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"Art never comes from happiness." So says Mancini's mother only a few pages into the novel. Given her own dicey and melodramatic style of parenting, you would think that her son's life would be chock-full of nothing but art. Alas, that's not the case. In the fine tradition of Oedipus, Stephen Dedalus, and Anthony Soprano, Victor hasn't quite reconciled his issues with his mother. Instead, he's trawling sexual-addiction recovery meetings for dates and purposely choking in restaurants for a few moments of attention. Longing for a hug, in other words, he's settling for the Heimlich.
Thematically, this is pretty familiar Palahniuk territory. It would be a pity to disclose the surprises of the plot, but suffice it to say that what we have here is a little bit of Tom Robbins's Another Roadside Attraction, a little bit of Don DeLillo's The Day Room, and, well, a little bit of Fight Club. Just as with Fight Club and the other two novels under Palahniuk's belt, we get a smattering of gloriously unflinching sound bites, including this skeptical bit on prayer chains: "A spiritual pyramid scheme. As if you can gang up on God. Bully him around."
Whether this is the novel that will break Palahniuk into the mainstream is hard to say. For a fourth book, in fact, the ratio of iffy, "dude"-intensive dialogue to interesting and insightful passages is a little higher than we might wish. In the end, though, the author's nerve and daring pull the whole thing off--just barely. And what's next for Victor Mancini's creator? Leave the last word to him, declaring as he does in the final pages: "Maybe it's our job to invent something better.... What it's going to be, I don't know." --Bob Michaels
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Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9780385720922
Book Description Condition: New. Brand New! Not Overstocks or Low Quality Book Club Editions! Direct From the Publisher! We're not a giant, faceless warehouse organization! We're a small town bookstore that loves books and loves it's customers! Buy from Lakeside Books!. Seller Inventory # OTF-S-9780385720922
Book Description Paperback or Softback. Condition: New. Choke 0.49. Book. Seller Inventory # BBS-9780385720922
Book Description Condition: New. Brand New. Seller Inventory # 9780385720922
Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. Brand New!. Seller Inventory # 0385720920
Book Description Trade paperback. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # SHELF53 Ron-051
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Victor Mancini, a medical-school dropout, is an antihero for our deranged times. Needing to pay elder care for his mother, Victor has devised an ingenious scam: he pretends to choke on pieces of food while dining in upscale restaurants. He then allows himself to be saved by fellow patrons who, feeling responsible for Victors life, go on to send checks to support him. When hes not pulling this stunt, Victor cruises sexual addiction recovery workshops for action, visits his addled mom, and spends his days working at a colonial theme park. His creator, Chuck Palahniuk, is the visionary we need and the satirist we deserve. "Fight Club" established Palahniuk as a brilliant satirist of deranged times. Victor Mancini, the protagonist of his new novel"Choke, " needs to pay for elder care for his mother, who is suffering from Alzheimer's. An antihero for millennial America, Victor finds that his whole existence is a struggle to wrest an identity from overwhelming forces. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780385720922