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Stranger Than Fiction

3.54 of 5 stars 3.54 · rating details · 14,694 ratings · 541 reviews

Chuck Palahniuk’s world has always been, well, different from yours and mine. In his first collection of nonfiction, Chuck Palahniuk brings us into this world, and gives us a glimpse of what inspires his fiction. At the Rock Creek Lodge Testicle Festival in Missoula, Montana, average people perform public sex acts on an outdoor stage. In a mansion once occupied by The Roll...more

Paperback, 233 pages

Published May 10th 2005 by Anchor (first published January 1st 2004)

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Jan 01, 2008 Joaquin rated it 2 of 5 stars

I don't yet have the stomach for Chuck Palahniuk's fiction. I've tried reading pretty much all of his novels and 'Fight Club' is the only one I've been able to finish, and that's because I'd seen the movie and pretty much knew what was going to happen. His writing is just so over-the-top graphic, filled with human suffering and self-loathing that for me they're too much of a mental, emotional, and physical workout to get through. But at the same time I would like to one day be able to read his...more

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Aug 10, 2007 Dan rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Chuck Palahniuk fans

I liked this book.

This is a collection of true stories of very bizarre things that have occurred or occur regularly. They are all as the old adage goes: So strange they could only be true.

In the intro to this book Chuck Palahniuk even admits that he is something of a one trick pony. He views everything in America as the following struggle: We strive to be alone. We fight our way to independence from our fellow human beings by pursuing whatever interest we have, and then we get there and find our...more

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Jun 16, 2012 Tanabrus rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read_2012

Adoro Palahniuk, e in questo libro è interessantissimo scoprire da cosa gli sono venuti alcuni degli spunti poi confluiti nei suoi libri.
Situazioni assurde della vita reale, raduni di gente che trova un proprio scopo in un'attività e fa in modo di ritrovarsi con altri suoi simili. Sia questa attività il sesso esibizionista, la lotta, gli scontri tra mototrebbiatrici, la costruzione di castelli in pietra.

Interessante anche la parte con i brevi aneddoti tratti dall'esperienza personale di Chuck, p...more

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Aug 15, 2012 Nathan Helgren rated it 4 of 5 stars

A nice collection of essays and short stories. Some of them lack the punch of his fiction, but are great tales nonetheless. I especially liked when he got personal and shared some of his life. Well worth the read, but if you are expecting Choke or Suvivor you may want to adjust yout thinking before picking it up.

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Nov 21, 2011 vikki rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

i stopped torturing myself at the half way point and burned the book over my stovetop and ate the ashes in hopes of regaining the 3 hours i put in. didn't work. this was one of the worst things i've read since i tutored freshmen in their first writing course.

to anyone who happens upon it and can't resist, here are the only nuggets worth digesting: {you are here} and {the lady}. and i'd say the latter was more so, if only for the quick spill on palahniuk's personal history. also it's worth taking...more

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Aug 19, 2007 Nicole rated it 2 of 5 stars

So it started out all right, but really crashed and burned in my opinion, maybe because I lost patience. This is a collection of stories, some interesting and indeed, almost stranger than fiction, others average. It is at its best when relating other people's stories, worst when it Palahniuk recording his own musings, which to me seemed as if he's trying too hard, and personal stories, which are not generally strange but seem more the experiences of a person who doesn't want to be well-adjusted,...more

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Jan 26, 2012 Mnava rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Partiamo da un necessario presupposto: questo libro non è un romanzo. E cosa è? Domanda leggitima, ma la riposta non è così semplice. La definizione che più gli si avvicina è quello di biografia, ma è una biografia anomala. Quello che è in realtà questo libro è un raccolta di racconti attinenti alla vita dello scrittore. Eventi che ha visuto di persona, che riguardano la sua vita privata e non solo. Detto questo bisogna aggiungere una considerazione che sorge abbastanza spontanea dopo averlo let...more

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Mar 09, 2009 Erik rated it 4 of 5 stars

Palahniuk is right. These essays of his are most certainly stranger than fiction. Just from the every first essay alone, you’re hoping that he’s making all this up. But no. The annual Rock Creek Lodge Testicle Festival just outside of Missoula, MT, detailed in the aptly-titled “Testy Festy”, is the kind of bizarre and mind-boggling public orgy that you think can – or should, rather – exist only in the most perverted of minds. (The shocking writing and fantasy worlds of Marquis de Sade comes read...more Palahniuk is right. These essays of his are most certainly stranger than fiction. Just from the every first essay alone, you’re hoping that he’s making all this up. But no. The annual Rock Creek Lodge Testicle Festival just outside of Missoula, MT, detailed in the aptly-titled “Testy Festy”, is the kind of bizarre and mind-boggling public orgy that you think can – or should, rather – exist only in the most perverted of minds. (The shocking writing and fantasy worlds of Marquis de Sade comes readily to mind.) Yet it is all very real. (Too much Viagra and Spanish fly, perhaps? One can only wonder.)

