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Survivor

3.91 of 5 stars 3.91 · rating details · 50,660 ratings · 1,972 reviews

“A wild amphetamine ride through the vagaries of fame and the nature of belief.”—San Francisco Chronicle

Tender Branson—last surviving member of the Creedish Death Cult—is dictating his life story into Flight 2039’s recorder. He is all alone in the airplane, which will crash shortly into the vast Australian outback. But before it does, he will unfold the tale of his journey...more

Paperback, 289 pages

Published April 5th 2010 by W. W. Norton & Company (first published February 17th 1999)

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Sep 05, 2008 Jess rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 with t...more

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Jan 15, 2008 Matt rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition 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 fame. te...more 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 fame. tender branson is the sole survivor of 'the creedish cult' who decide to stage their own johnstown massacre. consequently he becomes something of a media darling, everyone wanting a piece of the action. palahniuk illustrates just how really susceptible we americans are to clever marketing and the completely ridiculous idea of celebrity. what, exactly, is our fascination with 'celebrities' and hollywood types? i started thinking about the ridiculous number of tv shows dedicated to following celebrities: et, access hollywood, celebrity justice, etc, etc, etc, and not to mention an entire tv channel (E!) devoted to a shoving unrealistic hopes, dreams, and ideals down the throats of the every day, average american who has no hopes of ever achieving 'the hollywood life.' i'm pretty sure hollywood is ruining america.

i think palahniuk's masterstroke, however, is showing us tender branson's 'book of prayer.' it's a sorry commentary on the state of christianity in america. so-called 'christians' who actually try to sell prayers. unreal. (and this from a VERY christian individual) it wouldn't be as funny if it weren't true. he shows our proclivity to bandwagon, to flock to 'the new thing' simply because it's 'the new thing,' regardless of it's actual value or merit.

chuck palahniuk isn't for the faint of heart. like i said, he'll mess you up. this book stayed with me for weeks after reading it. it'll do the same for you. but i don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.

a biting commentary on contemporary american culture.(less)

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Jul 09, 2008 Kristen rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: thrill seekers, those who don't care about facts

Recommended to Kristen by: Martin, Chris, and a bunch of guys my age.

Shelves: eh-books

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. *******THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW!!!**********

I have been told by SO MANY PEOPLE to read books by Chuck Palahniuk! I do enjoy the twisted irony in writings such as Kurt Vonnegut, and other similar authors, so I came to this book WANTING to LOVE it...and it "fell" flat.

What I disliked in the book was the complete disregard for reality/common sense, when convenient, or necessary for plot. Now, I know it's fiction, but if you are going to write in a realistic style, then you can't just have...more *******THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW!!!**********

I have been told by SO MANY PEOPLE to read books by Chuck Palahniuk! I do enjoy the twisted irony in writings such as Kurt Vonnegut, and other similar authors, so I came to this book WANTING to LOVE it...and it "fell" flat.

What I disliked in the book was the complete disregard for reality/common sense, when convenient, or necessary for plot. Now, I know it's fiction, but if you are going to write in a realistic style, then you can't just have someone hijack a plane in a book (before he's even ON the plane...as if the security would actually let Tender board the plane...he would have been shot dead on the spot in real life!)and get away with it, or have a formerly devoted religious cult member become a mass murderer, then suddenly lack the balls to shoot his own brother. If Adam was really this embittered killer, he would have been able to blow away Tender with no problem... and Fertility as well. And Fertility...how can she pretend she's a surrogate mother, but really be barron? How would she keep getting clients?? It's nagging questions like this that truly kept me from enjoying the book.

Sure, the shock factor was there, and sometimes it was more than predictable (I'm sorry, but I KNEW that lobster was gonna be alive!!). Survivor was definitely an entertaining read, but it didn't have this lasting affect on me, as it did for many of my friends.

