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Survivor (Paperback)

by Chuck Palahniuk (Author) "And so here is my confession ..." (more)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; New edition edition (3 Aug 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 009928264X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099282648
  • Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 12.9 x 2.5 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 3,692 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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    #2 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > P > Palahniuk, C.

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

Survivor, the second novel by Chuck Palahniuk--whose debut novel The Fight Club was widely received to critical acclaim--is a deranged comedy of nightmares, a groin-kick at Western society's worst excesses. This is satire at its best, and Palahniuk handles it all with a distinct, engaging prose style and with plot devices that keep the pages turning long after your tea break should have finished.

From the very opening of the book Palahniuk lets us know that his narrator, Tender Branson, the last surviving member of a religious death cult, is on a path to self-destruction. The tension in this book lies not in the outcome, because like Tender's soothsaying friend Fertility, we can see it coming 289 pages away, instead it lies in the intricate plot that takes Tender from farm boy to media celebrity and ruin.

This is a novel that examines what happens when religion meets the overindulgences of our consumerist society. In the world that the author envisages, which is all too real in the light of tragedies such as Waco and the Heaven's Gate suicides, the only acceptable religions are those that can be successfully marketed and controlled at a corporate level; the small separatist models of religion are superfluous, and self-destruct. This is also a look at religion itself, at how it can enslave as many people as it appears to liberate. A comic novel that deals with the most serious issues of society, Survivor places Palahniuk among the most daring and technically able writers of his generation.

Adam said the first step most cultures take to making you a slave is to castrate you ... the cultures that don't castrate you to make you a slave, they castrate your mind.
--Iain Robinson


Amazon.co.uk Review

Tender Branson is the last surviving member of the Creedish Death Cult and finds himself suddenly famous, at the epicentre of a vast freak-show. In response, he commandeers a 747 jet, empties it of passengers and flies it on a collision course for the Australian outback. However, before the kamakazi landing, he decides to dictate his entire story to the flight's black-box recorder. Palahniuk offers a heady mix of startling satire and deadpan humour, with Branson moving from a mindless, obedient servant to a high-gloss media mogul. Survivor seeks to record one man's mental undoing and the result is an unnerving yet hilarious observation on cult life and media obsession with the outlandish. Whether Branson's apocalypse is fulfilling his belief's obligations or the media circus is, the harshest truth of all is "… the only difference between suicide and martyrdom is press coverage." --Danny Graydon --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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And so here is my confession. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

51 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (51 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Weird and wonderful, 20 Jul 2005
This book starts and ends with Tender Branson's suicide attempt - by throwing a Boing 747 into the dessert (after releasing all the passengers and crew). Everything in-between is him telling his story ... being brought up in a religious cult, of which he is the last [known] surviving member and a having become celebrity-of-sorts for it.

The book is beautifully written: Dark, angst-ridden, funny, unpredictable, and addictive, it could well keep you up all night.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars More ambitious than Fight Club, but not as successful, 28 Oct 2001
By N. Clay "noel_robert_clay" (england) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Tender Branson is the last surviving member of the Creedish Death Cult, a radical religious group that have committed mass suicide simply because the Elders, or ruling men and women, have ordered them to do so. We all know that this is not entirely fiction - the same thing has happened several times around the world. And why hasn't Tender Branson joined his peers? Because, like the main character from the excellent debut novel Fight Club, he wants more from life.
If this short description sounds interesting to you, wait until you experience the various twists and turns that the plot takes. Palahniuk provides these in abundance - although there is no one real convention-defying plot twist as there was in fight club, that forces you to re-read the entire thing.
Also, it is sometimes difficult to understand just what Palahniuk is trying to get at in the story, and the plot is not always as engaging as you might expect from the excellent author. But regardless of this, if you enjoyed Fight Club, this one is definitely worth a read. If you haven't read Fight Club, if you are a fan of Kurt Vonnegut or Don Delillo, Palahniuk's highly original writing style should appeal to you.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Dark, disturbing, humorous, engaging, 25 Sep 2007
By J. Aitcheson (Wiltshire, England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
Chuck Palahniuk's "Survivor" takes the reader into the world of Tender Branson, the last surviving member of a suicide cult. As the book opens, Branson, the narrator, has hijacked a Boeing 747 with the intention of crashing it, with himself on board, into the Australian outback. Having emptied the plane of passengers, he proceeds to tell his account of his life - ostensibly as it 'really happened' - into the flight recorder, from his childhood under the repressive authority of the Creedish Church to being propelled years later to media stardom as the last survivor.

