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Choke (Library Binding)

by Chuck Palahniuk (Author)
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (327 customer reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 28.70
Price: CDN$ 26.65 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details
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Choke + Survivor: A Novel + Fight Club
Total List Price: CDN$ 62.15
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  • This item: Choke by Chuck Palahniuk

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Product Details

Product Description

From Amazon.co.uk

We can more or less deduce the following of the main protagonist in Choke; Victor Mancini is a ruthless con artist. Victor Mancini is a medical school dropout who's taken a job playing an Irish indentured servant in a colonial-era theme park in order to help care for his Alzehimer's-afflicted mother. Victor Mancini is a sex addict. Victor Mancini is a direct descendant of Jesus Christ. Welcome, once again, to the world of Chuck Palahniuk.

"Art never comes from happiness" says Mancini's mother only a few pages into the novel. Given her own dicey and melodramatic style of parenting, you would think that her son's life would be chock full of nothing but art. Alas, that's not the case--in the fine tradition of Oedipus, Stephen Dedalus and Anthony Soprano, Victor hasn't quite reconciled his issues with his mother. Instead, he's trawling sexual-addiction recovery meetings for dates and purposely choking in restaurants for a few moments of attention. Longing for a hug, in other words, he's settling for the Heimlich.

Thematically, this is pretty familiar Palanhiuk territory. It would be a pity to disclose the surprises of the plot but suffice to say that what we have here is a little bit of Tom Robbins's Another Roadside Attraction, a little bit of Don DeLillo's The Day Room and, well, a little bit of Fight Club. Just as with that book and the other two novels under Palahniuk's belt, we get a smattering of gloriously unflinching sound bites, such as this sceptical slight on prayer chains: "A spiritual pyramid scheme. As if you can gang up on God. Bully him around."

Whether this is the novel that will break Palanhiuk into the mainstream is hard to say. For a fourth book, in fact, the ratio of iffy, "dude"-intensive dialogue to interesting and insightful passages is a little higher than we might wish. In the end though, the author's nerve and daring pull the whole thing off--just. And what's next for Victor Mancini's creator? Leave the last word to him, declaring as he does on the final pages: "Maybe it's our job to invent something better ... What it's going to be, I don't know." --Bob Michaels, Amazon.com --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.



Chronique amazon.fr

"On peut dire n'importe quoi ici. Lavements, orgies, animaux, confessez jusqu'à la dernière obscénité, et personne n'est jamais surpris." Ainsi parle Victor Mancini, le héros de Choke, le nouveau roman de Chuck Palahniuk, auteur culte de Fight Club. Son héros est un sexoolique, un dépendant absolu, "un camé du sexe". Afin de payer l'hospitalisation et les soins d'une mère folle qui ne le reconnaît plus, il s'étouffe régulièrement en public jusqu'à ce qu'une bonne âme pratique sur lui une trachéotomie. Lui expurge, vomit tout et permet aux gens qui l'ont sauvé de se croire l'espace d'un instant des héros.
Le lectorat trop délicat, fragile de l'estomac, sera dispensé de lecture. Ceux qui ont les viscères bien attachés seront peut-être ravis. Au contact de cette littérature américaine postmoderne, on vit une explosion créatrice qui jouit dans la surenchère du nihilisme et de la provocation. Immorale à souhait et parfaitement désespérée. À ce jeu-là, Choke remporte la palme. Punk radicalisé avec un soupçon de doute existentiel (merci Kierkegaard), Chuck Palahniuk, nouveau fer de lance du roman US avec Bret Easton Ellis et le regretté John Kennedy Toole, fait passer Henry Miller pour un boy-scout puritain. "Ce que nous vivons maintenant, c'est la Dés-Illumination", professe l'un des personnages. Brrrr, ça fait froid dans le dos. --Denis Gombert --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Choke
73% buy the item featured on this page:
Choke 3.9 out of 5 stars (327)
CDN$ 26.65
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Customer Reviews

327 Reviews
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4 star:
 (69)
3 star:
 (45)
2 star:
 (42)
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Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (327 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Still The Cutting Edge! - Don't Miss it!, Jul 6 2005
By Charlie Lamothe (Salida, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Choke (Paperback)
In literature today, Chuck Palahniuk is the man of the moment. No other new author in recent memory has made such an immediate and important impact. With the controversial "Fight Club" Palahniuk muscled his way into the spotlight and gave his readers an uncompromising look at the flaws in our sometimes over-glorified culture. With the no less controversial "Choke" Palahniuk continues to deliver. (I haven't gotten to "Haunted" yet; I'm a little behind.)

"Choke" is an exploration of sexual deviancy, but the main theme of the novel, like "Fight Club," is the modern-day angst caused from the apparent purposelessness of our watered-down, machine assisted lifestyle. There is a certain desperation that can be felt behind the novel's sometimes witty, sometimes grotesque, always compelling escapades. More so than in any of his other novels, you can hear Palahniuk's own uncertainty behind the false bravado of his unfortunate characters.

