Not his best, but certainly a good book.

books:


	• Lullaby Chuck Palahniuk Thorndike Press, 2003 - 412 pages average customer review:based on 267 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Excellent!

One of my favorite Chuck Palahniuk books, about a "culling song--" a poem that mysteriously kills people after they hear it. (I guess it was before that movie "The Ring" came out, but kind of the same concept--except you don't get seven days!!)

Anyway, in true Chuck Palahniuk fashion, this book is excellent, weaving all sorts of characters together in a sick, twisted, lovely little tale.

Thought provoking but cringe inducing

Any novel that is this thought-provoking deserves at least 3 stars, even if it isn't all that satisfying to read (at times, unpleasant to read).

I'm a big fan of Kurt Vonnegut, who also writes satirical fiction, but where Vonnegut is a humanitarian who finds humour in life, too much of Lullaby is mean-spirited. You have to admire Palahniuk for tackling such controversial subject matter, but at the same time, it's hard to find the humour in Lullaby.

The greatest strength of this type of novel is that its author has something to say.

Every other living thing on the planet evolves to adapt to its environment; but we've reached a point in evolution where we adapt our environment to suit us. There are few natural population controls and we've spread to virtually every corner of the world, disrupting and manipulating eco-systems. We are a cross between `a bull in a china shop', and those two rabbits in the pet store that are left alone until the store is overflowing with bunnies.

The culling poem, as I interpreted it, was a means to stop our destructive evolutionary path.

It turns out that the actual catalyst for the novel was the murder of the author's father. When Palahniuk wrote Lullaby he was wrestling with his own views on capital punishment when his father's killer was on trial.

Shows you what I know.

Whether or not this novel is about capital punishment, human evolution, the soul sucking influence of the media and pop culture, religion, noise pollution, or all of the above, this is a novel that will get you thinking.

Unfortunately, the novel itself is not very entertaining to read. A lot of readers will find some of the subject matter extremely disturbing (I like morbid humour, but I found myself cringing in places). The novel actually gets a little monotonous at times as our `anti-heroes' hit the road on a futile quest to find all of the library books in the US that contain the deadly lullaby.

The biggest barrier to enjoying Lullaby is the fact that every character in it is so unlikeable. Sometimes this can work (to a degree). I enjoyed Survivor despite the fact that the central characters demonstrate a similar `depraved indifference' to human life. The difference here is the subject matter.

Let's face it. Dead babies and necrophilia just aren't funny.

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A Very Unique, Wonderfully Written Novel

I'm not overly familiar with Chuck Palahniuk's work. I've read "Fight Club" and I've seen the brilliant film adaptation as well. "Lullaby" is a short novel (260 pages) and can easily be identified as a Palahniuk novel. Much in the same way you can instantly recognize a Yes or Elvis song when it comes on the radio; you can instantly see echoes of "Fight Club" in this work. Critics aren't joking when they say that Palahniuk's novels almost seem to fall into their own category. Carl Streator is a reporter investigating SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). Soon, Carl notices that before the infant's death they were read a poem...And, soon after his discovery, after a tip from his friend Nash (a necrophiliac paramedic) he meets Helen Hoover Boyle, who sells haunted houses. She confirms that there is a poem called a "culling song" and Carl unwittingly kills a few people using this poem. About halfway through the novel; Helen, Carl, and Helen's assistant Mona and her boyfriend Oyster begin searching for the books with the intent to destroy the poem and keep anyone else from getting ahold of the "culling song." From that brief synopsis, it's hard to deny the story sounds unique at the least. This is not a book short on uniqueness. But, beyond that, "Lullaby" is entertaining and beyond interesting. Palahniuk himself has a unique writing style that is incomparable to anyone else. If you want to read something that's entertaining, a quick read, and completely unlikely anything else you've read...Read "Lullaby." If anyone decides to adapt another novel by Palahniuk, this one would be terrific...Some pages scream "motion picture."

GRADE: A-

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Palahniuk's First Foray into Horror

"Lullaby" is Palahniuk's first foray into writing horror fiction, and earned him a Bram Stoker Award nomination. Like all of his novels, "Lullaby" is densely packed with ideas and concepts with varying degrees of success. The first-person narration and flash-forward/flashback structure are uncommon in horror fiction, where plot usually rules the day. For general fiction readers, though, the necrophilia and SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) topics may be too intense. Halfway through the book, the narrator and company go on a road trip that calls to mind "Invisible Monsters," Palahniuk's first novel. The themes shift from serial killers to veganism to noise pollution to witchcraft to the aforementioned necrophilia and SIDS and back again. It's a fun ride that will stay with readers long after the book is closed--if readers are willing to follow its twists and turns.

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Not his best, but certainly a good book.

I found that a lot of the criticism heaped upon this story by several of the other reviewers is partly misguided. Although, when compared to his other books, this one does lack a lot of the shocking imagery, it still manages to provide an entertaining narrative in the same theme and tone of those other works. And that is what I think gives his stories value: not the disturbing imagery, but the creative look at common themes many people have seen with regards to our culture.

This story deals with power and control. Who really has it? Does it even exist? How should we exercise it? And, ultimately, do the answers to those questions even matter? While yes, this story is more conventional and straightforward than Palahniuk's previous work, I do not think "Lullaby" is disappointing in the least. I enjoyed it thoroughly and look forward to reading "Diary".

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reviews: 1, 2, page 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

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