Luckily for us, the rest of this volume of odds and ends Palahniuk composed in-between his novels are much less pornographic, but just as equally bizarre. In the first section “People Together”, we meet semi-professional wrestlers hoping to make the U.S. Olympic team (with or without cauliflowered ears), desperate amateur screenwriters making their three-minute pit to studio hacks, die-hard combine demolition derby contestants in rural Washington State, Northwest castle-builders (a favorite chapter of mine, as I too fantasize about living behind medieval walls…with modern amenities, of course), and psychic shyster who are surprisingly capable of actual divination (but only after one too many glasses of red wine).

In the section “Portraits”, Palahniuk spends a lot of time shedding light on the oddity known as Hollywood. Whether it be his odd interview with Juliette Lewis (mainly for her naïve belief in Scientology – that racket of all rackets), or even Marilyn Manson’s depressing tarot-card self-reading in his attic, I am reassured once again that a lot of money – no, make that too much money – can make a self-deluding nut out of you. (The spirit of Howard Hughes is alive and well in the Hollywood Hills and the ephemeral and fickle world of celebrity-dom.)

In “Personal”, his third and final section, Palahniuk exorcises many a demon by confessing to a brief addiction to anabolic steroids – which he kicked after his balls shriveled up (which may classify as TMI for some people) – as well as the odd encounters that he still gets to this day from fans of Fight Club, his novel-turned-cinematic-hit.

Palahniuk’s prose is best described as a form of personal confession, but told with the eye of a cultural anthropologist, voyeur, and journalist all wrapped in one. I may not know his fiction one bit – except for seeing David Fincher’s cinematic adaptation of his novel Fight Club – but my curiosity is now piqued. Let’s hope it’s just as riveting and astonishing as his non-fiction.
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Feb 06, 2012 Ensiform rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

A collection of pieces covering a variety of subjects: autobiographical, ruminative essays; a portrait of Marilyn Manson; a look into amateur wrestling; an expose of a middle-America monster, uh, combine derby; and so on. All written in Palahniuk’s Ernest Hemingway gone jaded, bare-bones, non-judgmental “minimalist” style. Which style he also writes about, by the way.

A lot of the stories are extremely interesting, especially the ones that creep into seldom charted territory (like the combine der...more

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Jul 18, 2010 Brad rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: sad

Chuck Palahniuk wrote one great novel fifteen years ago. This collection of essays solidifies that Fight Club was a fluke; A glorious fluke, but a fluke nonetheless.

The voice of all the essays is highly similar to the Fight Club narrator- whom we presume- is similar to Chuck P, himself. The thing is, 'Jack' from Fight Club is a deeply alienated, confused soul- afraid of intimacy- insecure in his role as a man. Fight Club works because of this- it is literally the story of the destruction of 'Jac...more Chuck Palahniuk wrote one great novel fifteen years ago. This collection of essays solidifies that Fight Club was a fluke; A glorious fluke, but a fluke nonetheless.

The voice of all the essays is highly similar to the Fight Club narrator- whom we presume- is similar to Chuck P, himself. The thing is, 'Jack' from Fight Club is a deeply alienated, confused soul- afraid of intimacy- insecure in his role as a man. Fight Club works because of this- it is literally the story of the destruction of 'Jack' and his rebirth. This isn't rocket science analysis here, folks.

Essay after essay confirms that 'Jack' is really Chuck. A narcissistic, confused man- jumping from attachment to attachment, never quite landing anywhere.

He tries steroids until his balls shrink one summer. He passes a kidney stone in drunken/stoned oblivion. He relates attending big parties and being someone, after Fight Club is made into a movie. Brad Pitt gave him a shout out!

