Book Review: Pygmy
Oh, the joy of summer reading. I'm not taking any classes this summer, so I'm enjoying the freedom to read whatever I want. I've missed out on a LOT of current fiction due to being lost in Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and other great writers. I can't complain about that, but when summer hit, I was itching to read something modern, edgy, different, obscure. I looked on Amazon and Library Thing (some of my biggest online time-sinks), and came up with Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk (which, after extensive YouTube research, I found is pronounced pollen-ick.) Palahniuk isn't really obscure, he has a pretty large audience due to his most famous novel, Fight Club. My other criteria of modern, edgy, and different definitely apply. I'm actually a little confused on if I liked the book or not. It was so different than what I'm used to reading that I was definitely intrigued, but I'm not sure if it was in a good way. Much like the movie version of Fight Club, there are scenes that make you feel like you need to scrub your brain clean after reading, but he wrote them in such a funny way that I didn't know whether to laugh or be offended. I guess that's Palahniuk's charm - the random scene in which the absurdly disgusting occurs written in biting humor. If that's your thing, then Palahniuk is your guy. I can't fathom where he comes up with his plot lines, and I'm sure a psychologist would have a field day trying to analyze his psyche. One thing is for sure: the man is an insanely gifted writer.
The book was told in 1st person point-of-view from a 13 year old terrorist from some unnamed fascist country. He was sent by his country to pose as a foreign exchange student in America, meanwhile plotting "Operation Havoc" with his fellow comrades. His English is very broken, but his insights into American life are funny. I found myself laughing despite myself. The entire novel is written in broken, fragmented sentences, which has put off several readers, but the book would not have worked without it. His language makes the unbelievable circumstances surrounding Pygmy work. (Sample sentence: "Next now, eye new positioned, locked door slip unhealed, latch loud clack, sound angry humming." ...definitely takes some getting used to!) The unusual prose made the book enjoyable for me. Palahniuk wrote of everyday American events through the cold eyes of this outsider - events such as trips to Walmart, middle school show choir, dodgeball, church - and made these events spectacles. Very creative.
So overall, I liked it. It was a quick read, definitely unique, made me laugh. I wouldn't recommend it to a large audience; he's pretty irreverent, and there are definitely some graphic descriptions that I could have done without. I'm not sure I'll ever read another Chuck Palahniuk book, but he's a good writer with some crazy ideas. How's that for a lukewarm review? :)
Next book on the chopping block: The Road by Cormac McCarthy
posted by Erin @ 6:34 PM
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