| |  | Books : Choke |  | | | | | | | | | |
List Price:$14.95
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Availability:Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780385720922
ISBN: 0385720920
Label: Anchor
Manufacturer: Anchor
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 304
Publication Date: June 11, 2002
Publisher: Anchor
Release Date: June 11, 2002
Sales Rank: 46504
Studio: Anchor
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Victor Mancini, a medical-school dropout, is an antihero for our deranged times. Needing to pay elder care for his mother, Victor has devised an ingenious scam: he pretends to choke on pieces of food while dining in upscale restaurants. He then allows himself to be “saved” by fellow patrons who, feeling responsible for Victor’s life, go on to send checks to support him. When he’s not pulling this stunt, Victor cruises sexual addiction recovery workshops for action, visits his addled mom, and spends his days working at a colonial theme park. His creator, Chuck Palahniuk, is the visionary we need and the satirist we deserve.
Amazon.com Review:
Victor Mancini is a ruthless con artist. Victor Mancini is a med-schooldropout who's taken a job playing an Irish indentured servant in acolonial-era theme park in order to help care for his Alzheimer's-afflictedmother. Victor Mancini is a sex addict. Victor Mancini is a directdescendant of Jesus Christ. All of these statements about the protagonistof Choke are more or less true. Welcome, once again, to the world ofChuck Palahniuk.
'Art never comes from happiness.' So says Mancini's mother only a few pagesinto 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, StephenDedalus, and Anthony Soprano, Victor hasn't quite reconciled his issueswith his mother. Instead, he's trawling sexual-addiction recovery meetingsfor dates and purposely choking in restaurants for a few moments ofattention. Longing for a hug, in other words, he's settling for theHeimlich.
Thematically, this is pretty familiar Palahniuk territory. It would be apity to disclose the surprises of the plot, but suffice it to say that whatwe have here is a little bit of Tom Robbins's Another RoadsideAttraction, a little bit of Don DeLillo's The Day Room, and, well, alittle bit of FightClub. Just as with Fight Club and the other two novels underPalahniuk's belt, we get a smattering of gloriously unflinching sound bites,including this skeptical bit on prayer chains: 'A spiritual pyramid scheme.As if you can gang up on God. Bully him around.'
Whether this is the novel that will break Palahniuk into the mainstream ishard to say. For a fourth book, in fact, the ratio of iffy,'dude'-intensive dialogue to interesting and insightful passages is alittle higher than we might wish. In the end, though, the author's nerveand daring pull the whole thing off--just barely. And what's next forVictor Mancini's creator? Leave the last word to him, declaring as he doesin the final pages: 'Maybe it's our job to invent something better.... Whatit's going to be, I don't know.'--Bob Michaels
Customer Reviews Average Rating: 
Rating: - review
This book was fun and vulgar. Read it if you DON'T have a weak stomach.
Rating:  - I don't get the hype about this one.
I've read a lot of Palahniuk's books and this is by far my least favorite. If you want something more interesting, read Survivor, Lullaby or my favorite, Invisible Monsters.
Rating: - "Outrageous" isn't the right word, but it's the one that comes to mind.
Chuck Palahniuk is an author who writes boundary-pushing, perversely twisted, bizarrely funny, male-oriented fiction that isn't likely to appeal to most women and will offend a good number of men as well.Palahniuk could be described as an author for the `Maxim' generation but his novels are actually smarter than that.In fact, if you aren't easily offended, you'll find that Palahniuk delivers some of the most perceptive satire you're likely to find anywhere.Palahniuk writes dialogue ... Read More
Rating:  - So they said it was Vulgar
They've warned you, the book is vulgar. They've warned you it's not for the timid. You've been told to go away if you have a week stomach. If you can't handle the radicalness, you'd better turn around and go right back to the safest section in the bookstore.
But, in reality, this book is not that vulgar. It doesn't make you queesy. It might be a bit foul for Bible Belters, but otherwise, I think Chuck Palahniuk is writing of as being disturbingly nasty, and that is not the case.
Read More
Rating: - Well...THAT was graphic.
Graphic and entertaining. In a good way, of course.
I found the main character absolutely intriguing, and was delighted to read small excerpts from his past every once in a while. The rest of the characters all had a certain charm to them. The first-person narrative was great, and never exasperating.
However, the book seemed to take too much time describing Victor's many sexual encounters, and not enough on his choking experiences.
I knew the main character was a sex ... Read More
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