Essentially, "Choke" is a discussion on what is most important in life and a plea for some guidance as to how to achieve it. But by presenting this argument through a series of ill-conceived misadventures, the discussion is rendered light and compelling.

Palahniuk writes with a short, terse style that is always compared to Vonnegut but which also reminds me of Hemingway. He tries to write as people speak, and the often grammatically garbled, yet perfectly understandable sentences that result are given a very spontaneous feel as a consequence. The novel is obviously well conceived and well polished, but it is not tediously overworked, as most novels that try to sound literary tend to be. Although I would hesitate to call Palahniuk's style new, he does add a dimension to this sort of "free" writing that I haven't seen before and which is very refreshing.

"Choke" is a marvelous novel. If you have any interest in being on the cutting edge of where literature is going, this is the book you must read. Although many of "Choke's" themes are very similar to the ones found in Palahniuk's previous books, "Choke" provides them with a more personal touch. Palahniuk has matured, and perhaps grown more confident as a writer; he is bringing his readers further and further into his confidence. Check out this book! Another recent Amazon pick I really enjoyed is "The Losers Club: Complete Restored Edition" by Richard Perez -- a totally obscure, completely enjoyable book that I can't stop thinking about. Highly recommended.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Oh, Chuck..., Sep 21 2008
By Jack Blatant (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: Choke (Paperback)
I really enjoyed both Fight Club and Survivor, so I thought I'd give this novel a shot. I find Chuck Palahniuk to be disturbing in a very interesting kind of way, so I jumped into this book with enthusiasm, and let it take me on a ride.

And then the ride stopped, before the book did. Too many ludicrous twists and turns, and an approach to sex that made me want to avoid even thinking about anything to do with sex for at least a month. Grimy, degrading, stultifying, disgusting, descriptions. I know that's what Palahniuk was trying to do, but it worked altogether too well.

I'm glad I read the book, but I was very glad when I finished it, and I cannot see myself rereading it.
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1.0 out of 5 stars Uninteresting, Sep 20 2009
This review is from: Choke (Paperback)
I've never been bored with a Chuck Palahniuk novel before. I've also never read a novel where the characters were as uninteresting to me. What's the point in reading a book when it seems you are meant to dislike every single character? It felt like a chore to finish.

I understand some people loved this book, maybe it's a love it or hate it type of book. But it certainly doesn't compare to his previous works that have better developed characters and more imaginative storylines. If you're looking for a Chuck Palahniuk book and just don't know which one to get, don't start with this one. I would suggest Survivor or any previous work.
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 		 Most recent customer reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Crap
Terrible novel. Repetitive, boring, stupid. Palahniuk writes like someone more interested in crafting a quotable-quote than an actual story. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Benjamin Anderson

5.0 out of 5 stars Gagging with laughter and sadness
"Choke," by Chuck Palahniuk is one of the most unique novels I have ever read. From the first page which implores the reader not to read the book (who does that? Read more
Published on Mar 19 2006 by Jeff Walker

5.0 out of 5 stars Almost did, laughing
"Choke" is tied with "Survivor" (another Palahniuk novel)as being my favorite book, and the novel "Katzenjammer" by Jackson McCrae. Read more
Published on Mar 8 2006 by Dennis M.

1.0 out of 5 stars wow
I'd give this book 0 stars, but the option is unavailable.

By that, you can be led to assume that the book is terrible. Oh, and it is; I can't see how this is a bestseller. Read more

Published on Jul 14 2005

5.0 out of 5 stars Still The Cutting Edge! - Don't Miss it!
In literature today, Chuck Palahniuk is the man of the moment. No other new author in recent memory has made such an immediate and important impact. Read more
Published on Jun 11 2005 by Charlie Lamothe

5.0 out of 5 stars Water, please.
Palahniuk outdoes himself with this fourth installment of his usual style in CHOKE.I wish I could write this well. I read Choke in one night and was blown away. Read more
Published on Jun 3 2005 by Paul Piorick

5.0 out of 5 stars Still The Cutting Edge! - Don't Miss it!
In literature today, Chuck Palahniuk is the man of the moment. No other new author in recent memory has made such an immediate and important impact. Read more
Published on May 26 2005 by Charlie Lamothe

5.0 out of 5 stars All choked up and no place to go
I found "Choke" to be a really entertaining and thought-provoking novel. Palahniuk has a way of words, and knows how to create a very dark world that none of us have ever seen... Read more
Published on Jul 26 2004

4.0 out of 5 stars Few can survive on premise alone
Few books can survive on a clever idea alone. Palahniuk is probably the only author I know who can pull this off. Read more
Published on Jul 18 2004 by Dennis Marcato

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome
First and foremost if it wasn't for the movie fight club i would have never heard of Chuck Palahniuk. Now I have read several of his books. Read more
Published on Jul 7 2004

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