Choke

Reading: Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
Listening to: Days of the New "Not the Same"
Weather: Gorgeous

Who here greatly appreciates Chuck Palahniuk?

Me!

And here's another reason why:

Which, according to Independent on Sunday, "...is Fight Club for sex addicts."

Once a semi-truck mechanic, Palahniuk is now a household name: the author of several cheerfully twisted books - Fight Club and Haunted being just a couple.

I've just finished Choke and here are some of the notes I scribbled in the book:

- Chuck Palahniuk is everything you can't tell your mom. I love it.

- The end is in the beginning is in the end.

- Every word means something.

As a writer, I feel it's worthwhile to study Palahniuk's writing. He's got a clear sense of purpose and vision, and no matter what genre you are happiest to wallow in, you can get something out of his books. His characters are often the mentally unstable, broken, misguided people that you and I can recognize and identify with. Toxic shock syndrome, hypothermia, drug/alcohol/sex addiction and other unsavory topics come up with seeming medical accuracy and methodical description. But this is the important thing: no matter how brutal the content, there is always an identifiable story arc, and it is as literary as Charles Dickens.

There is a lesson.

There's the trouble, the rising action, the climax, the falling action, and the denouement.

There is a moral.

Have a look at Palahniuk, you clever writers out there, if you haven't already. Read it and read it again. Get to know it. Become friends with it. Take it out to dinner. It will bring out the best in you. It will make you a new person. It can even make you a better writer.

And those of you who want to read something a little different on you lunch break, I highly recommend Choke. Just remember to chew carefully.

Happy Sunday, all!