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A review by d_tod_davis
Make Something Up: Stories You Can't Unread by Chuck Palahniuk
3.0
The more I read Palahniuk, the more it seems to become an exercise in diminishing returns. He starts with some sort of gimmick, throws a lot of repetition at the reader, and towards the end, he rolls out some sort of twist intended to turn the story on its ear. But what works in Fight Club, Invisible Monsters, and Choke wears thin by the time we get to Tell All and Damned. After reading 11 novels, the prospect of another Palahniuk was no longer that enticing.
But the short story from is a different animal than a novel, and interestingly, with the short story Palahniuk's able to free himself from his worn out tricks. Somewhat. The stories in this collection are all about the right length, say what they need to say, then get off the stage. And, perhaps because of their brevity, the stories that tend to fall back on those well-worn tricks seem more effective: the linguistic repetition carries more of a punch and the surprising bits tend to actually be more surprising. Somewhat.
It was also refreshing to see him step outside what I'd call a Palahniuk story/theme without losing his unique voice, to see him stretch a bit more than usual. There are a few I would happily have left unread (the gross-out story "The Toad Prince" is the epitome of the collection's subtitle) but there are some rather decent takes amongst the 23 collected here ("Knock, Knock", "Fetch", "Torcher") and this collection was enough to once again make the prospect of reading another Palahniuk novel more enticing. Somewhat.
But the short story from is a different animal than a novel, and interestingly, with the short story Palahniuk's able to free himself from his worn out tricks. Somewhat. The stories in this collection are all about the right length, say what they need to say, then get off the stage. And, perhaps because of their brevity, the stories that tend to fall back on those well-worn tricks seem more effective: the linguistic repetition carries more of a punch and the surprising bits tend to actually be more surprising. Somewhat.
It was also refreshing to see him step outside what I'd call a Palahniuk story/theme without losing his unique voice, to see him stretch a bit more than usual. There are a few I would happily have left unread (the gross-out story "The Toad Prince" is the epitome of the collection's subtitle) but there are some rather decent takes amongst the 23 collected here ("Knock, Knock", "Fetch", "Torcher") and this collection was enough to once again make the prospect of reading another Palahniuk novel more enticing. Somewhat.