Survivant

chuck palahniuk freddy michalski

Tender Branson est seul à bord d'un avion qui va s'écraser d'une minute à l'autre. La boîte noire de l'appareil sera son dernier confident. Il lui livre son histoire, celle du survivant de la secte américaine des Creedish qui regroupait plusieurs milliers de membres. Ses règles imposaient aux aînés de rester dans la communauté tandis que les autres enfants étaient dressés pour devenir les domestiques des riches du "monde extérieur", moyennant une contribution reversée directement à la secte. Les journaux l'avaient baptisée "l'église de la main-d'œuvre esclave". Tender a donc travaillé gratuitement pour une famille new-yorkaise. Lorsque les maîtres Creedish ont décrété la Délivrance en entraînant tous leurs membres dans la mort, le gouvernement a mis en place un "programme fédéral de conservation des survivants". Tender Branson en faisait partie.

Dans ce roman puissant, déroutant et cruel, Chuck Palahniuk, auteur du célèbre Fight Club – également en DVD – met en scène un antihéros asservi et pathétique qui cherche le chemin d'une liberté impossible et insoutenable pour un esprit programmé dès l'enfance à être un esclave. La force du propos tient dans le constat désespéré de l'auteur : les gens manipulés dans une secte perdent définitivement leur libre arbitre.--Claude Mesplède

Genres fictioncontemporarythrillernovelssatirehumoraudiobookliteraturehorroramerican

365 pages, Paperback

First published February 17,1999

Literary awards

oregon book award,

This edition

Format: 365 pages, Paperback
Published: February 4, 2001 by Gallimard
ISBN: 9782070756278
ASIN: 2070756270
Language: French

Characters More characters

About the author

chuck palahniuk

Written in stolen moments under truck chassis and on park benches to a soundtrack of The Downward Spiral and Pablo Honey, Fight Club came into existence. The adaptation of Fight Club was a flop at the box office, but achieved cult status on DVD. The film's popularity drove sales of the novel. Chuck put out two novels in 1999, Survivor and Invisible Monsters. Choke, published in 2001, became Chuck's first New York Times bestseller. Chuck's work has always been infused with personal experience, and his next novel, Lullaby, was no exception. Chuck credits writing Lullaby with helping him cope with the tragic death of his father. Diary and the non-fiction guide to Portland, Fugitives and Refugees, were released in 2003. While on the road in support of Diary, Chuck began reading a short story entitled 'Guts,' which would eventually become part of the novel Haunted.

In the years that followed, he continued to write, publishing the bestselling Rant, Snuff, Pygmy, Tell-All, a 'remix' of Invisible Monsters, Damned, and most recently, Doomed.

Chuck also enjoys giving back to his fans, and teaching the art of storytelling has been an important part of that. In 2004, Chuck began submitting essays to ChuckPalahniuk.net on the craft of writing. These were 'How To' pieces, straight out of Chuck's personal bag of tricks, based on the tenants of minimalism he learned from Tom Spanbauer. Every month, a “Homework Assignment” would accompany the lesson, so Workshop members could apply what they had learned. (all 36 of these essays can currently be found on The Cult's sister-site, LitReactor.com).

Then, in 2009, Chuck increased his involvement by committing to read and review a selection of fan-written stories each month. The best stories are currently set to be published in Burnt Tongues, a forthcoming anthology, with an introduction written by Chuck himself.

His next novel, Beautiful You, is due out in October 2014.