This is the book that demanded I take this man seriously. A collection of short essays shows the commitment he has to the craft of writing. Some are hilarious, some are touching. All are entertaining.

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.

So it started out all right, but really crashed and burned in my opinion, maybe because I lost patience. This is a collection of stories, some interesting and indeed, almost stranger than fiction, others average. It is at its best when relating other people's stories, worst when it Palahniuk recording his own musings, which to me seemed as if he's trying too hard, and personal stories, which are not generally strange but seem more the experiences of a person who doesn't want to be well-adjusted, even when he's verging on it.

Error Humano es un libro de relatos, en su mayoría, de tipos que están bastante pillados de la cabeza.
Son muchas historias cortas las que componen el libro, de modo que me resulta difícil hacer una valoración general.
Con algunas me he muerto de la risa (Casi California me ha matado), otras me han cabreado (como Querido Señor Levin)... y alguna me la he saltado porque lo que hagan los paletos sureños con sus cosechadoras me interesa más bien poco.

A collection of pieces covering a variety of subjects: autobiographical, ruminative essays; a portrait of Marilyn Manson; a look into amateur wrestling; an expose of a middle-America monster, uh, combine derby; and so on. All written in Palahniuk’s Ernest Hemingway gone jaded, bare-bones, non-judgmental “minimalist” style. Which style he also writes about, by the way.

A lot of the stories are extremely interesting, especially the ones that creep into seldom charted territory (like the combine derby story, or a piece on life in a Navy submarine) — but no matter how much magic Palahniuk’s got in his writing, he just can’t make Juliette Lewis interesting. He’s also very compelling when he writes personal stuff — not so much about his poor murdered father (some things are too troubled to make really engrossing material), but like his times popping steroids or volunteering with AIDS patients or staying at a “haunted” house. Now, if he hadn’t written Fight Club, would this collection of stories in “manly,” terse prose, some startling and some rather boring, be published as a hardback? Probably not. But what’s very good here outshadows the mediocre.

This collection of non-fiction essays starts you off with a one-two punch in the gut (no surprise for anyone that knows Palahniuk) with pieces including descriptions of sexual exhibitionism and of wrestling injuries. (I literally had to pull over to calm my stomach.)

That being said, (and having got through without any 'projectile' incidents) the reader may then enjoy several enjoyable essays touching on Palahniuk's life pre- and post-Fight Club, as well as a few very enlightening interviews with other well-known persons. You may think you have opinions about Juliette Lewis and Marilyn Manson, but their perspectives are well-worth listening to, and I found them particularly thoughtful and rewarding.

My favorite pieces, however, were two about authors and their books. The one on the minimalist writing of Amy Hempel is going to send me out in search of her books right away. And the one conceived as an open address to Ira Levin, author of Rosemary's Baby and The Stepford Wives, is the most important one for us to focus on today, at a time when the necrotizing effect of most news media sources is causing many people to shut off and shut down in despair. The point Palahniuk made over ten years ago, (and that Levin deftly communicated forty and fifty years ago) is that when we become aware of social injustices that need attention, our artistic responses must ride a fine line in order to inspire positive change without overwhelming the audience.

My summary is inelegant compared to to Palahniuk's exposition, so I encourage all that are so inclined, to look up this book and that essay. And may all creatives be duly inspired.

[Note: the audiobook includes "unabridged selections," so I look forward to turning to my print copy to pick up the pieces that were left out.]

(4.5 stars, but rounding up)
This book took me nearly a month to read, which is a long time considering I usually read books in a week or two. What factors into that is while the book is an overall narrative, with one central character, this is still just a collection of nonfiction essays. So, it was easy for me to pick it up, read one or two stories, then put it down and go read something else. Which is why I am rating it so high.

I think had I tried to read it straight through, I wouldn’t enjoy it as much as I did. Palahniuk is a polarizing writer, thinker, and overall personality and I don’t think this book is gonna win over any detractors. He can be a lot to handle, and if you’re insecure of yourself, he can come across as a know it all. At first glance, he seemingly provokes just to provoke. His subject matter is vulgar, and he has no restraints in painting himself as an intellectual. The first story is about a sex festival, so he puts it right on front street what you’re in for.

It took me until the end of the book to realize Palahniuk had structured his unrelated essays in such a way that made himself into one of his characters: aloof, disaffected, pretentious, but full of wisdom. There’s a story that is made up solely of quotes from an interview, but even that is filtered through his lens, and you can’t help but hear it in his voice.

Not all of the stories hit bullseyes, but the only one I had to pull myself through was the one about the guys who built castles. There was WAY too much technical talk about how to build a castle. Some of the stories that go on too long drag a little, but they’re all building to a point. At the end of the day, this book made me laugh, gag, and think, and I’d be lying to deny that. In that, this book is one of my favorites I’ve read for a while. It’s in its imperfections that it creates a perfect study of one man’s experience.

Journalism is not his forte. (Will leave the debates about his novels to others.)

3.5
Quizás fue mala idea comenzar a leer a Palahniuk con «Error humano» pues veo que muchos se sienten más atraídos por su ficción que por su crónica/relato. Sin embargo, la lectura me fue agradable, influenciada por diversos sentimientos que te generan las diferentes historias, que van desde el asco y la tristeza, hasta generarte mucha risa o incredulidad.
Algunas historias se hacen sumamente pesadas, supongo que las que son «demasiado estadounidenses» para mi gusto.
Por otro lado, la ficción está construida Gracias a la realidad, y entre tantos relatos que van desde lo personal e intimo en la vida de un autor recién lanzado a la fama (por el club de la lucha al que refiere en muchas ocasiones), me parecerá muy interesante ir a revisar las maravillas que pueda hacer Palahniuk en otro terreno literario, si bien este libro no me encantó, si me generó altas expectativas para las demás obras del autor. De hecho, escribo esto en mi escritorio y ya tengo «asfixia» listo para comenzarlo.

I do enjoy Chuck Palahniuk's fiction and was interested to see what he could bring non-fiction wise... and my verdict is that he should very much stick to what he is great at - fiction! My main take, out of this part documentary part essay, is the horrific story that his father was killed by a white supremacist! This is the only book in my sizeable Chuck Palahniuk collection that I'm thinking of giving to a charity shop! 4 out of 12.

2007 read

Nonfiction Palahniuk. A mediocre collection of essays compared to his fiction. A few pieces are worth reading but most of them are only worth a skim.

Mediocre - bruttino - bello
Il titolo della recensione contiene 3 giudizi diversi ed ognuno è riservato ad una parte del libro. Si divide in 3 fasi appunto.

INSIEME: è la prima parte, narra le realtà americane delle orge nei locali, dei tornei con le mietitrebbie o combattimenti all'ultimo sangue per coronare il sogno olimpico. A tratti interessante, a tratti noiosa. Lascia di stucco sapere che nel mondo possano esistere realtà che personalmente ho trovato...strambe.
RITRATTI: in questa seconda parte Palahniuk intervista personaggi più o meno famosi, più o meno stravaganti. Da tizi che hanno la mania per i castelli (parte noiosa) a Marylin Manson (parte interessante) a Rocket Guy. Nel complesso questa fase del libro non mi è piaciuta molto.
PERSONALE: la terza parte, autobiografica scorre in maniera decisamente piacevole. L'autore parla di se stesso con autoironia, di come la sua vita sia cambiata dopo la stesura di Fight Club, e di come si sia trovato all'interno di un mondo che non sente suo, senza tralasciare le tristi vicende familiari.

Nel complesso questo libro è stato un piacevole passatempo, non porta via molto tempo, quindi non rischia di essere troppo noioso.