I am an artist/visual person, I can really get into Palahniuk's imagery. That was totally his saving grace in this book. The flowers, the lips and the gun, the porn, the statue of Tender, the telephone...all of these images were really striking and I can see why this book is being used for a movie. It will be as good as Fight Club, I predict. Strong imagery sticks in your subconscious and if this book is lasting for me in any way, it's several scenes that I can see as perfectly as a picture or a film real.

But honestly, I think he's overrated. That's just my opinion. I'm debating whether or not I want to go into another book of his. I feel that I will know what to expect,and find the same characters, slightly altered...with a different name, maybe a hat, but the same critical flaws. At least Kurt Vonnegut had some original concepts in his books!!

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Feb 16, 2009 Heather rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Palahnuik has a formula to his story-writing, and it's becoming more and more clear that every work becomes less and less impressive upon further examination. Every main character seems plagued by the same sense of nihilism and self-defeat like his Fight club protagonist, as well as the same delivery of speech, and thought patterns.

So. After reading about 3 books in a row with this consistent formula, I was about ready to abandon my faith in him.

But. Then I read this book, and what a fresh bre...more

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Jun 22, 2008 Denise rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition 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 in that when you...more

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Feb 26, 2008 G.R. rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

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 of stars...more

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Feb 12, 2009 Patrick Gibson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: dejected angry nihilists

Shelves: contemporary-literature, lasciate-ogne-speranza-voi-ch-intra

What would you do if you worked as a gardener for a wealthy couple who are mastication-challenged and you’ve landscaped their yard with plastic flowers stolen from a giant mausoleum where you’ve just met a girl, who’s brother you may have killed, and thinks your ugly but can predict horrifying disasters while your therapist slowly obsesses over tile grout, and you are the sole surviving member of a religious cult whose doctrine commands you to commit suicide?

You would hijack a plane (flight 2039...more What would you do if you worked as a gardener for a wealthy couple who are mastication-challenged and you’ve landscaped their yard with plastic flowers stolen from a giant mausoleum where you’ve just met a girl, who’s brother you may have killed, and thinks your ugly but can predict horrifying disasters while your therapist slowly obsesses over tile grout, and you are the sole surviving member of a religious cult whose doctrine commands you to commit suicide?

You would hijack a plane (flight 2039), make everyone get off, resume until it runs out of gas and crashes in the middle of Australia (why not?). To break the tedium guaranteed to occur prior to a fiery crash you could dictate your memoir into the flight desk recorder (again, why not?).

Along the way you realize:

“…that people take drugs because it’s the only real personal adventure left to them in their time-constrained, law-and-order, property-lined world. It’s only in drugs or death we’ll see anything new, and death is just too controlling.”

When asked where you might see yourself in five years you could answer: “I see myself dead and in hell. I figured I’d spend my first thousand years in some entry-level position, but after that I want to move into management. Be a real team player. Hell is going to see enormous growth in market share over the next millennium. I want to ride the crest.”

But, if you change your mind “I’d backslide before, I’d backslide again. Practice makes perfect. If you could call it that. I figured, a few more sins would help round out my resume. This is the upside of already being eternally damned. I figured hell could wait.”

Palahniuk skewers just about everything. And then comes up with more. His writing is visceral, sardonic and part gobbledygook at the same time. He is the Tom Robbins of this century but with a much darker sense of the absurd. And a much better command of the obscene. It’s quite wonderful in its own demonic way.

Not for the faint of heart – but then again, his writing is ‘age appropriate.’
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Jan 07, 2012 Magdelanye rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: displacement, laughable, modern-fiction, social-commentary

Vonnegut,Kozinski,Christopher Moore and now Chuck Pahlaniuk have tapped the black humour of all the mainstream sacred cows, with stylish grace and the prescient ablity to extrapolate the consequences of our most innocuous acts.

Another commonality: they all have the uncanny ability to transform our feelings for their ungainly, unlikely,unlikable, sometimes even rather repulsive oddball freak heroes from clinicly detached to warm and fuzzy. Quite a class act.

