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9491 ratings, 3.92 average rating, 661 reviews
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published
August 3rd 2000
by Vintage
binding
Paperback, 304 pages
isbn
009928264X
(isbn13: 9780099282648)
description
Some say that the apocalypse swiftly approacheth, but that simply ain't so according to Chuck Palahniuk. Oh no. It's already here, living in the head ...more
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avg 3.92
recommends it for:
anyone with a therapist on standby
chuck palahniuk will mess you up. he messed me up. 'fight club' put chuck on the map, but in my opinion, 'survivor' is where he really earned his paycheck.
as others have mentioned, the book starts on page 247 or so and goes backwards to page 1. a simple, but clever gimmick that made me buy the book in the first place. and since the novel's protagonist, if we can call him that, is on a doomed airplane, the page numbering is highly appropriate.
palahniuk expertly traces one man's rise to ...more
as others have mentioned, the book starts on page 247 or so and goes backwards to page 1. a simple, but clever gimmick that made me buy the book in the first place. and since the novel's protagonist, if we can call him that, is on a doomed airplane, the page numbering is highly appropriate.
palahniuk expertly traces one man's rise to ...more
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Read in July, 2008
recommended to Kristen by:
Martin, Chris, and a bunch of guys my age.recommends it for: thrill seekers, those who don't care about facts
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Read in September, 2008
I'm going to be honest, I'm starting to become less and less impressed with Palahniuk's work in general-- and it saddens me to admit this. I've read five of his books now (one non-fiction; one too plodding to even finish), and it's becoming too obvious that every character voice is exactly the same. They are all written the same, they all have the same delivery of speech and thought patterns, they are all perfectly one-dimensional. Blank, emotionless, cruel, somewhat hateful. Disenchanted...more
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Read in July, 2008
Okay. So I'm a harsh critic. I'm usually VERY stingy with my five-star ratings. But I had a special experience with this book.
I didn't read it. I DEVOURED it. I started reading it yesterday afternoon, and I literally could not go to bed until I had finished it. There are only three other books to date with which I have had this experience:
1. Pride and Prejudice, age 16
2. Everything Is Illuminated, age 20
3. Watchmen, also age 20 (2003 was a very good year!)
And the minute I put it...more
I didn't read it. I DEVOURED it. I started reading it yesterday afternoon, and I literally could not go to bed until I had finished it. There are only three other books to date with which I have had this experience:
1. Pride and Prejudice, age 16
2. Everything Is Illuminated, age 20
3. Watchmen, also age 20 (2003 was a very good year!)
And the minute I put it...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in April, 2008
recommended to Charissa by:
myself (thanks self!)recommends it for: lovers of great writing and twisted world views
Damn. That was a good read. I have to say I was a little reluctant in the early stages of the book. He builds the tale so slowly, and you really have no idea who these characters are. But as the layers unfold and you begin to burrow to the heart of the book... I have to say I'm impressed. Mister Palahniuk is all that and a bag of chips. He kind of reminds me of Tom Robbins... but the cynical, perverted version. There are echoes of the themes that run through Fight Club. He has a very sub...more
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7 comments
Read in November, 2005
Scrounged book review from my blog:
I breezed through reading Chuck Palahniuk's "Survivor" in less than a week. This book was a very entertaining read, although not recommended if you are depressed or have suicidal tendencies.
The main character is a "survivor" of the Creedish Church District mass-suicide. A mandate of the Creedish religion is that all church members must immediately commit suicide upon learning that the Deliverance had come. So all those members who h...more
I breezed through reading Chuck Palahniuk's "Survivor" in less than a week. This book was a very entertaining read, although not recommended if you are depressed or have suicidal tendencies.
The main character is a "survivor" of the Creedish Church District mass-suicide. A mandate of the Creedish religion is that all church members must immediately commit suicide upon learning that the Deliverance had come. So all those members who h...more
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Read in February, 2007
recommends it for:
the Palanchiuk cult
You know him best as the father of "Fight Club," that fiendishly nihilistic modern tale of materialism and machismo run awry. "Survivor" is a different take on almost the same theme, a fractured look at contemporary living as seen through the twisted prism of a not-too-innocent.