The interviews are the worst. Marilyn Manson, Juliette Lewis, a misogynistic inventor. They seem deeply contrived, calculated to appeal to a certain demographic- and worst of all in a colleciton- horribly dated. In 2010, how exactly are Marilyn Manson's Crowleyish songwriting rituals interesting? Or relevant? Juliette Lewis' last decent performance was as a radio DJ in Grand Theft Auto- not exactly a compelling statement that she is an artist for the ages.

I take that back- the pieces about his dad and the piece about the Navy are the worst. Horribly, Chuck Pahlniuk's father was murdered. I respect him for attempting to write about the experience surrounding that tragedy. That said- his take is so superficial- and so sadly self-centered that the end result is painful to read.

Oh, and the navy. The idea of sending a gay writer, who's biggest success was about distorted masculinity in the 90's to do a cruise a nuclear sub is a good one. Chuck makes it boring. He makes an extended tour of duty on a nuclear submarine boring. Read that sentence again.

An excellent, powerful argument for retaining anonymity a la Salinger after publication. Books are written by people, obviously. But seeing the man behind the curtain as such a pathetic (not tragic!) figure undermines his entire body of work. He has limited insight, seems entirely too concerned with looking good at parties, and generally comes across as the sort of self-absorbed douche that one avoids studiously in reality.

Nice work on Fight Club though.
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Jan 23, 2010 Kathryn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: hard-to-describe, non-fiction

I missed the pattern to this book the first time around. Part of it is Palahnik's collection of anything he's encountered that he thought could be used. "Fight Club" used a lot of his experiences at a charity hospital, "Survivor" had as many interesting cleaning methods that he could find, and calls to telephone sex numbers ended up, well, everywhere. "Stranger Than Fiction" is a collection of the tidbits that he liked best, or hasn't been able to fit into a novel yet.

But you also need to pay at...more

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Apr 21, 2009 Caitlin Constantine rated it 2 of 5 stars

I wanted to like this way more than I did, as I love stories about the things and the people who occupy the margins of society. Unfortunately many of the essays read like collections of notes, rewritten as to form a cogent narrative, but really lacked that certain something that makes them readable. There were a few times I nearly dozed off during an essay - never a good sign.

HOWEVER. There were two really wonderful pieces that I think made the whole experience worthwhile. The first was about th...more

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Feb 28, 2011 Mallory rated it 5 of 5 stars

I will admit I was a little bored by his demolition car story, and the testicle festival wasn't my cup of tea, but the rest of the (chapters? essays?) I was in love, and as a whole I can definitely say I loved the book. I recommend this to anyone who likes good writing and smart writing and funny writing and isn't a sensitive reader topic/description wise.

Chuck Palahniuk is a genius. He is funny, cohesive, and writes very well: eliminating cloggy words but not going overboard (you know- when you...more

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Apr 07, 2013 Varol Aksoy rated it 4 of 5 stars

benim aman spoiler alırım, aman kitabın zevki kalmaz diye önsöz okumama hastalığımdan dolayı kitapta geçen anlatımların birer kurmaca öykü olduğunu düşünmüştüm fakat aslında içinde geçenler tümüyle chuck palahniuk'un beslendiği enteresan yaşam portrelerinin gerçekçi anlatımlarıymış. kurgudan da garip adına sahip olmasının nedeni de buymuş, sıradışı yaşamlar ve chuck palahniuk'un yazım dünyasının nasıl şekillendiğine dair ipuçlarından oluşuyor.

bahsettiğim gibi ilk bölümü fazlaca argoya sahipti v...more

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Jan 24, 2009 Patrick Gibson rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: truth_sort-of

Then, sorry, your seven minutes are up.

Lind, Washington—home of the Combine Demolition Derby. I kid you not. How about the Rock Creek Lodge Testicle Festival? Or how about a tour of duty on the USS Louisiana (it’s a submarine)? (Palahniuk was very tame on that last one which I expected to be a real bugger-fest.)

Twenty-four brief essays on the world according to Chuck Palahniuk as only he can see it—bizarre, eccentric, strange, peculiar—oh wait, those are all synonymous. Some are intimately perso...more

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Jun 09, 2011 Lili rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-from-the-library

Finishing the remaining CDs reinforced my initial opinion about the unevenness of the essays selected for the audio book. A few were fascinating to listen to (because of the telling and the topic); others seemed just like any other "special interest" essay from "Rolling Stone," "GC," "Esquire," etc. The opening essay on Disc 1 (of 4) was unquestionably my favorite, with the third essay (also Disc 1, also about writing) as my second favorite. That third essay had a thought-provoking digression ab...more

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Jan 19, 2009 Mimi rated it 2 of 5 stars

Stranger Than Fiction is one of those rare books that I simply don't have much of an opinion on. Despite the uniqueness of most of Palahniuk's stories, they simply weren't very engaging with the exception of one or two above-average pieces. In many of these short stories, the point wasn't getting across because there was too much detail in the way, the tone was off, or I just couldn't relate to the subject. The style was fine, but nothing special.