We may not like them, but they are us....more Vonnegut,Kozinski,Christopher Moore and now Chuck Pahlaniuk have tapped the black humour of all the mainstream sacred cows, with stylish grace and the prescient ablity to extrapolate the consequences of our most innocuous acts.

Another commonality: they all have the uncanny ability to transform our feelings for their ungainly, unlikely,unlikable, sometimes even rather repulsive oddball freak heroes from clinicly detached to warm and fuzzy. Quite a class act.

We may not like them, but they are us. No matter that we are not flitting about in our private jet nor yet hijakking someone elses flight,not slogging through dense undergrowth or along remote mountain passes, we can see the logic in the exteme actions of the characters, and can easily place ourselves in the action.

If you can get past the truly awful bits at the beginning and want to know anything more about a powertripping,manipulative, emotionally stunted slob, you may read on to reluctantly accept that this is an apt archetype for the kind of people the system (church,state, and economic)are churning out. CP has brilliantly exposed the paradoxes of power and the vacuum in the soul of American culture.

CP's irony is consistently in your face but he can also be subtle. His trick of pagination starting at the beginning of the end with the countdown to zero, was not something GR could handle. My reading graph for this book is hilarious. But how fitting the metaphor for societies negative progress.

The Irony of Names...
First, the irony of Tender being the generic name for boys brought up to obey without question,the authority and the rules instilled in them by their elers.This entailed suppression of all the qualities, compassion, emotional depth and sensitivity to ones own as well as primarily the feelings of others,that most prominently define the origianl meaning of the word.
That Our Hero continues to use this name, almost as a pseudonum,even when discarding his uniform of faith, confirms his passive/accepting character. He is lost without instructions, yet he feeds on praise and goes through severe withdrawel when deprived of his audience.

That our unflappable heroine, the plucky and prescient Fertility Hollis, believes that she is sterile,gives her the protection she requires for the most distressing aspect of her job as a surrogate mother, the possibility of actually having to conceive and carry off a pregnancy. I think CP is rubbing it in here with his imagry of a depraved and barren aspect of the abundancy that surrounds us, always hungry for more. I found it rather chilling that Fertility acheived her blase attitude to the disasters she predicted by accepting the fact that it was useless to warn people because not only would they not believe her, they would question her ability.

It is interesting to note the wide variety of responses posted for this book on GR.I can see that some people might get bogged down in being offended. I thought it was great reading and a wickedly accurate assessment of the situation here as it is evolving.

There are also scattered about this terrific, provocative book some really basic and practical helpful hints for stain removal and basic houshold micro management.

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Jan 09, 2013 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have never read a Chuck Palahniuk book before until this one. I was actually more interested in picking up "Invisible Monsters," but since my library had "Survivor," I decided to give it a try. And I'm glad I did! I could hardly put it down. It is such a quick read with a storyline of seemingly endless twists and turns. Many of the elements of the book are sooo over the top when it came to morbidity and hilarity. From religious cults to landfills filled with pornography the satirical humor was...more

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Sep 20, 2012 Maria Grazia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fuori-di-testa, narrativa-nordamericana, scambiati, chuck-palahniuk

L'idea è veramente interessate: prendete l'unico sopravvissuto di uno degli strani culti suicidi che prosperano in America, e trasformatelo nel testimonial totale, nel guru totale, nella vittima totale, dategli come compagna una donna dotata della preveggenza e come nemesi un fratello pazzo, e fate si che gli impulsi suicidi inculcategli nella sua chiesa finiscano finalmente per andare a compimento tramite uno spettacolare dirottamento aereo che terminerà solo con lo schianto al suolo dell'aereo...more

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Apr 24, 2008 Charissa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: lovers of great writing and twisted world views

Recommended to Charissa by: myself (thanks self!)

Shelves: apocalypse, literature

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 subtle bone...more

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Oct 02, 2007 Brooke rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 had been farmed out as labor-...more 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 had been farmed out as labor-missionaries to the "outside world" were also expected to kill themselves as soon as they heard about the mass-suicide. The government gets involved in trying to retain survivors from killing themselves. Anyway, I don't want to give too much away...but the premise is innovative, interesting, and mysterious.

