Tender Branson is Chuck's best character yet

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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

Unique, Fresh, Brilliant

Survivor is an absurdly funny, yet penetratingly accurate look at modern society, in perhaps a not-so-good light. As a follow-up to the wildly successful Fight Club, Survivor carries over some of the elements I found so fresh and new about Palahniuk's writing, while still keeping the story fresh and new. In other words, this is definitely not Fight Club, Part II.

As an author, Palahniuk's best quality is his willingness to take chances. From the backward numbering the pages and chapters to the edgy themes contained therein, we can be certain about this: there is no topic too sacred.

A few of the "twists" toward the end didn't live up to the set-up for me, but it's not much of a let down when the book is still so much more interesting than the rest of what's out there these days.

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Tender Branson is Chuck's best character yet

I've read a few of Palahniuk's books, and I have to say I like this one the best so far. Tender Branson is a dark man, but not too dark, and is shrewdly sardonic, yet witty and likeable. His comments on human nature are disturbingly truthful. By the end, I hoped that Chuck would allow him to "live happily ever after."

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Echo

Similar to many other reviewers, this is my favorite Chuck Palahniuk novel (second favorite is "Haunted: A Novel" -- my first Chuck Palahniuk novel); so far, I have read all his books except for Fight Club! Anyway, I liked it so much I recommend it to all my friends and have started buying/sending it to others. It's THAT good. I love his darkly humorous satire of contemporary (American) life.

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As per usual, very nicely done, Chuck

I have read nearly all of his books and I've been waiting for years to finally read this one. It was of course everything I expected it would be; dark, funny, thought provoking. I found it extremely quotable like that of "Choke". I love his way of over-exaggerating our media driven world. It's hilarious. I will probably re-read it again some time because there's many things I know I missed or want to think more about in this book. I didn't know it would be that deep. It's wonderful and I encourage everyone to give it a read.

Another comically bleak character study

"Give Yourself, Your Life, Just One More Chance. Call Me for Help."

Tender Branson, one of the last remaining survivors of an offshoot Christian death cult (the Creedish), puts these signs up near every payphone in his city, ready to receive desperate cries for help each night so that he can answer them with "Kill Yourself." Thus is born another comically bleak character by minimalist pop writer Chuck Palahniuk.

With the pages numbered backwards, and the chapters feeling like a countdown, the reader dives in to Survivor to discover that the narrator is the only person on a plane that is quickly running out of gas and headed for a crash in Australia. With that bit of exposition aside, we dive right into the story of Tender Branson's life and how he ended up in such a predicament.

Survivor is so full of vivid images and beyond-satirical characters it's equal parts hilarious and disturbing. The Creedish cult, the sassy red-headed love interest (if you can call her that) who can see the future, the twin brother who may or may not be alive and may or may not be out to murder the protagonist, the lifestyle of a too-famous celebrity preacher and steroid addict, and the caseworker who is constantly curing her patient of a new condition. Survivor is chock full of these colorful characters, so much so that the novel can start to feel a little too heavy handed in its stressing of the terrible waste that life on earth is.

Like all of Palahniuk's writing, though, it's hard to put down once you've started. With no chapter being longer than eight pages, and the story moving so quickly, on a collision course for conclusiveness, the reader starts to feel like maybe they're the one trapped on the doomed flight with no means of escape.

While Survivor isn't as short and sweet as Fight Club, and lacks the consistency of Invisible Monsters, it's still a quick and exciting read and Palahniuk's style makes up for the lack of subtlety he displays in getting his point across here. For a good read on an airplane or at the beach, check out Survivor.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, page 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

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