I know some of you have already read this but some of you may not. Either way it's a masterpiece. If you like it please buy the book Haunted. It's great for anyone who wants to read some really fucked up shit. Guts is a little longer than you might want to read but I promise you it's worth it. Ladies and gentlemen, Guts:
http://chuckpalahniuk.net/features/shorts/guts
I loved "Guts." It's collected in Haunted which is one of the only books of his I read that didn't annoy the living crap out of me. I didn't see it, but the way it was described to me they ripped this story off for a kill in the last Final Destination flick.
The only Pahlaniuk book I couldn't finish was Diary, that one just dragged.
Guts is fucking awesome.
I remember loaning Haunted to someone I worked with, and the look on his face when he said "I read guts last night".
Guts was the last thing I liked. Haunted was fucking terrible (and I use that term very charitably) . Some of the books before it were probably reprehensible too, but I'll put it down to being young and impressionable. Fight Club was really good, so were Choke and Survivor. Oh, and Invisible Monsters. Then he decided to throw MAGIC into his usual nihilist realism and it just ruined it. An author for the adolescent, and the adolescent at heart. Happy memories of the first few, after that it's the same formula.
Take (Premise One) plus (Fixation One) add (Dissociative ,Complex) caused by [Premise One + Fixation One) X (Darkly Humerous Situation One) = Book.
I'm sure that can be applied to plenty of novelists, but with Palahniuk it always seemed so transparent and like he stopped trying at all.
Last edited by Cleetus Van Damme; 12-04-2010 at 03:30 PM.
..the fuck did I do?
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote