Vous voulez voir cette page en français ? Cliquez ici.

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
7 used & new from CDN$ 18.87
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Pygmy
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

Pygmy (Hardcover)

by Chuck Palahniuk (Author)
2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 29.95
Price: CDN$ 18.87 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details
You Save: CDN$ 11.08 (37%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca. Gift-wrap available.

Ordering for Christmas? To ensure delivery by December 24 to Toronto, Ottawa, or Montreal, choose Express at checkout. Read more about holiday shipping.

4 new from CDN$ 18.87 3 used from CDN$ 80.59

Frequently Bought Together

Pygmy + Snuff + Lullaby
Total List Price: CDN$ 75.85
Price For All Three: CDN$ 49.38

Some of these items ship sooner than the others. Show details

  • This item: Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details

  • Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details

  • Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk

    Usually ships within 3 to 5 weeks.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Snuff

Snuff

by Chuck Palahniuk
2.0 out of 5 stars (1)  CDN$ 18.87
You Do Not Talk About Fight Club: I am Jack's Completely Unauthorized Collection

You Do Not Talk About Fight Club: I am Jack's Completely Unauthorized Collection

by Chuck Palahniuk
CDN$ 12.37
Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories

Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories

by Chuck Palahniuk
4.1 out of 5 stars (15)  CDN$ 12.37
Lullaby

Lullaby

by Chuck Palahniuk
3.8 out of 5 stars (178)  CDN$ 11.64
Diary: A Novel

Diary: A Novel

by Chuck Palahniuk
3.5 out of 5 stars (105)  CDN$ 11.64
› Explore similar items

Product Details

Product Description

Product Description

“Begins here first account of operative me, agent number 67 on arrival midwestern American airport greater _____ area. Flight _____. Date _____. Priority mission top success to complete. Code name: Operation Havoc.”

Thus speaks Pygmy, one of a handful of young adults from a totalitarian state sent to the United States, disguised as exchange students, to live with typical American families and blend in, all the while planning an unspecified act of massive terrorism. Palahniuk depicts Midwestern life through the eyes of this thoroughly indoctrinated little killer, who hates Americans with a passion, in this cunning double-edged satire of a xenophobia that might, in fact, be completely justified.


About the Author

Chuck Palahniuk’s nine novels are the bestselling Snuff, Rant, Haunted, Lullaby, and Fight Club, which was made into a film by director David Fincher, Diary, Survivor, Invisible Monsters and Choke, which was made into a film by director Clark Gregg. He is also the author of the non-fiction profile of Portland, Fugitives and Refugees, and the non-fiction collection, Stranger Than Fiction. Palahniuk lives in the Pacific Northwest.
See all Product Description

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(5)
(3)
(3)
(2)
(2)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
See all 12 tags...

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What do customers ultimately buy after viewing this item?

Pygmy
81% buy the item featured on this page:
Pygmy 2.6 out of 5 stars (7)
CDN$ 18.87
Survivor: A Novel
8% buy
Survivor: A Novel 4.3 out of 5 stars (289)
CDN$ 11.64
Fight Club
4% buy
Fight Club 4.5 out of 5 stars (488)
CDN$ 12.78
Choke
4% buy
Choke 3.9 out of 5 stars (327)
CDN$ 12.37
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
5 star:
 (1)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (3)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
2.6 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most helpful customer reviews

 
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars An utter disappointment, May 13 2009
By Dan Wiebe (49° 54' N 97° 14' W) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Don't get me wrong, I usually love Chuck's work - even the stuff everyone else hates. So, it pains me to have to give this novel a single star, which apparently in Amazon-speak means "I hate it".
For one thing, the book is written in a broken English reminiscent of scenes from bad racist parodies of Asian cultures in sketch comedy TV shows. Conceptually, this works given the premise of the book; practically, it makes the book incredibly difficult to read for more than a chapter or two.
Even ignoring the difficult language the content of the story itself is boring - something I have never been able to say about one of Palahniuk's books. Even the few "shock value" moments failed to draw my attention more deeply into the story.
Simply put, there is really nothing about this book that would make me recommend it to anyone. If this was the first Chuck Palahniuk book I'd ever read it would be hard to convince me to ever attempt to read another.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Not up to Snuff, May 29 2009
By Steven R. McEvoy "MCWPP" (Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
A few years back I would have told you Palahniuk was one of my favorite authors. His work is cutting edge, unique, and always shocking. Each of his works is unique, from other authors and from his own works. Palahniuk has an incredibly imaginative and creative mind. The closest authors to him are: in Canada Douglas Coupland and in the UK Irvine Welsh. But the problem with always shocking and being so unique is each new work must outdo the previous. As such I think I have lost my taste for Palahniuk's writings.

The book is unique, different and well-written. It is the story of Pygmy, one of a group of youths from a totalitarian state that has been sent to the United States, to live with Christian families and experience a better life. At least that is what the Host Families and church believe. Yet in reality these youths have been raised from a young age as agents of the state, part of a planned terrorist attack on the States.

Palahniuk does a great job of dissecting Midwestern life through foreign eyes. It is a satire both of America's fears and of America itself. However the story is just too much - male rape, high school massacre, planned seductions, pregnancies and impregnations. And the whole book is written as a series of dispatches from Pygmy to his home government, written in a halting, misunderstood English. Palahniuk captures a feel about the language, yet still conveys his message.

Palahniuk's books are usually a pleasure to read and so addictive that I cannot put them down. Some I have read more than once, even back to back - finished it and started reading it again. That was not the case this time. Twice I put it down for a few days, and was uncertain I would pick it up again to finish it. This was the first Palahniuk book I have read that I easily predicted the ending; that, in and of itself, was a disappointment. As a book it is okay, but as a Palahniuk book it is disappointing on many levels. For the hardcore Palahniuk fans out there - they will love it. I think I have just lost my taste for his extremism.

(First Published in Imprint 2009-05-29.)
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Really Gross Black Satire About Cultural Differences And Conditioning, Jun 9 2009

"Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God." -- Ephesians 2:19

Can you see yourself as others see you? Surely not. Chuck Palahniuk draws on that eternal truth to give Americans a picture of their culture from the point-of-view of totalitarian terrorists masquerading as exchange students. Not since Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" in which the satirist suggested that the starving Irish eat their children has a culture taken such a beating as Americans do in Pygmy.

To be fair, Mr. Palahniuk also takes many potshots at the unidentified foreign nation that so blatantly convinces its people that Americans are vermin. But those shots don't strike home with the same venom.

The book portrays Americans as sex- and materialism-obsessed people who are clueless about what's going on around them. Is that a new finding for you? I doubt it. That's one problem with the book.

Another problem is that the narrator's language is hard to follow. And when you do get it, it hardly seems worth the effort in most cases.

The third problem is that the "exchange students" are exaggerated in their superiority in ways that just seem silly. For instance, Pygmy can discern with perfect accuracy what chemicals are in or on a person's body by smelling them. This leads to a lot of stage setting for scenes based on odor. It was too much for me . . . more gross than funny. Similar sequences push the same gags until they are threadbare, such as the unending searches for new batteries.

I give this book a five for originality of concept and a one for execution.

Unless you have taken a pledge to read all books by Mr. Palahniuk, give this one a pass. The message and humor don't warrant plowing through the writing problems.




Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 		 Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Readable, if you make the effort
The prose is difficult to read at first, but after the first few chapters it gets easier to digest, though its content may not be so easy to take. Read more
Published 3 months ago by D. Coulombe

1.0 out of 5 stars VERY hard to read
I was thoroughly disappointed in this book. The premise is a good one. A totalitarian state sends undercover operatives to infiltrate the US by looking like exchange students... Read more
Published 3 months ago by NorthVan Dave

5.0 out of 5 stars Pygmy is Highly Underrated!
Yes I agree, it is a somewhat difficult read, but nonetheless, if it were written any other way, it would not have the same impact. Read more
Published 3 months ago by B. Miller

1.0 out of 5 stars Oh, Chuck
Oh, Chuck.

Even with your 14 year old boy sledgehammer sexual innuendo, I did enjoy reading most of your books. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Princess Lucy

Only search this product's reviews


Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject




i.e., each book must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.