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› Besuchen Sie die Seite von Chuck Palahniuk auf Amazon
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Amazon.co.uk
"Art never comes from happiness" says Mancini's mother only a few pages into 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, Stephen Dedalus and Anthony Soprano, Victor hasn't quite reconciled his issues with his mother. Instead, he's trawling sexual-addiction recovery meetings for dates and purposely choking in restaurants for a few moments of attention. Longing for a hug, in other words, he's settling for the Heimlich.
Thematically, this is pretty familiar Palanhiuk territory. It would be a pity to disclose the surprises of the plot but suffice to say that what we have here is a little bit of Tom Robbins's Another Roadside Attraction, a little bit of Don DeLillo's The Day Room and, well, a little bit of Fight Club. Just as with that book and the other two novels under Palahniuk's belt, we get a smattering of gloriously unflinching sound bites, such as this sceptical slight 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 Palanhiuk into the mainstream is hard to say. For a fourth book, in fact, the ratio of iffy, "dude"-intensive dialogue to interesting and insightful passages is a little higher than we might wish. In the end though, the author's nerve and daring pull the whole thing off--just. And what's next for Victor Mancini's creator? Leave the last word to him, declaring as he does on the final pages: "Maybe it's our job to invent something better ... What it's going to be, I don't know." --Bob Michaels, Amazon.com -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.
Amazon.com
"Art never comes from happiness." So says Mancini's mother only a few pages into 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, Stephen Dedalus, and Anthony Soprano, Victor hasn't quite reconciled his issues with his mother. Instead, he's trawling sexual-addiction recovery meetings for dates and purposely choking in restaurants for a few moments of attention. Longing for a hug, in other words, he's settling for the Heimlich.
Thematically, this is pretty familiar Palahniuk territory. It would be a pity to disclose the surprises of the plot, but suffice it to say that what we have here is a little bit of Tom Robbins's Another Roadside Attraction, a little bit of Don DeLillo's The Day Room, and, well, a little bit of Fight Club. Just as with Fight Club and the other two novels under Palahniuk'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 is hard to say. For a fourth book, in fact, the ratio of iffy, "dude"-intensive dialogue to interesting and insightful passages is a little higher than we might wish. In the end, though, the author's nerve and daring pull the whole thing off--just barely. And what's next for Victor Mancini's creator? Leave the last word to him, declaring as he does in the final pages: "Maybe it's our job to invent something better.... What it's going to be, I don't know." --Bob Michaels -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.
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On the other hand, the character development of Victor Mancini, the anti-hero in Choke, is masterful. Mr. Palahniuk has taken on quite a challenge, and pulled it off very well. As someone who loves character development, I was impressed.
If you enjoy the type of humor in the book, savage parodies of our sex-symbol-filled society, you will find yourself laughing aloud in many places. My favorite was the section about hypnosis.
The novel evolves through an alternating combination of flashback and narration of what is occuring in the current time. Obviously mixed in with the currrent narration are fantasies of an extreme nature, usually involving sexual relations. The flashbacks relate to a little boy whose Mother moves erratically in and out of his life.
Victor Mancini is a drop out from medical school who now works at Colonial Dunsboro where he pretends to be an Irish indentured servant from the 18th century. His Mother, Ida, is in a nursing home suffering from Alzheimer's, and Victor is her guardian. Since the $6 per hour he makes at Colonial Dunsboro doesn't pay for much nursing home care, he supplements his income by pretending to choke in restaurants. He does this with great panache until someone saves him. The grateful hero often wants to stay in touch, often sending some money to help Victor out. Do this often enough, and you can pay for nursing home care.
However, it's complicated because his Mother doesn't quite recognize him any more, and she's stopped eating. What should he do?
Much of the story development will strike you as needless repetition, yet it is all carefully calculated . . . so be patient. If you make it all the way to the end, you will like the book and the story much better. In fact, you may find that you will want to read the book a second and third time to rethink what you believed during your first reading. Pay close attention as you go.
After you read this story, you definitely should think about why you do what you do. How much of it is simply a cry for love? Can you find better ways to earn and enjoy love? Perhaps. It's worth exploring.
May you enjoy even more love than you give. Be generous!
Die Klasse von Pahlaniuks frühen Romanen wie "Choke", Fight Club oder Survivor zeichnet sich vor allem dadurch aus, die emotionale Leere und empfundene Sinnlosigkeit im Leben der jeweiligen Protagonisten in knackigen Sätzen auf den Punkt zu bringen: "The truth was, if Christ had laughed on the cross, or spat on the Romans, if he'd done anything more than just suffer, the kid would've liked church a lot more" (36) analysiert Mancini das zunehmende Verschwinden des Christentums in der kulturellen Bedeutungslosigkeit. Und über die nahezu pathologische Sinnsucht unserer Zeit sinniert er: "It's pathetic how we can't live with the things we can't understand. How we need everyhing labeled and explained and deconstructed" (232).
Fazit: Palahniuk bleibt einer der lesenswertesten amerikanischen Autoren unserer Zeit, auch wenn seine neuen Romane wie Snuff oder Pygmy nicht mehr das Niveau alter Tage erreicht haben.
Victor Mancini hat nicht gerade ein geregeltes Leben: Die meiste Zeit verbringt er in Selbsthilfegruppen und verkleidet bei seiner Arbeit, einer rekonstruierten Stadt aus der Gründerzeit. Seine Mutter liegt mit Alzheimer in einem Altersheim - er besucht sie nur widerwillig. Er muß die ganze Zeit mit seinem Selbsthaß kämpfen.
Palahniuk ist wieder einmal ein geniales Porträt eines psychisch Kranken gelungen - nur ist es diesmal ruhiger und auf eine andere Art bedrohlich als Fight Club. Er schafft es auf jeden Fall wieder, den Leser von der ersten bis zur letzten Seite zu fesseln.
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