⋙ [PDF] Gratis Rant An Oral Biography of Buster Casey Chuck Palahniuk 9780385517874 Books

Rant An Oral Biography of Buster Casey Chuck Palahniuk 9780385517874 Books

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Rant An Oral Biography of Buster Casey Chuck Palahniuk 9780385517874 Books

Usually, after reading a new book, I immediately do a review while the story is still fresh in my mind. I spent last night thinking over what the hell I just read, and tried to get my thoughts in order. 18 hours later, I'm still confused.
.....
Rant is a biography, based on the recollections and stories told by the people who knew Buster "Rant" Casey. Chick Palahniuk's writing style is a little difficult to follow, as it bounces from one character's point of view to another. The recollections do happen to follow a general timeline, however, which makes this read less confusing than it could have been. This novel, unlike others of his, seemed to be more into gross visuals than satirical absurdity. There were places that I felt Chuck went with the disgustingly over the top references, rather than the more sublime cultural attacks I have seen in his previous works.
.....
My good friend @luxalani called this novel "challenging", and I couldn't agree more. As much as I enjoyed Palahniuk's other novels, I feel he took the easy way out on this one.
P.S. I happen to like the Archies. Read the book to catch the reference.


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Rant An Oral Biography of Buster Casey Chuck Palahniuk 9780385517874 Books Reviews

Palahniuk is, in many ways, the great author to study if you want to write first-person narrative. Having already read Survivor, Fight Club, Invisible Monsters, and Choke (Palahniuk's first four novels), I was excited to see more of Palaniuk's work -- and especially how Palahniuk would wrangle the many first-person voices who tell this oral biography.

It would be inaccurate to say I didn't enjoy the book. Palahniuk is a talented writer who works incredibly well on the sentence level of writing. I found myself laughing out loud more than once during the story. That said, the book is flawed. Here are my concerns

1) The sheer number of 1st-person speakers used becomes confusing within a few short chapters. While we can remember five or six main characters, that leaves a couple dozen lying on the periphery of our memory -- which makes it easy to feel lost and to stop caring about the narrative voice.

2) Palahniuk's work on creating a distinct voice for his different narrators comes up short. The use of tropes of voice (that one character speaks mostly in question, that one uses scientific language, that one is visually focused, that one is audio focused, etc.) becomes transparent. Since the narrative voice is never really develop, the reliance on these tropes makes the voice and personality of each narrator feel thin.

3) If you've read Fight Club and Choke, you've already read this book. The themes are very similar. The voice brings nothing new. The story, while interesting, fails to leave a real mark.

4) Bizarre sexual content (which in this book includes deformed lovers and incense) starts to feel like a crutch, more present as shock value than as any notable part of story or theme.

5) The plot, and especially its twists, try to do too much. I'll touch on this in greater detail in the next paragraph.

SPOILERS Ironically, the story's greatest strength becomes its downfall in the final quarter of the book. We start out with a rural world that we can relate to. This world then develops gradually toward a dystopian reality that bears striking resemblance to our own world (especially in regards to our cultural escapism). At first, our protagonist seems like an apt anti-hero He gets involved in directed self-destruction (very Fight Club-ian) and then starts to spread rabies to the entire population. It is gradually revealed that his position as "patient zero," infecting the population with rabies, is an attempt to disconnect people from a high-tech, multi-sensory form of television ("boosting") around which this dystopian society orbits. Rabies literally prevents "boosting." In this process, Palahniuk also touches on prejudice, counter-culture, self-destruction, and other themes common to his other work. Thematically tired? Yes. But enjoyable.

At this point in the story, I really enjoyed the plot and theme levels of the story. Then, in the final quarter, the book is about time travel. "No kidding," (as so many Palahniuk narrators so often say), the entire thing starts to be about becoming your own gradfather, having sex with thirteen-year-old versions of your ancestors, becoming super-human (and developing traits like super-human smell), and reaching Godhood by killing your own parents before they can conceive you. While some may enjoy this as being great for a "thinking person," we're not talking about established concepts of intrigue we're talking about wild, unfounded theories that are fun to think about in passing. They don't effectively support a novel or its final plot twist. The believable dystopia disintegrates into this wild theoretical theory, leaving the final portions of the novel difficult to digest and ultimately unsatisfying.

Is it worth reading? If you want to see the oral biography style in action, with an awareness that this is not perfect execution, this is a fun example. If you love all of Palahniuk's other work and haven't found it to be overkilled redundancy just yet, then this is worth a read. If you're looking for something nuanced from Chuck's mighty pen, however, you may start to wonder if his inkwell has simply run dry. While this is a fun read, it is not brilliant. I strongly recommend turning to Choke, Fight Club, and Survivor -- what I view as his iconic works -- instead.
I only read books by Palahniuk. I started years ago reading his novels when 'Haunted' came out. I must have read that book 10 times before I went out and bought all his other works. I have since found that 'Rant' is by far my favorite. The style of this book was odd in the beginning to get used to and I had trouble starting the book the first time because I had no idea what the character was talking about. Quickly I became obsessed! I love the story, and the way ut is written, it seems almost possible in the future. When I got to the end, I would just start the whole ordeal over again. I have had several friends read this as well, and we sit and discuss it and make a 'family tree' to sort out the story. The only thing I found bothersome, or I haven't figured out is why Echo Lawrence isn't listed in the back...
Another book of Palahniuk's that I purchased years ago, and have finally gotten around to reading. The last one that I reviewed was Snuff, and I did not enjoy that book at all. Nothing about it was appealing, other than that it was mercifully short.

Rant is actually interesting. The way in which the story is told, through the recollections and stories of people connected to the events around the life of Mr. Casey, is very compelling. When I started the book, I was not very convinced that it would work. But somewhere along the line, not even halfway through, I became convinced that it was working to keep me interested. The characters involved in the telling of the story are compelling enough, and you want to know more about their involvement. Slowly, more about the world in which they live is revealed, and that only makes the book more interesting.

Without giving up any spoilers, I think it all fits together really well. The telling of the story through the recollections of interviewees, the mystery around the life of Mr. Casey, the larger mystery of the world that surrounds them, it is all very interesting, and I found ends with the reader still asking those questions and interested about that world. I cannot say that there is anything profound about the book, just the general talk about death and the search for meaning in life among common working class folks, but it is an interesting story about the lives of people in that space. It is worth the read. I enjoyed this book very much.
Usually, after reading a new book, I immediately do a review while the story is still fresh in my mind. I spent last night thinking over what the hell I just read, and tried to get my thoughts in order. 18 hours later, I'm still confused.
.....
Rant is a biography, based on the recollections and stories told by the people who knew Buster "Rant" Casey. Chick Palahniuk's writing style is a little difficult to follow, as it bounces from one character's point of view to another. The recollections do happen to follow a general timeline, however, which makes this read less confusing than it could have been. This novel, unlike others of his, seemed to be more into gross visuals than satirical absurdity. There were places that I felt Chuck went with the disgustingly over the top references, rather than the more sublime cultural attacks I have seen in his previous works.
.....
My good friend @luxalani called this novel "challenging", and I couldn't agree more. As much as I enjoyed Palahniuk's other novels, I feel he took the easy way out on this one.
P.S. I happen to like the Archies. Read the book to catch the reference.