He should stick with fiction 
Chuck Palahniuk is such an incredible writer of fiction, I think his being insane greatly contributes to this. I love reading his insanity, it is so off the wall and brilliant that I am always amazed at just how brilliant he is. Perhaps Chuck needed a break from the craziness and a collection of non-fiction stories would help him rest and get his creative juices back. But when your strength is creativity and fantasy, why would you write non-fiction? I bought this book after reading Lullaby and I was quite frankly bored by it. The stories were dull, even the ones that I am sure he felt would go over as shocking. Here is hoping he returns to his strength, which is fiction.
A Diversion, But Not Really Stranger Than Fiction
I enjoy Palahniuk's other work, so picked this one up. It didn't disappoint, but it just wasn't that compelling. At its most interesting were the portions of the book where Palahniuk was directly experiencing the events, such as his experimentation with anabolic steroids and the horribly depressing essay on his simple day out in Seattle dressed as a big furry dog. His essays on his self-consciousness and naive attempts to be cool and smooth for his brushes with Hollywood power and stardom as Fight Club took off are fascinating.
Other bits were seemingly endless in their tediousness, like the overlong bits on the Pacific Northwest castle builders, and the numbing play-by-play of the combine demo derby.
From the portraits I learned that Juliette Lewis really is the shallow, ditzy vaccuum tube that I've always gotten the impression that she is. And Marilyn Manson is a vapid, trite little huckster who "reads" the tarot by making every single turn of the card relate to things that he's already done or have already happened.
The book is a quick read, and the chapters move quickly enough that the pain of the bad ones doesn't last that long. But overall it's just not that great, far from a Choke or Invisible Monsters. You can see where Palahniuk's characters and situations come from, and he just out and out admits this, that all he writes is an extrapolation of what he's seen and done, and who he knows. Well, duh.
Bottom line: If you're hard-core Palahniuk, this will work for you. If you liked Fight Club and the others, this won't quite get there for you, as his fiction really is more interesting than the reality offered here. If you're a starving writer looking for insight into how one guy managed to get over that wall and eat regularly, then this is definitely one for you.
People Together+ Portraits+Personal
This was my introduction to the fierce creativity and idiosyncratic interests of Palahniuk. Having not read any of his other works before, I would gladly recommend this collection. The men who build castles. Dressing in animal costumes and going about the town. Minimalist writings. Portraits of Juliette Lewis, Marilyn Manson and New Republic editor Andrew Sullivan. Rescue dogs. Rocket Guy. Etc., etc....Good read....
reviews: 1, 2, page 3, 4, 5
stranger than, fiction, stories, stranger, than, true
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based on 25 reviews
