Guilt & Redemption 
Reading Chuck Palahniuk's collection of oddball 'strange-but-true' stories, articles written for various magazines about twisted people and their twisted little hobbies, is like watching "America's Most Terrifying Videos" or reading "Ripley's Believe It or Not." You feel guilty for enjoying the freak show... but not enough to stop reading. The book isn't that thick, and there are 23 chapters so each one makes a pretty good (and somehow appropriate) bathroom companion. There are chapters guaranteed to offend almost any sensibility, and yet there you sit still reading long after your business is done. They say knowledge is neutral, neither good nor inherently bad. But does that mean that every story has to be told?
Stranger than Chuck...
Chuck Palahniuk out-does his own fiction writing, (which can be strange at times) with this collection of "True" stories.
Any fan of Chuck will appreciate this book. It lives up to it's title, and delivers it's helping of strange and obscure topics.
One of these topics is masturbation. And, he has much to say about this, including the reactions of the listeners when he read this story at bookstores around the world. And, let's not exclude the "Testicle Festival," the yearly event near Massoula Montana, that includes public nakedness, sex, and debauchery of all sorts. And, of course, the consumption of fried bull testicles. (dipped in ranch dressing)
So, get on...hold on tight. You may wish you hadn't, but, then again, if you are already familiar with Chuck's work, you probably would expect no less.
Some stories are slow, but overall worth it.
Many other reviewers have noted that some of the stories in this book are slow and dry. The drawn out descriptions of the castle builders immediately comes to mind, as does the personal story of Juliette Lewis. But overall this is a worthwhile look into the mind and life of one of the best authors of our time. I feel like I know Chuck Palahniuk on a more personal level now, and that's what I was hoping for. I find him a fascinating man, someone I would love to sit down for coffee with. With that desire in mind, I am very happy I waded through this book.
Enjoyable read
Interesting true stories told well. One story offering some insight into the man? A departure for Palahniuk but one of my favorites of his.
reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
From the bestselling author of Fight Club and Diary, a collection of essays and journalistic pieces that prove that real life has imagination beaten cold in the strangeness and wonder departments
Chuck Palahniuk?s world has always been, well, different from yours and mine. The pieces that comprise Stranger Than Fiction, his first nonfiction collection, prove just how different, in ways both highly entertaining and deeply unsettling. Encounters with alternative culture heroes Marilyn Manson and Juliette Lewis; the peculiar wages of fame attendant on the big budget film production of the movie Fight Club; life as an assembly-line drive train installer by day, hospice volunteer driver by night; the really peculiar lives of submariners; the really violent world (and mangled ears) of college wrestlers; the underground world of iron-pumping anabolic steroid gobblers; the immensely upsetting circumstances of his father?s murder and the trial of his killer?each essay or vignette offers a unique facet of existence as lived in and/or observed by one of our most flagrantly daring and original literary talents.
stranger than, fiction, stories, stranger, than, true
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based on 25 reviews
