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underdog30 's review for:
Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey
by Chuck Palahniuk
When I first posted this book as one I was reading, a friend commented, "This one weirded me out." It weirded me out, too, in a similar (and yet completely different) way than Palahniuk's INVISIBLE MONSTERS wierded me out. The similarities lie in both books' focus on seemingly reprehensible characters. Mostly, Palahniuk characters are twisted, cursed, self-absorbed, sociopathic, chemically-dependent, and seemingly irredeemable. The differences lie in the fact that, while Daisy and Manus and Brandy Alexander of IM were creepy characters with nasty habits, "Rant" Casey's life is lived not on the edge of filth and disease, but smack in the middle of it. There were more than a couple of passages that turned my stomach before I turned the page.
But, at the same time, this is a book that I could hardly put down. Told in an oral history format, with characters offering snippets of monologue laced together on a common chapter-by-chapter theme or episode, the pace of the novel is lightning quick, and doesn't want for plot twists and turns. And, like any good Palahniuk novel, the seedy surface is a skein over deeper thematic meditations.
I have to admit, my mind started to wander a bit over the last forty pages or so, as the novel drifted into HG Wellsian territory. This development seemed a bit out of left field, but was compact enough that it took little away from my overall enjoyment of the book.
Rumor has it that the author is planning a sequel or two based on this story. He's set it up in such a way that he might be able to mine a hundred novels out of it, but I, for one, hope he doesn't. The true joy of this novel was watching a cursed piece of humanity like "Rant" Casey grow from a child to the revered "man" he becomes. Now that that story is told, why go back to the scene of the "crime?"
But, at the same time, this is a book that I could hardly put down. Told in an oral history format, with characters offering snippets of monologue laced together on a common chapter-by-chapter theme or episode, the pace of the novel is lightning quick, and doesn't want for plot twists and turns. And, like any good Palahniuk novel, the seedy surface is a skein over deeper thematic meditations.
I have to admit, my mind started to wander a bit over the last forty pages or so, as the novel drifted into HG Wellsian territory. This development seemed a bit out of left field, but was compact enough that it took little away from my overall enjoyment of the book.
Rumor has it that the author is planning a sequel or two based on this story. He's set it up in such a way that he might be able to mine a hundred novels out of it, but I, for one, hope he doesn't. The true joy of this novel was watching a cursed piece of humanity like "Rant" Casey grow from a child to the revered "man" he becomes. Now that that story is told, why go back to the scene of the "crime?"