The first thing that the reader will notice is that the book begins with Chapter 47 on page 289 and counts its way down to Chapter 1 and page 1 at the end, a device which serves to constantly remind the reader that Branson's last minutes are ticking away even as he retells his story, lending an air of foreboding to his words. Palahniuk also has Branson constantly backtrack upon himself in a way which mimics such a stream-of-consciousness dictation. The writing style throughout is informal and extremely sketchy as regards description. Even the names of key characters are never revealed - including the government caseworker appointed to prevent Tender from following the rest of his cult members into suicide, and the agent who later drives him to stardom. On the other hand, by having Tender talk at great length about apparently unimportant and superfluous things such as how to correctly eat a lobster, Palahniuk gives us a sense of Tender's quirky and disturbed nature, almost as if he exists slightly out of tune with reality.

This is a book which tackles big themes: birth and death, murder and suicide, free will and determinism, belief and unbelief, truth and falsehood. Palahniuk conjures up a vividly dystopian and disturbing world, which only grows darker as Tender is drawn within the media culture - a culture which proves every bit as restrictive, false, twisted and soul-destroying as the Creedish society that he used to belong to. What really engages the reader, however, is the strength of the main characters: firstly Tender, who struggles throughout the story to find meaning in his life and to become truly free; and secondly his friend Fertility Hollis, who claims to be able to see the future and acts as Tender's guide. It is their relationship which forms the backbone of the story right up until its climax in the final chapter.

Pacy, inventive, often funny, "Survivor" is a fine (though dark) book, and one that I can easily recommend.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Vintage Palahniuk
Survivor, along with Fight Club, is Palahniuk's best work in my opinion. It maintains exactly the right level of absurdity to be humourous but somehow believable, the correct... Read more
Published 1 month ago by amazonian117

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
Something I never expected really. You can see some of the Fight Club tones coming through into this book but the story was unexpected and very enjoyable- a definte good read.
Published 3 months ago by Mr. J. Evans

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling, to say the least!
Survivor is the first novel of Palahniuk's I had the good fortune to happen upon, and in my opinion it's his best work. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Mr. Cobalt

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Book
I'm not really much of a reader, but after watching the film Choke and of course Fight Club, I just had to read some of Chuck Palahniuk's work. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Mr. Liam Wharnsby

5.0 out of 5 stars Survivor
I loved Fight Club, but I loved Survivor more! Very dark and very very funny. A fantastic story. Compulsive reading!
Published 6 months ago by Marcus

3.0 out of 5 stars seems like written in a weekend
I am a huge fan of fight club, the book is excellent; but Survivor seems to try Palahniuk's taboo card a little too much without really creeping under your skin like FC... Read more
Published 8 months ago by B. Storan

5.0 out of 5 stars Survivor mp3 edition
Other reviews here cover the book itself, so I won't bother to repeat what's already been said, suffice to say that I'm a fan of Chuck Palahniuk and along with fight club this is... Read more
Published 16 months ago by D. Budd

5.0 out of 5 stars You WILL survive
Palahniuk's works are so often compared to Sedaris, Christopher Moore, and Jackson McCrae, but I have to disagree even though I like those authors and would recommend their books... Read more
Published on 6 Nov 2007 by Peppercorn Bob

2.0 out of 5 stars okish
This book was fairly good until about half way through. The main character and his strange ways are well developed as the book initially progresses and then you hit the middle. Read more
Published on 26 Aug 2006 by Bob

4.0 out of 5 stars An edgy, cynical character-driven ride
If the opening of the book doesn't get you, then give up. It opens at the end... There's a guy (Tender Branson), in a plane, that's going to crash, and he's inevitably going to... Read more
Published on 2 Jun 2005 by B. Remy

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