The stories are assorted into three sections: Peo...more

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Feb 06, 2010 bethanne rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone who loves modern non-fiction

Shelves: read-in-2010

As a die-hard Palahniuk fantic (just about), I was really curious to read some non-fiction writings by him. It's no secret that I really wanted "Stranger Than Fiction" when I saw it at a bookstore one day. Now that I own the book many years later, the stories in this book are PHENOMINAL!

I know a lot of people don't like Palahniuk's writings, saying that he's a "gimmick" author that has to rely on shock tactics in order to get people reading his works, but this book is extraordinary. It takes th...more

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Sep 18, 2012 Karky rated it 3 of 5 stars

I may have been somewhat obsessed with the online journal of an aspiring writer, and he had listed Invisible Monsters as one of his favorite books. After giving that a go, I had been enthralled. Palahniuk's works dug into the taboos, with no bars. It's a bit horrifying, like that train-wreck you can't tear your eyes away from, but what defined his stories as more than mere shock value was a ringing note of truth. As fictional as the setting may be, it's enmeshed in small truths. There was always...more

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May 23, 2013 Dani rated it 4 of 5 stars

I didn't enjoy the first third of the book - stories about lonely people gathering together for the most strange reasons and occasions. They are quite curious chronicles of real life, a little sad even, but didn't appeal to me as I'd expected to.

The second and third parts of the book, identified as "Portraits" and "Personal", were my favorites - especially the third one. They narrate a more intimate experience from the author himself, and not just a journalistic narration of facts lived by other...more

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Nov 13, 2012 Matthew rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Non-fiction by Chuck Palahniuk, published by Jonathan Cape,
reviewed by Matt Stewart

IN this compilation of journalistic essays Chuck Palahniuk gets inside the outsiders.
When Palahniuk wrote Fight Club he placed himself explicitly within the triad of 90s “transgressive” writers alongside Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting) and Bret Easton-Ellis (American Psycho).
Their books were crazed, vivid flights of fancy rather than another trudge through someone else’s personal hell. Francis Begbie. Patrick Ba...more Non-fiction by Chuck Palahniuk, published by Jonathan Cape,
reviewed by Matt Stewart

IN this compilation of journalistic essays Chuck Palahniuk gets inside the outsiders.
When Palahniuk wrote Fight Club he placed himself explicitly within the triad of 90s “transgressive” writers alongside Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting) and Bret Easton-Ellis (American Psycho).
Their books were crazed, vivid flights of fancy rather than another trudge through someone else’s personal hell. Francis Begbie. Patrick Bateman. Tyler Durden. These characters were vicarious projections for men who had stopped reading fiction. No longer did blokes have to endure the earnest conventions of what Palahniuk’s writer friend quips is “the-sun-is-shining-the-birds-are-singing-and-my-father-is-on-top-of-me-again” school of literature as catharsis.
In Non-fiction Palahniuk’s parade of rebels, perverts, freaks, geeks and crackpots are defined by an individualism that is not beholden to any notions of good taste, sanity or hubris. Welcome denizens of the Testicle Festival. Welcome to the surreal circus that is modern America.
Sometimes, Palahniuk gets in amongst it scrutinizing his subjects with such charming cynicism that rapport is all but guaranteed. He throws you right in the deep end but at least he’s holding your hand. At other times he is just a fly on the wall observing and reporting events.
Whichever way he tacks you sense he loathes humanity but loves people so naturally his subjects freely espouse their eccentricities. Chuck goes where most of us won’t (or can’t) go. Along the way he endears us to a band of sweet, embattled Greco-Roman wrestlers. He navigates us through the uneasy homoeroticism of US naval grunts at sea, with Capote-like stealth he disarms Juliette Lewis by letting her ask his tape recorder random questions. It’s an approach that is weird, seemingly pointless but ultimately rewarding. Lewis, like Marylin Manson (also interviewed) is revealed as a diamond glinting out from the vacuous cesspool of celebrity.
Palahniuk gives himself carte blanche to swim the mysterious undercurrents that swirl around the American mainstream. If there is a cathartic element to this book it is of the “people-are-crazy-and-so-am-I” variety.
Non-fiction is empathetic with an absurd world. Palahniuk leavens the tedium of everyday life with portraits of people who don’t live life in an ordinary way. There really are some unique (snow)flakes out there.
Capital Times, 2005

