A review by mattdube
Not Forever But For Now by Chuck Palahniuk

3.0

At least for my book club, this was lesser Palahniuk. But I thought it was fine, once I was over the very repetitive opening. Maybe I needed that long to tune out the wretched posh English dialect that P adopts here. Once you're into it, there's a kind of interesting story, one about inheriting a degraded society whose decline is blamed on you. Though it's blown way out of proportion here, it has a certain sad resonance when you hear about the previous relative-equality and comity of US culture.

I'm not saying the the book explains, explores, or limns these ideas. P doesn't do any of those things. But he evokes them here, and sort of weaves in elements of gay liberation, where things get better for some people (us) and worse for others. It's sort of poignant, with a dash of self-loathing that speaks from a Gen X brain to my Gen X heart. It's maybe not great, but it feels companionable.

Maybe that's a weird feeling to get from P, that you're a fellow traveler, or maybe that's always been his thing, that we're enlisted in a ragtag army, the only ones who really get it.

To step back down to earth: I didn't hate this and it didn't offend me. It has some interesting riffs-- the assassination of Judy G monologues are surprising and interesting. But it's not a great book.