Tre stelline perchè non so che voto dare, mai stata così in dubbio.
Le prime due parti le ho trovate troppo assurde, perfino per gli standard di Palahniuk, però l'ultima, quella denominata "Personale" mi conquistata: per la prima volta mi sono trovata interessata a "conoscere" Palahniuk non solo come autore, ma proprio come persona.

Adoro Palahniuk, e in questo libro è interessantissimo scoprire da cosa gli sono venuti alcuni degli spunti poi confluiti nei suoi libri.
Situazioni assurde della vita reale, raduni di gente che trova un proprio scopo in un'attività e fa in modo di ritrovarsi con altri suoi simili. Sia questa attività il sesso esibizionista, la lotta, gli scontri tra mototrebbiatrici, la costruzione di castelli in pietra.

Interessante anche la parte con i brevi aneddoti tratti dall'esperienza personale di Chuck, prevalentemente dedicati al periodo in cui Fight Club era all'apice della notorietà, con il film in produzione.

Non mi sono piaciuti i "ritratti".


Ma i racconti non mi piacciono, e questi non sono nemmeno racconti.
Interessanti, ma nulla di più.

"La scimmia pensa, la scimmia fa" di Chuck Palahniuk
268 pagine

Una raccolta di saggi scritti dalla penna di Palahniuk. Il libro è diviso in tre sezioni distinte che contengono articoli dello scrittore già pubblicati su quotidiani e riviste, dopo una breve introduzione dove l'autore racconta il suo essere solitario in quanto scrittore in contrapposizione con l'importanza del socializzare per poter scrivere.

La prima parte è intitolata "Insieme" e racchiude situazioni in cui troviamo vari tipi di assembramenti di persone. Dal "Festival del testicolo" alle gare di Wrestling. Dal suo esperimento di girare in pubblico vestito da cane alla sua esperienza all'interno del sottomarino USS Louisiana.

La seconda parte è "Ritratti", una raccolta di interviste. Ho apprezzato soprattutto quella riguardante Marilyn Manson e l'intervista a Michelle Keating, impegnata nella ricerca di cadaveri e persone scomparse assieme ai suoi cani .

Terza e ultima parte è " Personale" dove troviamo argomenti più o meno personali riguardanti lo scrittore. Come il suo passato da volontario in un ospizio, la sua riflessione sulla morte e considerazioni sui ricordi o su come alla gente piaccia fare cose stupide e tendenzialmente pericolose.

È stata forse la mia prima esperienza con una raccolta di saggi e non è stata sicuramente una lettura facile o lineare. Alcuni articoli mi sono piaciuti particolarmente, altri li ho trovati noiosi o un po' inutili.
Sicuramente, comunque, una lettura interessante e doverosa per gli amanti di questo scrittore.

⭐⭐⭐ 1/2

105 - 2017

Weird. A series of essays, most of which have been published in other papers/magazines. This is my first experience of this author and i'm not really sure what to make of it.

Most of the early stories seem very stripped down, stories about wrestling - where the facts of each bout are told very basically. Other stories really grip the imagination - the combine demolition derby for instance, or the men who build castles out of chicken wire and plaster (or huge lumps of stone).

There's a melancholy tone to all of them - even the recounting of how the author dressed as a dalmation with a friend of his and ran around Seattle, just to see the reaction he'd get (very nearly getting arrested just for being dressed as a dog).

Random thoughts spring up everywhere. The portraits that he offers of people such as Juliette Lewis and Marilyn Manson are really just verbatim conversations or statements that they make to him.

I've already forgotten a lot of this book and I've only just finished it. But the Combine Harvester Demolition Derby - that'll stay in my head for quite a long time to come.

turns out palahniuk’s nonfiction is just as pretentious as his fiction

n  "About the third week, the priapism subsided or seemed to spread to my entire body. Weightlifting gets better than sex. A workout becomes an orgy. You're having orgasms, cramping, hot, rushing orgasms in your delts, your quads, your lats, and traps. You forget about that lazy old penis. Who needs it. In a way, it's a peace, an escape from sex. A vacation from libido. You might see a hot woman and think grrrrrr, but your next egg white omelet or set of squats is a lot more attractive."n

This is the Chuck we all know and love. This right here is why he's my favorite author. No matter what he writes or does, he picks you up and never disappoints.

Short stories are always difficult to talk about. Obviously, some are way better than others but these all were unique enough to stand out from each other.

Palahniuk is one of those authors that doesn't pull any punches when it comes to writing from personal experiences. He's lead quite the exciting life and we all crave more.

If you aren't sold with the title or author, I'll say this.... Testicle Festival! You're welcome!!!

Sorry, your seven minutes is up!

A compilation of non-fiction essays; journalism-style pieces about different true events (derbies, wrestling, etc.), celebrity profiles, and some personal anecdotes.
I loved the essays about story-telling, examination of writing and society, capturing reality vs. illusion.
I was less impressed by the journalistic pieces that were more action-based and focused on technical descriptions. The opening essay in particular is intense, his covering of a trucker pornography festival in rural America. I almost didn't keep reading, but I'm glad that I did.
Some pieces didn't hold my interest, but it was worth reading for the gems I found.

