Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk

Survivor is one of the best books I have read this year and it had me from the word GO! I have always been an admirer of Mr. Palahniuk’s writing. I remember reading “Invisible Monsters” when I was 21 and it had such an impact on me that I thought that may be after all beauty is not everything in the world and it isn’t. In a world full of madness, no logic, chaos and everything turned up-side down I sometimes feel that Palahniuk’s books provide the most comfort and its so ironic considering that most of his book are either macabrous or just plain horrific. Why horrific? Because they paint reality and nothing is sugar-coated and it is in our face and we hate to see it. Be it beauty being deconstructed in “Invisible Monsters” or children being killed by a rhyme in “Lullaby” or for that matter a story about a cult and faith in “Survivor”

Survivor is not a difficult read at all, however it is not a one-time read. Not at least for me. It revolves around Tender Branson who is the last surviving member of the Creedish Death Cult and he has a story to tell which is getting recorded into the flight recorder as the flight is about to crash into the Australian Desert. All said and done Tender is one hell of a great speaker and who can one credit it to but the author who almost seems like he is stepping into the mind of the character so close that he can feel the breath and the heat of the heart.

Palahniuk’s prose sometimes reads like the transcript of a glib motivational speaker, who instead of delivering the program delivers his commentary on the program. The details pile up one after another, the loops and repetitions accumulate, and gradually the reader is admitted into the mind of Tender Branson.

Tender Branson during the course of his tales enlightens the reader on how he met Fertility Hollis – the psychic who can predict the future and let him know what is going to happen…to the time he becomes a messiah and the outcome thereof…

I will not spoil it for you, so pick up the book and read it. Not because it is a masterpiece but because it will definitely make you think…Of everything…Here are a few quotes from the book:

“Every addiction is just a way to treat this same problem. Drugs or overeating or alcohol or sex, it is all just another way to find peace. To escape what we know. Our education. Our bite of the apple. Language is just our way to explain away the wonder and glory of the world. To deconstruct. To dismiss. People can’t deal with how beautiful the world really is. How it can’t be explained and understood.”

“Here in the bathroom with me are razor blades. Here is iodine to drink. Here are sleeping pills to swallow. You have a choice. Live or die. Every breath is a choice. Every minute is a choice. To be or not to be. Every time you don’t throw yourself down the stairs, that’s a choice. Every time you don’t crash your car, you re-enlist.”