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Jun 10, 2013 Carly Miller rated it 3 of 5 stars

I picked up a Chuck Palahniuk book for the first time at the ripe ol' age of 16 and was instantly propelled into a seemingly misanthropic mind. I began questioning my reality and personality and my relationships with everyone around me. He pushed my mind outside of the box, made me read through my fingers for the very first time, laugh out loud and he really sparked my interest literature beyond the young adult realm. So, it seemed appropriate to read Palahniuk's non-fiction work in an attempt t...more

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May 31, 2010 Gabriel rated it 3 of 5 stars

Throughout the course of reading this collection of essays, I realized that they were more experiments for what Palahniuk would later do in his books. The oral biography of Rant is found in the first two essays in the portrait section and referenced in quite a few other places, for instance. The rest of the essays continue in this vein of experimentation in style more than a journalistic piece or even a non-fiction piece. They are more snapshots of a time and place, but with very little point ot...more

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Dec 05, 2011 Magdelanye rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: social-commentary, short-stories, surprisingly-terrific

In the spirit of this years motto, to boldly go where my inclinations have never led me to browse,I applied myself to finishing this collection of essays.I had liked the introduction very much but got bogged down immediately in alien territory and put it aside.Although he is better known as a novelist, I reasoned that if I was going to read only one thing by him, this might be the book to give me some kind of perspective on Palahniuks work.I determinined to finish with it already.I started agin...more

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Apr 23, 2013 Stacey rated it 1 of 5 stars

Okay, I've read bits and pieces of Palahniuk before (Nerve, for some reason, highlights him EVERY TIME he writes a new freaky book), and I've never felt...right... about reading him. There's just somethign enormously off about the stuff he writes, it unnerves me much in the same way that anything about serial killers unnerves me. This was a collection of Stuff He Wrote Before He Was Famous For Fight Club. Some of it is funny - like his account of wanting to have lips like Brad Pitt's, and what h...more

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Jun 16, 2011 Lili rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: from-the-library

Very pleased with my decision to follow up the "unabridged selections" audio version by reading the full (paper) book. Many of the essays included in the audio were much more comprehensible in written form (especially "Demolition" and "Dear Mr. Levin") and several of the essays I enjoyed most had not been selected for the audio version.

I'd love to see him release a second collection of non-fiction essays that fills the gap since this one was published in 2004. I feel like I ought to re-read "Fig...more

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Dec 06, 2010 Chilly SavageMelon rated it 3 of 5 stars

2.5 stars really. A decent enough collection of essay bits. Not so well written, but great subject matter. And a very digestible read. Really a must for serious Fight Club fans with lots of backstory about making the film and some of writing the book. But lots of other topics/personalities covered. I said "yeah!" aloud when he gave props to Thom Jones and Mark Richard at one point.

Palahniuk slowly gains momentum of importance with me, as one who never bought into "hype" about him. He has a very...more

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May 11, 2013 Shane Jeffery rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Don’t you just love it when the publisher decides to release a book under two different titles? For those in the UK and Australia, this book is call ‘Non-Fiction’. Everywhere else – it’s ‘Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories’. I can’t help but wonder if I should be personally offended by this – as if to say the US publisher believes Brits and Aussies will drop their jaws in dumbfoundedness, not being able to decipher the complex elaboration of more than one word. Reminds me of how when the first...more Don’t you just love it when the publisher decides to release a book under two different titles? For those in the UK and Australia, this book is call ‘Non-Fiction’. Everywhere else – it’s ‘Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories’. I can’t help but wonder if I should be personally offended by this – as if to say the US publisher believes Brits and Aussies will drop their jaws in dumbfoundedness, not being able to decipher the complex elaboration of more than one word. Reminds me of how when the first Harry Potter came out in the US, they called it ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.’ Did they think the Americans wouldn’t know what a philosopher was?

Since I live in Australia, I’m calling it Non Fiction for the rest of this review, and frankly, I think that’s a better title for it. Better to keep things to the point, and simple. Chuck’s name is an advertisement for the book enough.