I have read one other Palahniuk book, Diary, and I would say that his writing style was pretty similar in both books. They both revolve a lot around themes of death and mental illness. The tone is sardonic and even biting at times, but it is not satirical in the typical sense. Yes, he provides an critical, witty look at religion and culture, beliefs vs. actions, media and history...but he is subtle in his criticisms and opinions. They seem to flow out of the characters and the story, without being preachy. And yet they are blatantly obvious. For instance, the reference to the crucifixion as good press, that nobody would have known who Jesus was if it hadn't been public and controversial provides food for thought.

The book was also an interesting mix of horribly depressing and blackly humorous. It makes you feel that life is disposable, and yet that thought is immediately resisted by the inherent human compulsion that life is all we have and shouldn't be thrown away on a whim or because somebody tells you that is what God wants you to do. I had a good laugh at the description of the porn landfill ("sensitive materials"), but that was probably the only part I found really funny. The rest was just sometimes exaggerated to the point of being ridicuous, but it did not take away from the impact of the story. Also, they travelled the country in modular houses on the backs of trucks, and I want to do that!!! Riding around in a furnished living room or bedroom...sounds like fun!!(less)

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Jul 16, 2007 Eric Althoff rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition 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 where he is. So then, in...more 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 where he is. So then, in retrospect, the narrator relates of having grown up in a religious cult to be a perfect servant to the wealthy people of the outside world, learning everything there is to know about how many folds to place in a napkin and which dinner forks to set out and what products will remove which type of stain. Through bizarre circumstances, his home phone number is repeatedly mixed up with a suicide-prevention hotline. Finally, he gets fed up and tells one tortured man to do himself in.

It is not long before the self-murdered man's sister begins circulating in his world. The narrator soon learns that she is a psychic and has a knack for predicting great disasters. Through plot twists each more fiendish than the last, soon the narrator winds up a pop celebrity, tapping into the woman's precognition powers to become a modern-day Nostradamus. The darker sides of capitalism and celebrity soon rear their ugly heads and a mysterious stranger is tracking him down, perhaps to kill him. To add even more tension, the page numbers count down rather than up, just as the narrator's fuel is running out.

Like "Fight Club" (unread by me), "Survivor" turns on its ideas more so than its plotting. It is a fierce critique of the cult of celebrity, unfettered materialism, and the emptiness of modern living. It is as nihilistic as "Fight Club" in that no one is getting off easy; and there will be no happy endings.

On that note, "Survivor" loses that potential fourth star for the frustrating ending. I demand neither happy nor sad endings, and ambiguous endings can be transcendent and subversive (remember "The Sopranos"?) but "Survivor" just...ends. No apologies from the author and no explanations. I wish he had written just two more pages but I suppose his point is not the story, but the style and the message.

Still...

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Jan 18, 2008 Elsa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 asombro) y otras cosas de s...more

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Jul 05, 2008 Nicholas rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

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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Nov 21, 2008 Blake rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 pic...more

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Nov 23, 2008 Dennis Burke rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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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Feb 01, 2009 *trisha* rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: EVERYONE

AMAZING READ.

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Nov 23, 2011 Billie.henry rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Truly, the hype around Palahniuk made me a little wary. There's nothing more disappointing than reading the work of someone who's been raved about, only to find out that their words are less than well-crafted.
Well, "Survivor" had me hooked from the first page. Palahniuk's style of writing appeals to me. He crafted a creepy, weird protagonist whom I just can't help but feel sympathy for. His sentences put me right into the world and mind of a weirdo, while making me laugh and revel in the sheer...more

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May 11, 2011 Coligne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mondadori, biblioteca, my, favorite

"L'impietosa critica a una società americana disgregata e alienante."
Questa frase, tratta dalla recensione del libro su La Repubblica, che viene citata sulla copertina dello stesso, riassume alla perfezione di tutto quello che potrei dire su questo libro, avendo però il prezioso dono della concisione.