The narrator begins by telling us that he has hijacked a plane and that he will run out of fuel in so many hours. In that time, he will tell us (and the flight recorder) the tale of how he got to...more
The narrator begins by telling us that he has hijacked a plane and that he will run out of fuel in so many hours. In that time, he will tell us (and the flight recorder) the tale of how he got to...more
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Siempre que voy en los últimos capítulos de un libro, me pregunto si todas mis expectativas se verán cumplidas. Sin embargo, en el caso de Survivor, mientras más leía y más me llenaba de dudas, mis expectativas iban creciendo y cumpliéndose. Hay varias cosas que Palahniuk pone en cuestión en el libro, como la cosificación del hombre (el culto), la sexualidad como una especie de "liberación" (la frustración también se encuentra en este punto), el destino (el sueño y el asom...more
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recommends it for:
the top of the toilet seat
His books are always cause for debate in my mind...i enjoy his writing style, finding it fresh yet easy to follow. further, he has a wealth of trivial knowledge which adds an interesting dimension to his varying story lines. the trouble is that after vorasciously consuming this (and other palahniuk novels) through 3/4ths of it's length, the narrator's voice seems suddenly RUSHED...the tone becomes too tongue-in-cheek, with the stars of the novel making outrageous, out of character statements l...more
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The gimmick of the page number along with the chapter numbers going backwards and counting down to one. The book gave me a weird feeling from the start almost identical to the feeling I got from first watching the film adaptation of Fight Club, also written by Chuck Palahnuik. The story was great where the sole survivor of a Creedish Death Cult becomes a religious leader, which mocks todays culture of botox to eating traits and to celebrities. Its satire is perfectly dealt and the ending is also...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
People who want to read something different.
Strange, intriguing at first, but ended with disappointment. Tender Branson is a veritable oddball, with more against him than the average person. I liked him up until a point in the novel where he ceased to think for himself. After that the book became unbearable, and a struggle to read. What started out creative, interesting, amusing, and with a bunch of mental "oh really"s, ended somehow in dejection. Which is odd, because the ending is quite amusing at parts. It is different ...more
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This is Palahniuk's most compelling book. For fans of the odd contemporary fiction, it's a must have, and a must read annually.
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Read in January, 2000
I really enjoyed Fight Club. I thought it was inventive and clever, well constructed and in it's way very honest.
I knew I was going to finish this book (Survivor), it was easy to read. I read it a few years ago and don't remember much at all about it story wise, but I do recall feeling like people who liked Fight Club are supposed to fall in line with this, and it didn't feel like he had really put the effort in.
Apparently people really liked this book, I know many people gave it a lot ...more
I knew I was going to finish this book (Survivor), it was easy to read. I read it a few years ago and don't remember much at all about it story wise, but I do recall feeling like people who liked Fight Club are supposed to fall in line with this, and it didn't feel like he had really put the effort in.
Apparently people really liked this book, I know many people gave it a lot ...more
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I've probably read a lot of Palahniuk down the years. I respect it while sometimes not particularly liking it.
This is the first one I've read since I read some Amy Hempel. You can see her influence all over him. The notion of minimalist writing. No spare adjectives. No unnecessary description.
In an essay on writing he talked about inviting friends over to his house and getting them to discuss everything they know about a topic, and writing down everything they say. You can get a whole chapt...more
This is the first one I've read since I read some Amy Hempel. You can see her influence all over him. The notion of minimalist writing. No spare adjectives. No unnecessary description.
In an essay on writing he talked about inviting friends over to his house and getting them to discuss everything they know about a topic, and writing down everything they say. You can get a whole chapt...more
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Read in October, 2005
It's in the running to be my favorite Palahniuk book, but for the time being I'm just going to say it's my second favorite just so none of the other books get offended. I don't know what it is about death cults but between them and hitching a ride around the country in the back of those prefabricated homes that are always taking up 1.5 lanes on the freeway, this book has nearly everything I like in a story.
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When I got to the part a few pages in where the narrator talks about how his phone number is one digit different than a suicide hotline advertised in a local newspaper, and how whenever someone calls him on accident looking for guidance, he tells them, "Kill yourself, no one's ever gonna care," I knew I was in for a treat. Upon finishing it, all the other books I had read paled just a little bit.
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i didn't like it as much as Lullaby, but it was still cool in that plahniuk bizzaro sort of way. it's sort of like a mixture of the Jonestown massacre and The Who's 'Tommy', all intertwined with little household tips for getting stains out of things and such. the pages are numbered backward, which i think all books should do because then you always know how many pages you have left!
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Out of all of the Palahniuk novels, this one is my personal favorite (with Rant coming in a quick second). The main character is the last surviving member of the Creedish Death Cult (think Waco, TX if they were Amish...), who, unbenownst to him, is about to become the next big supertelevangelist - sort of. Mixed with sexuality, murder, and that distinctive Palahniuk satirical flair, this book is a page turner. I could not put it down. And if you put it down for a few months, you just want to...more
Read in January, 2005
Does anyone find this guy as cloying and desperate to be hip as I do?
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Read in November, 2008
recommended to Ron by:
stephen brockman
Dark, satiric, funny, perhaps bordering demented, an indictment of fundamentalist religion, consumer culture and media mania, even more relevant with the recently-completed election. The protagonist maintains a deadpan prose throughout, reciting ways of indoctrinating his followers through hackneyed, yet successful marketing, listing how to best clean and maintain household fabrics and furnishings (channeling heloise) and explaining matter of factly the personal/familial/educational strictures ...more
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quotes from this book
"The joke is, we all have the same punchline."
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