Bio
Charles Michael Palahniuk was born on the 21st of February, 1962, in Pasco, Washington, United States of America. Palahniuk is one of the most famous authors of his generation and his work has been the source of much discussion. Palahniuk, himself, looks on his work as transgressional fiction.
Life
Chuck Palahniuk was born and raised in Pasco, Washington. He was the child of Fred Palahniuk and Carol Adele, born as Tallent. Chuck is of French and Ukrainian heritage as his paternal grandfather moved from Ukraine to Canada and then to New York. Chuck grew up in a mobile home in Burbank, Washington, and his parents split when he was a fourteen-year-old. He was often left alone with his siblings or at their maternal grandparents’ cattle ranch.
Best Chuck Palahniuk Books
Studies
Chuck Palahniuk attended the University of Oregon School of Journalism and he graduated in the year of 1986. As he was going to college, Palahniuk worked also as an intern for a radio in Eugene, Oregon.
Soon after, Palahniuk relocated to Portland, Oregon. Palahniuk began working as a journalist, then as a diesel mechanic, and a writer once more. He had many stints of writing, going from manuals for trucks, to journalism, and to novel writing. With that noted, let’s now take a look at our picks for the best Chuck Palahniuk books.
Fight Club
Universally Adored
Universally AdoredFight Club is one of the most famous novels to come out in the last few decades and its fame is not a small one, at all. It is an adored, often discussed novel that launched Palahniuk’s career. It came out in 1996 and it might just be the best Chuck Palahniuk book.
Breaking the First Rule
Fight Club is a book like no other. Its minimalist writing along with the insomniac protagonist’s point of view make for a nearly hallucinogenic experience. Our protagonist, a nameless narrator, is living an empty, vacuous, consumer-oriented, capitalistic life.
He buys things because things are supposed to make him happy and fulfilled, as the TV ads would have him believe. His peers, especially his boss, do not respect him and he’s single. However, his sleep-deprived and insomnia-riddled life takes a turn when he meets Tyler Durden.
Tyler Durden
Tyler Durden is everything that our narrator has ever wanted to be and then some. The two of them soon start a fight club where men can come in, beat the life out of each other to an inch away from death, and that’ll be that.
Soon, though, the hijinks and actions of Tyler and our nameless storyteller move up towards the more criminal sort as even lives are taken. Then, at the apogee of the novel, the protagonist has an apotheosis and discovers something that literally turns his life topsy-turvy.
Survivor
Clear Pick
The Tenebrous Truth
Tender Branson is our main character in Survivor. The Creedish Death Cult, as it is known, has suddenly lost all of its members, but one – Tender Branson. Tender Branson is dictating the story of his life into the recorder of flights on Flight 2039.
The plane is flying at a steady thirty-nine-thousand feet into the air on autopilot over the Pacific Ocean. The plane carries but a single passenger, again only Tender. The plane is going to crash into the Australian outback, but before that happens, Tender is going to cast a light into the dark shadows of his life and tell us his story.
Servant of Messiah
Tender went from a subservient, obsequious Creedish child and the servant of a so-called messiah in the media, the author of such novels and volumes that he is known across the globe.
However, when Tender begins explaining the daily things he experienced and endured, begins spouting some of the best Chuck Palahniuk quotes, and finally reveals the truth that we have been dreading, the novel reaches its terrific climax.
Invisible Monsters
Bit Different
Bit DifferentInvisible Monsters is one of the novels by Chuck Palahniuk, but it is quite different, yet all the more invigorating a tale. It is a mere three-hundred-pages, but its contents are what make it so amazing. Without a doubt, one of Chuck Palahniuk’s best books to date.
You Are Free to Do Anything
She is a model with pretty much everything that she could ever possibly dream of. She has a terrific body, a boyfriend that loves her, a flourishing career, and a best friend that is as loyal to her as a puppy is.
However, as accidents are wont to happen, one befalls her. She is left in a state of disfigurement and she isn’t able to speak any longer. Just like that, the model goes from being the crux of media attention to being on the sidelines of, well, everything. Her figure, now, is so haunting that no even talks of her.
Brandy Alexander
Then, in her life treads Brandy Alexander. Brandy is but a single operation away from becoming a trans-woman and he is, at present, more than happy to aid our main character with taking control of her life once more.
