Rant by Chuck Palahniuk

Preface: This is the first book by Pahalniuk I've ever read. No comparisons to his prior work or style will be possible. I say this because I feel obligated to, due to his giant, unrelenting, stubbornly loyal, and often obnoxious fan base.

Rant is the kind of book I would have shit myself over when I was nineteen. Pardon the French. Its secondary title is "An Oral Biography of Buster Casey," and this format allows Pahalniuk to play a lot of fun games with his reader. Of the people "interviewed" to discuss the life of Rant, we hear from parents, neighborhood friends and enemies, doctors, city friends, landlord, employers, with a various number of cultural figures thrown in to help establish the alternative world of the novel: epidemiologists, historians, anthropologists, etc.

It's telling that the first character to speak in this novel is a car salesman. Although his opening statement is relevant to the events of Rant's life, his following statements are sporadic discussions of the sales technique "shadowing," or "mirroring." This salesman is the constant reminder of an author: he's a cultural figure known for greedy manipulation and his persistence in the narrative adds an extra layer of doubt to the story.

The oral narrative gives Palahniuk the opportunity to immerse his reader in a world that she doesn't entirely understand. That way, when the characters begin to talk about their world apart from Rant, the reader can feel a certain click of understanding - a complicated plot coming together, a small piece of information that casts a new light on everything she's read previously.

The most obvious example of this technique is the designation to every character of a symbol - either a sun or a waning moon. Although possible explanations for these symbols slipped in and out of my mind, my predictions of their meaning were far less interesting than what they turned out to represent. Should I tell you? I fear I can't. As the book goes on, certain terms take on entirely different meanings: historian, honeymoon, party crashing, game night.

I started this blog in order to talk about books I had read and thus save my friends from listening to me go on and on. There is little I can talk about in relation to this book, because I don't want to rob a future reader of its little joys.

Rant deserves a second read, the same way a movie with a twist-ending begs to be watched again, for clues. But I would never say Rant has a twist-ending. Instead, I'd say it's a cleverly calculated world that unfolds piece by piece. No piece is a genuine twist, but it does reveal a warped version of our own world. In terms of the alternative history genre, this is an interesting example. Instead of having protagonists muse on "the state of the world" or a painfully expository first chapter, Palahniuk just pushes forward, basically tricking the reader into assuming that this is a biography about a person in our world, instead of in his.

A quick enjoyable read that also exercises your brain muscles, Rant was fun. It is very visual, has some excellent ideas, and will stay with you for awhile. Again, I don't know anything of his other books, but I would say that in this case, unusual ideas do not necessarily equal brilliant writing. I recommend it, but I wouldn't shoot it straight to the top of your list, either. It certainly has shelf-life, as most alternative-histories do. And it's certainly a book I would read again, for what it's worth.