I am now pleased to report that Non Fiction is a darn good read. Way, way better than the other nonfiction piece, ‘Fugitives and Refugees.’ That was a complete misfire. Non Fiction on the other hand, now holds an outright position as my favorite Chuck Palahniuk novel. Yes, I even this is better than Fight Club.

I had no idea whether or not this book would work, being a compilation of essays / articles / memoirs written in random sequence by Chuck, and according to chronology he hadn’t written a decent book since Choke in 2001. Lullaby was okay, but got silly in the second half, Fugitives and Refugees was incomprehensibly irrelevant, and Diary was just plain bad. Thank God then for this book, coming along, and pushing Chuck right back into form.

Being a compilation that we have here, you can judge each chapter / article on individual merit. A fair portion of the articles are actually mediocre, not bad, just random and uninteresting. After knocking it out of the park with a few early pieces, I wondered if the book would then subside into the same ambiguous territory as Fugitives, where Chuck hides behind his arty-farty wordsmithing, instead of being open and honest, and giving us a little insight about life.

This was the case, for some of the time, but Non-Fiction is a stand out book for the Palahniuk catalogue, in that it is the only one of his books that gets noticeably better as it goes along. Fight Club, also, I think had a strong finish, but Non Fiction does it much better.

It’s weird how he pulled this off, being these are out of order articles, that don’t really relate to one another, but the whole way through Non Fiction we are being built a subliminal picture of Chuck’s vision of the world, how it was formed and what the consequences are going to come of it. This really becomes evident when things really come to the boil in the last, shortest, and best part of the book, titled ‘Personal’. These are his autobiographical extracts.

When reading this book, I felt that Chuck began, as always, with his huge shield up, not wanting to let people in. And along the way this oh-so-subtlety breaks down, until the very end where he’s left sitting alone in a room with all his deductions he’s made from all the previous encounters in the book. Hanging out with a friend who owns a castle, wrestling fanatics, a party in a haunted house, dressing up as a dog for a day just to see people’s reactions… Then all the interviews with high profile celebrities including Juliette Lewis and Marilyn Manson, to his own ascent into fame, and the relentless nostalgia of Fight Club the movie.

We really arrive here with the author, and it’s a damn dark place to be, when he doesn’t seem to know whether his life is worth anything – how anyone’s life could be worth anything…

The only way to pull this off better would be to actually write a proper autobiography, but to pull out something so powerful, from a combination of standalone articles is a rare achievement.

And now a special mention to the third article in the book, ‘You are here’, which scores an easy ten out of ten for me. That one is about how everyone now sees their life as a movie, reducing their days into scenes, their past into prequels, and themselves into any famous actor or actress of their choosing.
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Mar 29, 2011 Trevor rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

Stranger Than Ficiton is a collection of Palahniuk's nonfiction writing, both essays and journalistic articles, that show there's enough strangeness in the real world to rival anything people can dream up.

These articles fall into two categories, each interesting for their own reasons. The first category are the "journalism" articles where Palahniuk learns about and covers some person or event (be it Marilyn Manson or the Rock Creek Lodge Testicle Festival). Ranging from bizarre to fascinating (m...more

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Aug 04, 2010 Brian rated it 4 of 5 stars

Full disclosure: I’ve not read anything else by Palahniuk. I have seen the movie version of Fight Club. I came to this collection of his “nonfiction” at the insistence of my son, and discovered that Palahniuk is, indeed, a thoughtful and interesting writer. At first, I found myself underwhelmed with the pieces that seemed to be 2/3 quotations of the words of others (as interesting as the editing of the quotes was). Then, I made it to the final section, subtitled “Personal”. He won me over. He is...more

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About Chuck Palahniuk

Charles Michael "Chuck" Palahniuk is an American Transgressional fiction novelist and freelance journalist of Ukrainian ancestry born in Pasco, Washington. The press release for his book, Rant, states he is now living in Vancouver, Washington. He is best known for the award-winning novel Fight Club, which was later made into a film directed by David Fincher.

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Quotes from Stranger Than Fiction

“That's why I write, because life never works except in retrospect. You can't control life, at least you can control your version.” — 649 people liked it

“A good story should make you laugh, and a moment later break your heart.” — 648 people liked it

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3717.Stranger_Than_Fiction?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320397032l/3717.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3717.Stranger_Than_Fiction?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Stranger Than Fiction by Chuck Palahniuk[/url]

Stranger Than Fiction

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