial arts to see that. Yes, the lack of father figure and seeing Marla Singer as spoiler and Bob's "bitch tits" and on and on and on. ... Enough with this, already. It's not new, insightful or particularly useful.

The regrettable part is that some of these essays have genuine merit. For example, the first essay argues that "Fight Club" is really a love story; it does so effectively, largely because the author began with Palahniuk's own statements about his novels, and built upon that foundation.

A few other entries shine, such as one that examines the role of technology to human relationships, and a particularly clever one that dredges up a 1950s book on soap and detergent to effectively summarize Durden's base views.

For the most part, these works are useless. They either fail to prove their premises - often, thanks to the premises being paper-thin - or so stretch your willingness to even indulge the premise, that you want to quit reading after a few paragraphs, almost universally stuffed with adjectives fresh from the thesaurus.

I spent many years writing editorials and columns for newspapers, so I know a thing or two about critical essays. And writing opinions about things you don't actually understand. And hanging your rhetorical hat on any peg, regardless of its ability to hold the load.

I know bad essays when I see them. And I saw a lot inside the covers of this book.

What I did enjoy, immensely, was Palahniuk's foreword -- a brilliantly veiled insult of metaphilm. Noting his time as a campus radical was really a series of silly outbursts that changed nothing, Palahniuk writes that all that really mattered is he found like souls; a family.

There could be no fairer assessment of the largely nonsensical rants collected here; the foreword's proud inclusion in the collection tells you everything you need to know about the intellectual capacities of these critics.

It's nice they have metaphilm, a place to gather in like company. But don't waste your money on what they have to say. ... Read more

Product Description
Compendio de crónicas. retratos de estrellas e historias íntimas. Error humano nos permite entrever el insólito mundo del autor y nos invita a destapar algunas de las realidades más sórdidas que alimentan sus novelas. Destacan en este universo Palahniuk el capítulo «Combate de cosechadoras<. una crónica sobre la América profunda donde se mezclan el absurdo y la aberración. el retrato de un Marilyn Manson que habla sin tapujos de sí mismo a través de una sesión de tarot o la curiosa descripción del rodaje de El club de la pelea (adaptación de la novela que llevó a la fama al autor). en la que se habla del potenciador de labios de Brad Pitt.Chuck Palahniuk es el rey del territorio white-trash. un lugar que todos los seguidores de su obra conocen bien. un lugar que evitamos y que. sin embargo. atrae al tiempo que aterroriza. Como lo definió el escritor Alberto Fuguet: Chuck Palahniuk es ver videos pomo y comer papas fritas en lugar de masturbarse. Es pagar con tu tarjeta Visa y no tener a nadie a quien llamar después. Palahniuk es la voz que eyacula la psiquis del American almost-psycho. del adicto a la adicción. del tipo que no necesita matar porque ya está muerto . ... Read more

Product Description
Buster Casey fue un asesino. Vivió al límite. Mató a tanta gente como pudo. Buster Casey Fue el líder de una banda que se dedicaba a estrellar coches y a acumular cadáveres y chatarra. Toda una fiesta. Buster Casey murió joven. y dejó huella. Ahora sus amigos y conocidos le recuerdan. nos cuentan su vida. Si quieres saber quién fue realmente Buster Casey. lee esta novela de Chuck Palahniuk. Puede que te divierta. puede que te repugne. pero difícilmente olvidarás las iniciales B. C. y su rostro de asesino. Sólo Palahniuk puede ofrecernos carcajadas y humor por igual. y esa chispa incendiaria que subyace en el desesperado y surrealista ser humano contemporáneo The New Yorker ... Read more

Product Description
Chuck Palahniuk's world has always been, well, different from yours and mine. The pieces that comprise Stranger than Fiction, his first nonfiction collection, prove just how different, in ways both highly entertaining and deeply unsettling. Included are encounters with alternative culture heroes Marilyn Manson and Juliette Lewis; the peculiar wages of fame attendant on the big-budget film production of the movie Fight Club; life as an assembly-line drivetrain installer by day, hospice volunteer driver by night; the really peculiar lives of submariners; the really violent world (and mangled ears) of college wrestlers; the underground world of iron-pumping anabolic-steroid gobblers; the immensely upsetting circumstances of his father's murder and the trial of his killer each essay or vignette offers a unique facet of existence as lived in and/or observed by one of our most flagrantly daring and original literary talents. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Stranger than Fiction: True Stories by Chuck Palahniuk
This is, in fact, one of the strangest books I have ever read -- also one of the funniest and most endearing.I thought about it for weeks and then sent it to several friends.

"SELECTIONS from"
yeah...i guess i need to be better at reading the details.this audio CD is NOT the entire book.chuck is my current favorite contemporary writer... bar none.

i have all of his books...and have read several of them several times.this was the first time i have made an audio CD purchase of a Palaniuk book.i was soon to be staring at a ten hour drive through boring territory and figured this would be the coolest audio book i had ever experienced.as a wrestling coach, i was particularly wanting to hear the story about amateur wrestling/wrestlers.

and that is my main beef with the audio book.it is SELECTIONS from the book.the story i was anticipating was not in the audio CD at all...period.when it came to the end i was pretty disappointed.i never did go back to check which of the others didn't appear in the audio book.

i also knew this was NOT a work of fiction in the chuckstyle i am so accustomed to.that is cook.i liked it.the stories are good and the format is fresh and interesting.

bottom line... don't buy the audio CD if you want every last story.therefore, as an audio CD...i had to give this a *3*.if this were a review of the complete book, i am sure it would be a *4* at least.(i would rate his others a *5* in case that helps you)i also ordered Haunted at the same time (old school paper style, btw) and can't wait to get into it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

PLEASE NOTE: This is the French translation of "Lullaby"
This might not be readily clear from the Amazon listing page for non-French speakers (as in most of BC for example), but this is not a rare book with a cool sounding name, rather this is a translation of an existing novel, Lullaby, into French. Lullaby, by the way is perhaps the most accessible of Chuck's books from an uninitiated, casual reader persective. This book is also certainly something that could easily be spun into a fine and fetching TV pilot & series featuring an on-the-road adventure story with all those elements of culture clash & Joss Wheaton style mysticism & playfully cynical objectivity I for one have come to adore about C.P.'s work across the board. ... Read more