Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories

Product Details

Author : Chuck Palahniuk
Binding : Paperback
EAN : 9780385722223
Edition : Reprint
Number of Pages : 256
Product Group : Book
Publication Date : 2005-05-10
Publisher : Anchor
Release Date : 2005-05-10

ASIN : 0385722222

Customers who bought this goods also bought.

Customer Reviews

So bizarre that you won't believe them (2007-11-27)

I can do no better than give you an excerpt from this book as there's really no way to describe it:In the ballroom at the Airport Sheraton Hotel, a team of men and women sit inside separate booths, curtained off from each other. They each sit at a small table, the curtains enclosing a space just big enough for the table and two chairs. And they listen. All day, they sit and listen.Outside the ballroom, a crowd waits in the lobby, writers holding book manuscripts or movie screenplays. An organizer guards the ballroom doors, checking a list of names on a clipboard. She calls your name, and you step forward and follow her into the ballroom. The organizer parts a curtain. You take a seat at the little table. And you start to talk.As a writer, you have seven minutes. Some places you might get eight or even ten minutes, but then the organizer will return to replace you with another writer. For this window of time, you've paid between twenty and fifty dollars to pitch your story to a book agent or a publisher or movie producer.And all day, the ballroom at the Airport Sheraton is buzzing with talk. Most of the writers here are old--creepy old, retired people clutching their one good story. Shaking their manuscript in both spotted hands and saying, "Here! Read my incest story!"A big segment of the storytelling is about personal suffering. There's the stink of catharsis. Of melodrama and memoir. A writer friend refers to this school as "the-sun-is-shining-the-birds-are-singing-and-my-father-is-on-top-of-me-again" literature.In the lobby outside the hotel ballroom, writers wait, practicing their one big story on each other. A wartime submarine battle, or being knocked around by a drunk spouse. The story about how they suffered, but survived to win. Challenge and triumph. They time each other with wristwatches. In just minutes, they'll have to tell their story, and prove how it would be perfect for Julia Roberts. Or Harrison Ford. Or, if not Harrison, then Mel Gibson. And if not Julia, then Meryl.Then, sorry, your seven minutes is up.Have to recommend two other books: THE WOMAN WHO CUT OFF HER LEG and the novel CARNIVORE DIET both of which are worthwhile.

It is what it is (2006-03-19)

I think this is Palahniuk's best work since Fight Club. Each story in the collection takes the reader into a fascinating fringe land. From the shocking tour of the world of amateur wrestling ("Where Meat Comes From") to the poignant experiences of a rescue dog trainer ("Bodhisattvas"), the author uses the words of his subjects as well as his own to make darkly honest literary jewels.

Most interesting to me was the story of three Americans building castles in the modern world. They press on despite money-shortages, questioning neighbors, zoning problems, and hostile bankers. What really got me was the contrasting natures, goals, and backgrounds of the three builders. Each so different, yet they share a common but unusual achievement. It's striking that while they live within driving distance of one another, they don't even know of each other's existence.

The only true negative of the book is a puff piece on shock-artist Marilyn Manson. Mostly an interview, the author merely reiterates Manson's shopworn yarn about his life, tragedies, art, yada, yada. This article alone doesn't reach for some deeper truth and comes across as inauthentic.

I recommend you read this book today or, at the very latest, tomorrow. Must also recommend Jackson McCrae's "Katzenjammer" for another great book---along the lines of this one.

Look for similar items by category

• Subjects > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Sociology
• Subjects > Nonfiction > Social Sciences
• Subjects > Literature & Fiction > Essays
• Subjects > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature
• Subjects > Biographies & Memoirs
• Subjects > Entertainment > Pop Culture

Related Link