"Set foot on the island and you will die." the words said. (Reviewed by Cindy Lynn Speer SEP 08, 2003) Read a chapter excerpt from Haunted at ( back to top) Amazon readers rating: from 338 reviews.Fascinating, if often uncomfortable, reading. He’s known for writing very hard edged, gritty, emotionally wringing stuff.and this novel is his harshest yet. Palanuick creates some unforgettable images here. About our need to be seen, to be pitied, to be acclaimed for our suffering. But most of all, it is a satire about human nature. Shows like fear factor are not far off from doing the same disgusting things these men and women did in order to win their fame.
AMAZON BOOK REVIEW HAUNTED CHUCK PALAHNIUK TV
It is a satire about reality TV and our preoccupation with having our own stories.no matter how mundane.told. They are certain that everyone will want to know their version of events, and so they must look like they have suffered. Whittier they will be surrounded by people wanting to pour money over them for the rights to their stories for movies and books. One can say this book is about creating art at any cost, but I fight this because while they do pay a high price for their stories, they do not actually sit down and work on their writing, they are all far too wrapped up in becoming the center of their own private drama, too worried about how their story will be told, for they are all convinced once they escape the “evil” clutches of Mrs. They pour suffering upon themselves in ridiculous ways then pretend to be innocent, making Whittier and Clark into the villains so that no matter what their lives were like outside, they are now painted “the virgin white of victim.” Sometimes you think that the people have gone too far, impossibly far, that no one could possibly do this or that, but it still feels possible, particularly so when you read the personal stories.stories that run the gamut between sad and pathetic to cruel and murderous.
In between the stories we see how the environment of the theater effects each person, the lengths that people, willing to sacrifice everything for the one chance, the one shot at fame (without having to work for it or having the right to earn it through talent) are willing to go to. A poem about the person precedes each story and prepares us a bit for what we are about to read. We learn how they earned their name, and the real reason they are here. Clark, a sad, tragic woman who is his hired help and therefore considered just as evil as he for keeping them locked up, but who may be the greatest victim of all.Įach person tells a story. Whittier, who arranged for the whole event, and Mrs. Comrade Snarky, Duke of Vandals, Chef Assassin, Sister Vigilante, Director Denial.all names that hint at the true nature of the person who bears them. We never know their names so much as we know who they are, thanks to the labels they give each other in lieu of real names. Whittier, the man who placed the want ad, locks them inside, promising to let them out when they have completed their masterpieces. What they get is an abandoned old theater. Their heads are filled with thoughts of paradise - warm beaches, perhaps, or thick pine forests surrounding a hunting lodge. They weren’t allowed to tell anyone where they were going, they just packed one suitcase and left. (Reviewed by Cindy Lynn Speer SEP 5, 2005)Ĭomparisons between this book and The Canterbury Tales or The Decameron are fair ones, for, like those books, there is a framing story: A group of writers have answered a want ad - for three months they would live in utter isolation, all they had to do was produce the work they’d been putting off, the writing they all swore they’d be able to finish if only the world wasn’t keeping them from it.