Non mi limiterò ad una citazione, comunque, quindi ora darò fondo alle mie (scarse) abilità oratorie, e recensirò come si deve codesto libro.

Quel geniaccio di Palahniuk ci piazza una delle sue già

...more "L'impietosa critica a una società americana disgregata e alienante."
Questa frase, tratta dalla recensione del libro su La Repubblica, che viene citata sulla copertina dello stesso, riassume alla perfezione di tutto quello che potrei dire su questo libro, avendo però il prezioso dono della concisione.

Non mi limiterò ad una citazione, comunque, quindi ora darò fondo alle mie (scarse) abilità oratorie, e recensirò come si deve codesto libro.

Quel geniaccio di Palahniuk ci piazza una delle sue già dalla prima pagina, o per meglio dire, dal numero di pagina, che contrariamente ad ogni convenzione è in ordine decrescente: la prima pagina è numerata come fosse l'ultima, insomma.
è un idea geniale, perché rende l'idea di un lungo conto alla rovescia verso qualcosa di inevitabile,e visto che il nostro protagonista sta raccontando la storia della sua vita alla scatola nera di un areo che sta precipitando sul deserto dell'Australia...

Tender Branson è l'ultimo sopravvissuto di una setta/neo-religione, i cui membri si sono tutti suicidati; nella sua vita ha avuto una miriade di lavori uno più assurdo dell'altro, dal maestro di galateo per Nuovi Ricchi, all'Istigatore al suicidio telefonico, al nuovo Messia Televisivo, in un crescendo di situazioni assurde, di luoghi comuni che Palahniuk sfrutta per ironizzare su più o meno tutti i Nuovi Miti Moderni. E così lo vediamo, attraverso Tender, scagliarsi contro le nuove religioni/sette che ogni giorno spuntano come funghi, contro il modello "se non appari in televisione non sei nessuno" (nella forma di messia/predicatore televisivo, personaggi che personalmente trovo odiosi), contro la mania dei Brand personali, in cui ogni personaggio dello spettacolo ha una propria linea di prodotti firmati col proprio nome in praticante ogni campo immaginabile, pure in qualcuno inimmaginabile, contro l'altrettanto odiosa "mania del Best Seller", qui rappresentata dal "Libro delle Preghiere Semplici Semplici, di Tender Branson"...

Il mondo descritto da Palahniuk è una versione perversa e corrotta dello stile di vita americano, l'American Way of Life di cui gli statunitensi vanno tanto fieri. Stile di vita che l'autore critica ferocemente, a volte con sottili stilettate, a volte con pesanti macigni gettati con noncuranza qua e là ne libro.
Survivor è un libro cinico, freddo, spietato: un serial killer, se volgiamo. Un serial killer di ideali...

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Jan 03, 2009 Boss rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-books

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Nov 26, 2008 Pierce rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 chapter o...more

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May 19, 2013 Kayla rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Did you know that when summer rolls around, your luck of finding a copy of Fight Club at the library is apparently as liable to happen as finding a decent Silent Hill game past number four? And I really wanted my first Palahniuk to be Fight Club, but I am limited by what I can get from the library and the Half-Price books next to my work, so Survivor it is.

Weird, but kind of an awesome kind of weird, Tender Branson's story goes from a long life of servitude cut with a truly well hidden feeling o...more

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May 08, 2013 Ehab Mostafa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Contains some spoilers.

Done with Survivor
and I don't know what my opinion is ...

The whole idea of the book is unique. And the reverse page numbering (which was not visible on my mobile and I knew that from the review) and chapters is AMAZINGLY clever ...
Some moments I was stunned!!!
Like the first time fertility met Tender in the bathroom my mouth literally FELL!
Another when his brother came into the next stall
I dont understand yet why his brother killed himself using his brother in that odd p...more

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May 02, 2013 Shane Jeffery rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A friend recommended this book to me back in the day when we all worshiped the movie Fight Club, making Survivor the first Chuck Palahniuk novel I ever read. Chronologically, this was the follow up to the book Fight Club and was written after it, unlike Invisible Monsters.

