Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 814.54
EAN: 9780385722223
ISBN: 0385722222
Label: Anchor
Manufacturer: Anchor
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: 2005-05-10
Publisher: Anchor
Release Date: 2005-05-10
Studio: Anchor

Chuck Palahniuk’s world has always been, well, different from yours and mine. In his first collection of nonfiction, Chuck Palahniuk brings us into this world, and gives us a glimpse of what inspires his fiction.

At the Rock Creek Lodge Testicle Festival in Missoula, Montana, average people perform public sex acts on an outdoor stage. In a mansion once occupied by The Rolling Stones, Marilyn Manson reads his own Tarot cards and talks sweetly to his beautiful actress girlfriend. Across the country, men build their own full-size castles and rocketships that will send them into space. Palahniuk himself experiments with steroids, works on an assembly line by day and as a hospice volunteer by night, and experiences the brutal murder of his father by a white supremacist. With this new direction, Chuck Palahniuk has proven he can do anything.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Guilt & Redemption
Comment: Reading Chuck Palahniuk's collection of oddball 'strange-but-true' stories, articles written for various magazines about twisted people and their twisted little hobbies, is like watching "America's Most Terrifying Videos" or reading "Ripley's Believe It or Not." You feel guilty for enjoying the freak show... but not enough to stop reading. The book isn't that thick, and there are 23 chapters so each one makes a pretty good (and somehow appropriate) bathroom companion. There are chapters guaranteed to offend almost any sensibility, and yet there you sit still reading long after your business is done. They say knowledge is neutral, neither good nor inherently bad. But does that mean that every story has to be told?

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable read
Comment: Interesting true stories told well. One story offering some insight into the man? A departure for Palahniuk but one of my favorites of his.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Stranger than Chuck...
Comment: Chuck Palahniuk out-does his own fiction writing, (which can be strange at times) with this collection of "True" stories.
Any fan of Chuck will appreciate this book. It lives up to it's title, and delivers it's helping of strange and obscure topics.
One of these topics is masturbation. And, he has much to say about this, including the reactions of the listeners when he read this story at bookstores around the world. And, let's not exclude the "Testicle Festival," the yearly event near Massoula Montana, that includes public nakedness, sex, and debauchery of all sorts. And, of course, the consumption of fried bull testicles. (dipped in ranch dressing)
So, get on...hold on tight. You may wish you hadn't, but, then again, if you are already familiar with Chuck's work, you probably would expect no less.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: 1 1/2 stars for attempt
Comment: I was attracted to this book after reading fight club, choke, haunted and lullaby. So, of course, i had high hopes. I picked it up, and it was not any where near as good as I thought it would be. There are like 2 good stories but the rest are just bland. While i was reading, i kept thinking, "And why am i reading this?" try reading other palahniuk books such as choke. This, for me, was a dissapointment.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Some stories are slow, but overall worth it.
Comment: Many other reviewers have noted that some of the stories in this book are slow and dry. The drawn out descriptions of the castle builders immediately comes to mind, as does the personal story of Juliette Lewis. But overall this is a worthwhile look into the mind and life of one of the best authors of our time. I feel like I know Chuck Palahniuk on a more personal level now, and that's what I was hoping for. I find him a fascinating man, someone I would love to sit down for coffee with. With that desire in mind, I am very happy I waded through this book.

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