Choke

I just finished Chuck Palahniuk's Choke. There is so much I love about his writing. The voice he establishes, the rhythm. His incredible humor and his scewed and wonderful mind. Each page, so much to think about. So, this was a great read in a way. On the other hand, I never got absorbed. Not to the point of hating to put it down or needing to pick it up. The characters are wonderful. Wonderful. The scenes in colonial dunsboro were maybe my favorites. As well as the nursing home scenes. I guess it's a tie between them. Oh, but my absolute FAVORITE is the scene where he is trying to fuck a woman with a rape fantasy who has so many rules about how it needs to be done. It was one of the funniest things I've ever read.

But, like I said, I never got caught up in the plot. On the other hand, I started this book weeks ago. I usually go through novels pretty quickly, but with all the work I had to do last month, many days would go by without me touching it. I might have gotten more into it if I had kept up the momentum.

Here are some random and not necessarily typical excerpts:

For one flash, the Mommy had seen the mountain without thinking of logging and ski resorts and avalanches, managed wildlife, plate tectonic geology, microclimates, rain shadow or yin-yang locations. She'd seent he mountain without the framework of language. Without the cage of associations. She'd seen it without looking through the lens of everything she knew was true about mountains.

What she'd seen in that flash wasn't even a "mountain". It wasn't a natural resource. It had no name.

"That's the big goal," she said. "To find a cure for knowledge."

And:

Every rock is a day Denny doesn't waste. Smooth river ganite. Blocky dark basalt. Every rock is a little tombstone, a little monument to each day where the work most people do just evaporates or expires or becomes instantly outdated the moment it's done. I don't mention this stuff to the reporter, or ask him what happens to his work the moment after it goes out on the air. Airs. Is broadcast. evaporates. Gets erased. In a world where we work on paper, where we exercise on machines, where time and effort and money passes from us with so little to show for it, Denny gluing rocks together seems normal.