The story of Survivor is about Tender Branson, ex-member of a Creedish Death Cult. He was born and raised inside the cult until his release into the real world upon adulthood where he forced to adapt and make something of himse...more A friend recommended this book to me back in the day when we all worshiped the movie Fight Club, making Survivor the first Chuck Palahniuk novel I ever read. Chronologically, this was the follow up to the book Fight Club and was written after it, unlike Invisible Monsters.

The story of Survivor is about Tender Branson, ex-member of a Creedish Death Cult. He was born and raised inside the cult until his release into the real world upon adulthood where he forced to adapt and make something of himself. Cut to ten years later and the novel begins. We go about Tender’s daily routine of cleaning rich people’s houses, and educating them in dinner-party etiquette. He also sees a caseworker he’s been coming to for those ten years, whom seems to have some serious problems of her own. At night Tender takes calls from his self-help-hotline and encourages people to kill themselves.

Eventually he meets Fertility Hollis, who becomes Tender’s love interest. She claims to be able to see into the future, and has dreamed of Tender becoming a modern messiah. There’s also a serial killer on the loose hunting down survivors from the cult, and Tender is next on his list.

As you may gather, this premise is very left of field from Chuck Palahniuk. Where Fight Club focused on its narrator as a portrait of the average middle-class male, Survivor takes the approach of creating an almost ‘opposite’ character, who seems but an alien to this world.
The result is a mixed bag.

The benefits of Tender Branson is that he appears to be a real and sympathetic creature, whom many will identify with. But with the faceless narrator in Fight Club Chuck was making a direct statement on society and culture – the human race in general. So Fight Club’s method was to run by message, and Survivor’s method is to run by story. Fictional story.

I can’t help but feel Fight Club was just more real.

Still, as a straight up story for entertainment, Survivor does serve its purpose. It opens very strongly, and then expands upon it in the first half, but he third quarter of the book is where things really slow down and start to plod. Here you get the impression of Chuck just rushing to meet his deadline, and join all the story gaps together. But Survivor comes out great in the end for an exhilarating finish that takes full use of Chuck’s prowess for poetry.

At the end of Survivor, I come away feeling enlightened, and pleased to have met Tender and heard his story.

Not as good as Fight Club, but not too far behind.(less)

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Apr 19, 2013 Sley Sampson rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have a heavy concern writing a review of a book when I haven't even finished it which might be a legitimate case had I not read four other Palahniuk reads (in order, Fight Club (twice), Pygmy, Invisible Monsters & Diary) with lead characters that you really can't tell apart. Despite a few differences on the surface such as Pygmy's really bad english or the doomsday countdown that Tender Branson faces in Survivor (both chapters & page #s are counted down instead of up) Don't get me wron...more

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Apr 14, 2013 Nichola rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Engaging, quirky and pleasantly fucked up, with several gorgeous set-pieces that are well worth the entrance fee in themselves (Fertility's notion of a good date is BLOODY FABULOUS, I am here to tell you) but ultimately a little disappointing. The shocking childhood trauma is given a big build up and falls flat, imho (because, sorry, pretty sure that's been standard in myriad cultures through a buttload of human history, without having the effect you presuppose, Mr Palahniuk) and all the stuff a...more

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Apr 02, 2013 Kaliska rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: People who aren't in any sort of cult.

Shelves: religious-basis, favourites

Chuck Palahniuk's style is so individual, and he's a serious pleasure to read. The facts that are thrown throughout this book do make you pause, and the temptation to go and actually test them out is weirdly pressing.

The thought of being one of few survivors from a cult like the Creedish is somewhat disturbing. There's an almost knee-jerk reaction to reading this, and it's not the right one:

You feel sorry for Tender. You pity him.