The past can be erased and a better future can be written. Our narrator, then, decides to take revenge on her best friend, her boyfriend, and then go about her life with Brandy and lead life in her own way. But first, vengeance. If we showed our list of the best books by Chuck Palahniuk ranked, Invisible Monsters would be among the top.
Choke
Bestseller
BestsellerChoke is one of the books that made Chuck Palahniuk the infamous contemporary author that he is. In fact, other than his fantastic Fight Club, Choke is what he is most known for. Choke is certainly one of the best-selling Chuck Palahniuk books, if you ask us.
Time is Money
Our main character in Choke is none other than Victor Mancini. Victor Mancini dropped out of medical school and, at the moment, he is our antihero. Victor has no choice but to find a way to pay for the elderly care that his mom is receiving, so he comes up with a subterfuge of sorts.
Means of Support
He is going to go to a highly rated restaurant and fake choking on some of the food so that the patrons that are to save him will send him a check or two as means to support him. When Victor Mancini isn’t devoted to his scams, he is a sex addict who goes to recovery workshops so as to get even more sex.
He also finds himself often at a colonial theme park, which he genuinely seems to enjoy going to. Of course, we can’t not mention the fact that he visits his elderly mother quite often and she is the first that drives most of the decisions in his life. Chuck Palahniuk really drew a potent picture here and we adore his work for that.
Rant
Underrated
UnderratedRant is, in our eyes, an underrated gem of a book that isn’t nearly as appreciated as we would like it to be. This one of the best Chuck Palahniuk novels was published in 2007, it is not as well-known as his other books, but it is one of our favorites. In fact, its underappreciation is why we put it on our list of the best Chuck Palahniuk books.
Passing Away in a True Passion
Buster Casey, also known by the name of Rant, has got to be the most effective serial killer in history. If not the most, then he surely cracks the top three.
As a rebel during his high school days, Buster Rant Casey got the hell out of dodge – his small townhome – and went to a big city. In the big city, aiming to make it as big as those big men he considers his idols, Buster Casey is prepared to do a lot and a lot is what he does.
New Leader
As it turns out, Buster Rant Casey becomes the leader of a derby of urban demolition enthusiasts referred to as Party Crashing. Then, Rant Casey succumbs to the injuries of an astounding highway accident and dies.
What is left is for his friends and acquaintances to combine the testimony required so as to make some sort of a history for the brief, yet all the more fierce life that Rant lived. A true marvel of a book!
Damned Series
Short Series
Chuck Palahniuk has not penned very many series, but one that he did and one that we adore is the Chuck Palahniuk Damned series. It is comprised of only two books, but they are fantastic, both of them:
- Damned
- Doomed
Inferno and Purgatorio
It is by no happy coincidence that Madison, a thirteen-year-old, finds herself in Hell and then in Purgatory. In Damned, Madison first becomes transported to Hell when she overdoses on marijuana. She has body image issues, even though she is barely a teenager and she gets a bit carried away.
What follows is a sort of phantasmagoria of events in the decrepit, horrifying Hell. Except, it isn’t exactly all that bad. Her cell might not be all that pretty, but Archer the punk and a little group she becomes a member of make everything; especially when she escapes.
Doomed
In Doomed, though, Madison is a level above Hell, in what is known as Purgatory. Purgatory is quite like the world we know and, for the most part, love, except Madison can’t be seen or heard by anyone that is alive, unlike her.
She can be walked through, seen through, not even noticed. This also allows her to phase through solid objects, which is fun. However, soon Madison finds out that this is no coincidence and that powers greater than hers are at large. This is proof that the Chuck Palahniuk series are nothing to scoff at.
Lullaby
Sing Me a Song
Sing Me a SongLullaby is a 2002 book, spanning some two-hundred-and-sixty pages. Its name, however, might give an impression of something that isn’t what the contents would have you believe. Lullaby, also, is unequivocally one of the best Chuck Palahniuk books.
Carl Streator, our main character, is a reporter. The current obsession of Streator has to do with SIDS, otherwise known as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. He’s looking into it for a soft-news feature, but then he notices a certain peculiarity that he cannot just let go as a chance or as something arbitrary.
Culling Song
He learns that all of the dead children were read a poem a night prior to their unfortunate passing away. The poem in hand is a so-called culling song.