A good read if you're interested in writing and/or raw, masculine journalism.

This was excellent. I particularly loved the essays that talked about Palahniuk's family and childhood, as well as the ones about Marilyn Manson and Juliette Lewis. He's such a talented writer. I love the way he puts things into words and his particular style of sentence construction. It's intoxicating.

un palahniuk diverso da quello che conosco, perché qui non inventa. parla di attualità, persone, luoghi, di se stesso. questa è una raccolta di saggi.
bene, non posso proprio dire che non mi sia piaciuta. ci sono passi molto divertenti - l'articolo sui costruttori di castelli, per esempio - e passi davvero acuti; ma in alcuni punti, forse troppi, palahniuk emerge troppo esplicitamente. cerco di spiegarmi: è come vedere un'amica che flirta con un uomo senza sapere di avere un frammento di insalata tra i denti. imbarazzante, per lei ma di riflesso anche per me. qui palahniuk rivela i suoi sentimenti: quando parla dei cani addestrati a trovare i cadaveri, oppure quando racconta della medium o di suo padre. ero abituata a conoscerlo dietro una maschera feroce, e trovarlo così scoperto mi ha disturbata un po'. lui mi capisce, infatti in uno dei saggi spiega bene perché non vuole mai incontrare di persona gli scrittori che ama di più, se può evitarlo.

After many failed attempts to finish reading the book, I finally reached the last page of Stranger than Fiction by Chuck Palahniuk yesterday, June 25, 2024. With a total read time of 5 hours and 6 minutes spread over 48 days, more than half of which I completed yesterday, I can finally say that the book isn’t for me. Although I have grown to love nonfiction and short stories, this collection didn’t resonate with me, except perhaps for a few parts.

There were times that I had to remind myself that I was reading, not because I was lost in the magic it brings me, but because barely anything registered to me. For the most part, I felt like I was listening to someone tell me about his adventures as I nodded, smiled, and pretended to understand and care about what he was saying. It is a recollection of stories that do not leave a lasting impression on me, not because they’re badly written but because they are just stories with nothing to tell. They are empty, full only of words that, as he describes them, “burnt tongue,” (twisting words to slow down the reader) yet at the same time invited me to only “skim along a surface of abstract images.”

Still, I found the book’s last section quite good—it resonated more with me, revealing some flesh and wounds and ideas that existed in Palahniuk’s “spirit (or perhaps brain in a body).” It was more personal and added layers to who Palahniuk is as a person distinct from his being the Fight Club’s writer. Although I know what Fight Club is (the movie version, at least), I did not expect some parts of the book to center on it, as if the writer expects that the readers would only know him through it and be interested because of it. I think I wanted more and gained less. Indeed, the stories did not make me laugh, and a moment later broke my heart. He should continue writing fiction, maybe that’s where the true strength of his “horses” lies.

The first rule of Fight Club is that no one talks about it – but CP goes and writes a book of short stories where his cult-followed-novel is recurrently a topic of discussion and persistently a backdrop. Maybe he knew what he needed to do to get this published – I don’t think anyone would pick this up unless they were already familiar with Palahniuk and wanted to get inside his head. One reviewer said that this book is ‘unrecommendable,’ and I think I agree. Not because it’s bad, but because it is uniquely interesting to fans of Fight Club or CP’s other books. I can only think of a few I’d recommend it to, all of them already disillusioned and endearingly resentful young men who resonate with Edward Norton.

That being said, for anyone reading this book, go ahead and just skip the first piece. I think CP means to use it as a way to weed out readers – it’s stomach turning. I mentally compare it to what the creators of ‘Black Mirror’ may have been aiming for with their pilot episode. Do yourself a favor and move on past those pages – the rest of the stories are mostly worth the read.

In the chapters about men building castles, I see my father. In CPs ability to write with purpose, to extract comedy from the disappointing, I envy what I could never accomplish. I appreciate his reverence of the writing of Amy Hempel (At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom, IS a book of shorts I regularly recommend). I enjoyed his allusions to Brad Pitt and the making of the film. CPs sarcasm, irony, and awareness shine through in several of the later stories – I got what I came for when I finally got to those.

For example: “Do cats bother you as pets, or do you admire independence?” A reference to the ages-old cat person vs. dog person debate and simultaneously a vicious drag. With that question he lets us know what he appreciates (independence) and also reveals in himself a desire to insist on his own opinion as truth – an immaturity many of us possess (myself included). Self-awareness is present there, and he still shrugs it off and throws the grenade anyway.

I was reminded in reading this though, that Fight Club before anything else is a story for men. A dark catharsis for women is not included and apparently unnecessary – CP believes men need one more. (See his interview with Joe Rogan, if you can put up with Rogan’s pompousness for a few minutes.) Disappointing. I’ve decided though that Invisible Monsters might deliver what I’ve always found Fight Club to lack – maybe that one will be next.