And then you catch yourself before the thought can truly manifest...more

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Apr 01, 2013 Daniel Virtue rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Another story from Palahniuk about an outsider, sociopath, who does not know what love is. If you like his other stuff, this one will not disappoint. This time our main character is a displaced survivor from a cult, which is never probably characterized in the story. The main character cleans rich people's houses because he was apparently trained to clean things. He also advertized his home phone number as a suicide crisis number, so he could feel powerful. Why does our faithful main character d...more

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Mar 07, 2013 Solitude rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book sucks.

When I first created this account, I added a few books before ceasing to use it. Occasionally, I've returned to add a few more books to see what the website would recommend me, but I never fully immersed myself in this website.

This book is horrible enough to warrant a revision. As someone who wasted fifteen dollars for this abomination, a sense of responsibility to warn others against buying — or reading — this book pervades me. I finished it about two weeks ago. Immediately afte...more This book sucks.

When I first created this account, I added a few books before ceasing to use it. Occasionally, I've returned to add a few more books to see what the website would recommend me, but I never fully immersed myself in this website.

This book is horrible enough to warrant a revision. As someone who wasted fifteen dollars for this abomination, a sense of responsibility to warn others against buying — or reading — this book pervades me. I finished it about two weeks ago. Immediately after completing the novel, I reread quality satire in an attempt to subside my hostile sentiments towards the novel; however, it's become apparent that only a full fledged review will do that.

Survivor is my second Palahniuk novel. My first was Lullaby, which I found slightly above average. I had his work recommended to me by someone I generally trust.

To start off, this book, along with nearly all of Palahniuk's work, follows a rigid formula. The formula is this: A disillusioned stock character with a mysterious past rambles about his meaningless, emotionless life, integrating trivia facts about X skill, for the first half of the novel. Did I mention that he has a 'unique' hobby that consumes his freetime? He meets a jaded female character relatively soon in the novel who solely exists for his benefit that will later "save" him in some way. Around the middle, a ridiculous premise obliterates whatever sensibility the novel had before its entrance. As if that wasn't bad enough, he attempts to employ repetition throughout the entire novel without understanding its purpose.

It doesn't matter what the specifics of this novel are. All of his novels are the same. If you've read any one of them, I can assure you that everything about this book is the same as any other in terms of everything (characters, plot structure, style, themes, symbolism, etc.) but the premise itself. If you haven't read a Palahniuk novel, save yourself the trouble.

This book is especially horrible because Palahniuk "critiques" what he believes are "the basics" of American life. But here's the thing: the targets have already been criticized in a more mature fashion by countless other authors. It's not fresh, nor is it funny. For example, he believes he's 'revealing' that worshiping celebrities is 'bad.'

However, the fact that the plot changed its primary direction midway through the novel without ANY warning angered me the most out of everything.

Palahniuk's novels contain countless tricks, cliches, and contrived actions intended to move the plot forward. I could ignore the fundamentally bad writing and the cliches if the characters' actions made coherent sense.

In this novel, the jaded female (there are only two significant female characters in this novel, and one of them dies before the midway point)who-can-predict-the-future stalks the main character around the country, giving him future disasters that his crowds want to hear. She continues to do this after he publicly berates her on television under the guide of a teleprompter. Her excuse is that she knew he'd do it even before she called because she can see disasters in the future in her dreams which apparently also extends to seeing anything about her personal life which totally makes sense because this is Chuck Palahniuk.

This book in combination with his most recent novel illustrates that Palahniuk has failed in his literary career. Rather than experience growth, he's pigeonholed himself into a genre that caters to a specific demographic. I will concede that I liked Lullaby despite its numerous flaws, and I imagine he has one or two other decent works stored in his collection. However, that doesn't excuse the majority of his work. (less)

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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 Survivor

“You realize that our mistrust of the future makes it hard to give up the past.” — 2,649 people liked it

“A girl calls and asks, "Does it hurt very much to die?"
"Well, sweetheart," I tell her, "yes, but it hurts a lot more to keep living.” — 1,450 people liked it

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