The song originates from very old African spells that were used for the purpose of euthanizing the elderly and those that were sick. As the investigation gains traction and Streator begins finding out more and more, he meets a lady that took her son’s life by mistake while perusing the song.
Grim Discovery
Then, he makes the grim discovery that he himself actually knows the song and it was how his wife and child died some twenty years ago. A grim, yet satisfying book: one of the best books of Chuck Palahniuk.
Haunted
First Pick
First PickHaunted is one of the first Chuck Palahniuk books that we recommend our readers pick up, preferably after his most adored work – Fight Club. It would perhaps be the best Chuck Palahniuk novel had Fight Club not come to fruition. Haunted was published in the year of 2005.
Be Careful What You Wish For
Haunted is not an ordinary novel, but one made up of shorter stories. Twenty-three is the number of tales in this gruesome volume, and they are some of the most terrifying, humorous, mind-expanding, and gut-wrenching stories that you are ever going to read of.
What ties all of the stories together is the fact that they are told by people that replied to an advertisement saying something along the lines of Abandon your life for three months. All of them were under impression that this was some kind of retreat where the ordinary disturbances of life would be missing.
Too Good to Be True
However, once they arrive, they are treated to an ornate, cavern-like, decrepit theatre that is completely secluded from the exterior world. In there, heat, power, and food aren’t in abundance, but what is in abundance is the diabolical, grimy things lingering for them.
We don’t want to give too much away, so we’ll say that this is a novel that cannot be missed! Truly one of the best Chuck Palahniuk books out there.
Diary
Brutal Tale
Brutal TaleDiary is truly an apt title for this brutal tale. It is a gut-churning world that Chuck Palahniuk has created for us and it also represents one of the top entries on our Chuck Palahniuk book list right here.
May Fury Lead the Way
We’ve all felt how it is to be through with everything. In fact, some people say that all it takes is a single bad day from hacking someone away. Well, Misty Wilmot feels that way. While at one time she was a young artist whose latent abilities were thought to be great.
However, now she’s on an island where tourism is not booming, she’s drinking, and waitressing all at once. Her husband is a contractor who is currently in a coma following his failed suicide attempt. The comatose condition in no way impedes, though, the clients that have problems from the remodeled homes.
Streak of Creativity
As Misty slowly begins feeling like everything is too much, the talent that she was fated to have seems to have come back. She begins compulsively painting, at times even as if in a trance. This streak of creativity leaves her dumbfounded, though extremely inspired by what she has done.
Then she becomes pulled into a conspiracy that might just take the lives of dozens upon dozens of people. The tale following will not leave the reader with a still heart. In the Chuck Palahniuk series of books that we’ve mentioned, Diary might be the most inventive.
Snuff
Strange Novel
Strange NovelIf our readers found Diary to be gruesome, then Snuff is a league above that altogether. Published in 2008, Snuff is one of the strangest, yet all the more alluring reads from the satirical, dark writer. In our opinion, you can’t speak of the best Chuck Palahniuk books without mentioning it.
Depravity and Perversion
Cassie Wright, a wholly intriguing and outstanding character in her own right, is set to end her fantastic and mythical career once and for all. What does Cassie Wright do? What is her occupation? Why, Cassie is a porn priestess. Her idea for the finale of her career is to shatter the world record for serial sexual acts and she’s going to do all of that while on camera. What is the number of men that she is aiming to get through so as to finish up the career she’s enjoyed? About six-hundred or so.
Not Just Numbers
The characters that we follow are number seventy-two, number one-hundred-and-thirty-seven, and number six-hundred. The three men’s perspectives are completely and vastly different, but they are all the more engaging because of this.
This tale of deathly funny, humorously grim, and salaciously deplorable events brings us Chuck Palahniuk on his A-Game as he gives us a book to cap off our Chuck Palahniuk book reviews – perhaps, one of the best Chuck Palahniuk books.
More Works
Pygmy, Guts, and Beautiful You are three other best Palahniuk books that our readers are sure to enjoy.
Michael Englert
Michael is a graduate of cultural studies and history. He enjoys a good bottle of wine and (surprise, surprise) reading. As a small-town librarian, he is currently relishing the silence and peaceful atmosphere that is prevailing.
