Choke - Chuck Palahniuk
From the author of "fight club" comes another tale pf an exaggerated portrayal of a dark,grotesque character searching for his own meaning of existence.
Amidst the modern woes of everything around him Victor Mancini narrates his life through the present grips of a lame minimum wage job as a role playing 17th century character in a theme park, to the mad and exciting world of a "sexaholics" group therapy sessions.
In between visitation to an elderly hospital to see his Alzheimer disease stricken mother and flirting with the staff nurses, until an indecent proposal from a hot female doctor named Dr.Paige Marshall about a revolutionary genetic cure for Alzheimer's.
The narratives of the present is preceded in betweens of flashback of Victor Mancini as that "stupid little boy" and his Mother's exploits at mis adventures, with the court declaring her as an unfit parent, Victor ended up in foster homes often ended up being kidnapped by his mother aboard stolen cars and a school bus, teaching him about things he wouldn't learn at school but will definitely save his life
"in most hospitals Nurse Flamingo means a fire, Dr.Green a suicide...in a grocery store paging Mr.cash is a call for an armed security guard, Mr.Bernard Wellis, please meet your party at gate 16, means somebody is holding a knife to the throat of a hostage there"...
Footing the almost $3,000/month hospital bill for his mother, Victor devised a complicated scam of pretending to choke on a piece of food in a restaurant, waiting for someone to save him, thereby creating a feeling of being a hero for some total stranger, hoping that the old chinese saying of "once you save the life of a person, you feel responsible for them the rest of their life" will set in afterwards.
After a bit of sob stories about his mother being sick, multiply all of those choking incidents, restaurants and instant heroes willing to help more, cash donation will also come week in and week out...
Seems like everything are going smoothly for Victor, even though still struggling in the 4th step of his recovery from sex addiction, with lots of recreational sex .
see:tanya
see:nico
see:scores of women.
Until a diary of his mother written in Italian surfaced, promises to reveal the truth about Victor's real parentage , an incident that will turn Victor's world inside out, surrounded by a bunch of characters, the insane patients of St.Anthony hospital, a friend who collects rocks, Victor Mancini after all said and done, may be very well be the second coming of Jesus Christ?
What would Jesus Christ not do?...
*****************
Over-all although i find some parts of the book highly unbelievable, like Victor's scam on choking on a food, but hey "Fight Club" is highly unbelievable either But Chuck Palahniuk has written it well with crisp lines and twists it ends up highly entertaining...
I guess same goes with this book, Victor's mother is the maternal version of a Tyler Durden the savior of the rest of us, The bored and dazed, Victor as un unknowingly could be second coming of christ is as hateful and understandable, given his circumstances, one can relate to his thoughts...
The part about the 'sexaholics' therapy sessions are a bit short, i would love to read more of it ( haha pervert? ), but same in "FightClub" the narratives moves quickly from one setting, time frame to another, i cannot complain with that, it leaves less room for boredom.
Over-all, its not that perfect pitch of a book, but the humor, the rawness, the gravity is there, i had a blast reading this one, this goes straight to my book shelf, for me to enjoy reading again, probably a year from now...
Amidst the modern woes of everything around him Victor Mancini narrates his life through the present grips of a lame minimum wage job as a role playing 17th century character in a theme park, to the mad and exciting world of a "sexaholics" group therapy sessions.
In between visitation to an elderly hospital to see his Alzheimer disease stricken mother and flirting with the staff nurses, until an indecent proposal from a hot female doctor named Dr.Paige Marshall about a revolutionary genetic cure for Alzheimer's.
The narratives of the present is preceded in betweens of flashback of Victor Mancini as that "stupid little boy" and his Mother's exploits at mis adventures, with the court declaring her as an unfit parent, Victor ended up in foster homes often ended up being kidnapped by his mother aboard stolen cars and a school bus, teaching him about things he wouldn't learn at school but will definitely save his life
"in most hospitals Nurse Flamingo means a fire, Dr.Green a suicide...in a grocery store paging Mr.cash is a call for an armed security guard, Mr.Bernard Wellis, please meet your party at gate 16, means somebody is holding a knife to the throat of a hostage there"...
Footing the almost $3,000/month hospital bill for his mother, Victor devised a complicated scam of pretending to choke on a piece of food in a restaurant, waiting for someone to save him, thereby creating a feeling of being a hero for some total stranger, hoping that the old chinese saying of "once you save the life of a person, you feel responsible for them the rest of their life" will set in afterwards.
After a bit of sob stories about his mother being sick, multiply all of those choking incidents, restaurants and instant heroes willing to help more, cash donation will also come week in and week out...
Seems like everything are going smoothly for Victor, even though still struggling in the 4th step of his recovery from sex addiction, with lots of recreational sex .
see:tanya
see:nico
see:scores of women.
Until a diary of his mother written in Italian surfaced, promises to reveal the truth about Victor's real parentage , an incident that will turn Victor's world inside out, surrounded by a bunch of characters, the insane patients of St.Anthony hospital, a friend who collects rocks, Victor Mancini after all said and done, may be very well be the second coming of Jesus Christ?
What would Jesus Christ not do?...
*****************
Over-all although i find some parts of the book highly unbelievable, like Victor's scam on choking on a food, but hey "Fight Club" is highly unbelievable either But Chuck Palahniuk has written it well with crisp lines and twists it ends up highly entertaining...
I guess same goes with this book, Victor's mother is the maternal version of a Tyler Durden the savior of the rest of us, The bored and dazed, Victor as un unknowingly could be second coming of christ is as hateful and understandable, given his circumstances, one can relate to his thoughts...
The part about the 'sexaholics' therapy sessions are a bit short, i would love to read more of it ( haha pervert? ), but same in "FightClub" the narratives moves quickly from one setting, time frame to another, i cannot complain with that, it leaves less room for boredom.
Over-all, its not that perfect pitch of a book, but the humor, the rawness, the gravity is there, i had a blast reading this one, this goes straight to my book shelf, for me to enjoy reading again, probably a year from now...
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