Picked this one up at a charity shop trawl, and thought I'd offer it on the relays. I read this when it first came out and loved it...quirky and full of black humour, typical Palahniuk!


Amazon.co.uk Review:

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.

on the way to shnedwards as part of a relay - enjoy!

Thanks very much cats-eye for sending this to me!

Hilarious. This was my first Palahniuk novel - will definitely keep an eye out for his others! Thanks again cats-eye for the introduction!

Reserved for bookray
Mailing order:

platypussj, UK
ThursdayN, Sweden
Rrrcaron, US
perryfran, US
RustyReader2, Canada
NepeanBCLibrary, Canada <---here

Ray being continued with a replacement copy from brewski, here: http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/5140359

Hawkette, Australia
piemunga, Australia
DrCris, Australia
cat207, Australia
taniazed, Australia
Fuzzywuzzy, NZ
rapturina, Netherlands
Cross-patch, UK
perfect-circle, UK
NICNIC2, UK

On its way to platypussj. Have fun, little book!

Arrived today, thank you so much shnedwards. Looks like a book I could get through in a day so I may sneak this one in before "My Sister's Keeper" (which arrived yesterday! Book rings are like buses are they not?!).

It's one of those books where I find myself not knowing whether to laugh or wince! If it was a film I'd be watching it from between my fingers or with my mouth hanging open. It's sardonic, cruel and tender and full of pathos. With a mother like that you'd have to treat life as one almighty joke!

Thank you shnedwards, that was fun, in a Monty Python meets David Lynch kind of way!

Have ThursdayN's address and will post tomorrow or Friday.

Posted to ThursdayN today! Try not to eat anything whilst reading this book!!

Arrived today, thank you platypussj!
I'll start reading it as soon as I've finished the current book.

"Great" isn't the right word, but it's the first word that comes to mind.

It's very hard to describe what I felt when I read it and I do understand when people say that either you love his writing or you hate it, there's no inbetween! I loved it and will definitely try to read his other books!
Thank you shnedwards for starting this ray!

(I have received Rrrcaron's adress and will mail it shortly)

RELEASE NOTES:

On its way to Rrrcaron. Enjoy!

I received this in the mail today. I have 1 and 1/2 books to read beforehand, but it won't take long!
Ruth

I have never read a book quite like this one before. It was disturbing and strangely addicting at the same time. This is my first Palahniuk book, and I haven't quite made up my mind yet if I will read another. Sorry for the delay, I went on vacation and forgot to bring the book with me. Have pmed the next in line and I'm awaiting an address.
Ruth

Received in today's mail. Looking forward to reading this but I have 2 bookring books in front of it. Hope to get to it soon.

Update 7/13/07: Will be starting on this mañana. Hope to send it on in a week or so.

This was my first taste of Palahniuk. I’m not real sure what to think of it – the book had something in it to offend everyone! It was very strange and bizarre but also quite creative. The main character is a compulsive sex addict (the book goes into great length describing his addictions – so be warned - maybe a little too much information) who creates heroes by purposely choking at restaurants and getting himself saved. This book is not for the easily offended, but it is interesting and has a moral of sorts in showing the impermanence of material things. The story itself is also extremely funny and the situations are outlandish. I’m not sure if I would go out my way to read other Palahniuk books (although I am signed up for another bookray by him), but I did enjoy the book overall.

I have RustyReader2's address and will get the book in the mail ASAP. Thanks for including me in this bookray!

RELEASE NOTES:

On its way to Ontario, Canada. Enjoy!

Finally got home from camping and this was one of the many books waiting for me. I can''t wait to get it started. Just finishing up another book, will get started on this one soon.

Well.....I really don't know what to say about this book. I thought Fight CLub was great and I guess I was hoping that this book would catch my attention as well, but it unfortunately did not. :(

I will be passing it along to NepeanBCLibrary this week.

Thank you for this book, it arrived safely the other day, but I hadn't gotten around to journalling it....sorry.

I also received a couple of other books today, so this is hopefully be a good reading month.