Page turner and funny (Palahniuk is amazingly observant)

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	• Survivor Chuck Palahniuk Blackstone Audiobooks, 2006 average customer review:based on 381 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Page turner and funny (Palahniuk is amazingly observant)

This is only the 3rd of Palahniuk's books I have read. This was the first real page turner, and it was full of humorous observations and satire about every day America. Choke and this one are highly recommended. Fight Club...well interestingly, the book might not be as good as the film. I cannot wait for Survivor to be made into a movie!

Inconsistent

I found this novel inconsistent and not as stylish as many of Chuck's other novels (makes sense, though, as this was only his second novel, the follow up to the hugely successful Fight Club). Tender Branson, the former cult member turned media messiah, is the last of his kind after Heaven's Gate-like mass suicides takes place in the cult's compound. I enjoyed the first half of the book the most, with Tender's innocence still somewhat intact as he cleans up a wealthy household and gives us the background of his upbringing. His transformation into a manipulated and manipulating media sensation seems too much of a reach for someone with such a humble and conservative upbringing. His controlling agent seems too over-the-top, and Tender's acquiescence to all of the agent's wild schemes seems a bit contrived. Tender becomes less and less sympathetic throughout the narrative and other characters are just plain superficial. Love-interest Fertility is shallow and her gifts of prediction are a little too convenient for Tender's escalation to fame. His maniacal brother Adam doesn't add all that much substance to the story other than the great revelation as to how the cult developed Tender's extreme fear of sex.

Overall, I liked the original concept, but wasn't entirely thrilled with how the story developed. It had its humor and its typical Chuck shock-value. It was quick read that won't make you feel like you've wasted your time, but it wasn't Chuck's best.

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Chuck's Second Best Novel

Survivor covers the same territory as a lot of Palaniuk's cultural criticism--our anti-hero has mommy/daddy issues, sex issues, girlfriend issues. He's an outsider, critiquing consumerism, mocking religion, an expert on obscurity (victorian flower symbolism and home ec, in this case). His story includes a spattering of repeating sentences and is titled ironically--Survivor.
Despite revisiting such familiar territory, Palaniuk creates a character who is unique from his others. The main character--Tender Branson--has been banished from the Garden of Eden, as the story begins. His sex interest, Fertility Hollis, is Palaniuk's equivalent for Eve. Fertility (an appropriate name for the Bible's mother of all mankind), who knows everything (tree of knowledge), guides Tender and his twin brother--Adam--until the story's last page.
Adam's greatest contribution is debunking Tender's illusions that the home he was kicked out of was a paradise. This idea that paradise is a lie, a false construction is reinforced by Tender's job as the book begins. He's charged by his masters (secular gods) to maintain their garden, a job which he completes by using fake flowers.
I thought this metaphor was really clever and I only caught onto it on the second read. Not that I didn't enjoy Tender's later transformation in a desperate bid for eternal life--in name if not in fact, but the first part of the book was just more fun for me.
Even with that said, I think Choke is a better written book. But after you've finished that, Survivor is a worthwhile second read.

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reviews: 1, page 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

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