Dubi reviewed Make something up by Chuck Palahniuk
Review of 'Make something up' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
Maybe it's me. I used to love Palahniuk, but of late I started caring less for his more recent work. Maybe if I reread the books I loved I would find I no longer like them so much. Maybe. Truth is, there's nothing surprising in this book. You get plain and simple Palahniuk. Nothing less, nothing more. The same writing style and quirks, the same penchant for the gory and disgusting even when it doesn't really serve a purpose. The same thin veneer of anti-consumerism and non-conformism covering what is at base just a desire to shock.
Some of the earlier books in the collection actually surprised me in their overall positive outlook, and I was ready to like the collection, but that didn't last very long.
Palahniuk is a cynic. Which is great, I'm a cynic too. But he's a cynic that takes himself all too seriously. The stories …
Maybe it's me. I used to love Palahniuk, but of late I started caring less for his more recent work. Maybe if I reread the books I loved I would find I no longer like them so much. Maybe. Truth is, there's nothing surprising in this book. You get plain and simple Palahniuk. Nothing less, nothing more. The same writing style and quirks, the same penchant for the gory and disgusting even when it doesn't really serve a purpose. The same thin veneer of anti-consumerism and non-conformism covering what is at base just a desire to shock.
Some of the earlier books in the collection actually surprised me in their overall positive outlook, and I was ready to like the collection, but that didn't last very long.
Palahniuk is a cynic. Which is great, I'm a cynic too. But he's a cynic that takes himself all too seriously. The stories lack humour and end up being just dull and pointless. Yes, life is not fair, your highness. And anyone telling you any different is trying to sell you something. We get it.
There is nothing sadder, though, than the constant references to Fight Club. You'd think he was never able to recreate the commercial and critical success of that one book, because at times he's practically writing his own FanFic (and yet, here I am, buying the new Fight Club 2 comic books, so I guess the joke's on me). The references serve no real purpose other than being feeble jokes or failed attempts at characterizing characters, or in one case - pathetic attempts to build a mythology. They fall flat each and every time, and piss me off to make it even worse.
Maybe I've outgrown Palahniuk. But, from my perspective, he just got tired and lazy and disappointing.