Not his best, but certainly a good book.

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	• Lullaby Chuck Palahniuk Anchor, 2002 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 258 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

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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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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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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Lullaby

Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk *****

Lullaby is not UpChucks best but it sure is close. It is easily among the best of his work. Better than Choke, Haunted, and Diary. On par with Fight Club, Invisible Monsters, and Survivor. The story is just absurd enough to almost kind of believe and gives insight into why UpChucks work is in a league all it's own.

The story of a man who works a a journalist and has a current assignment on the subject of S.I.D.S. or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. As he begins his assignment he realizes a trend across the country, as all of the parents of the children who died had read them a poem from page 27 in a book of poems from around the world; a culling song. An old African chant used to send the dying to the other side. This is all by mistake that the parents harm their children of course but once the poem falls in to the wrong hand it shows that people have a serious issue with tolerance and self-control. As the main character scourers the country in search for every copy of the book he realizes he has undertaken more then he bargained for.

Lullaby is a insightful (as is all UpChucks work), a page turner, and one that will have you transfixed on what is coming. Palahniuks signature style shines bright here and makes for one of his best novels.

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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.

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

Ever heard of a culling song? It?s a lullaby sung in Africa to give a painless death to the old or infirm. The lyrics of a culling song kill, whether spoken or even just thought. You can find one on page 27 of Poems and Rhymes from Around the World, an anthology that is sitting on the shelves of libraries across the country, waiting to be picked up by unsuspecting readers.

Reporter Carl Streator discovers the song?s lethal nature while researching Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, and before he knows it, he?s reciting the poem to anyone who bothers him. As the body count rises, Streator glimpses the potential catastrophe if someone truly malicious finds out about the song. The only answer is to find and destroy every copy of the book in the country. Accompanied by a shady real-estate agent, her Wiccan assistant, and the assistant?s truly annoying ecoterrorist boyfriend, Streator begins a desperate cross-country quest to put the culling song to rest.

Written with a style and imagination that could only come from Chuck Palahniuk, Lullaby is the latest outrage from one of our most exciting writers at work today.

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