Survivor [Paperback]

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 --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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.

Maybe our generation has found its Don DeLillo. --Bret Easton Ellis --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

'Survivor has, if this is possible, even more millennial angst sparkingacross the sentence gaps than Fight Club' EsquireBy the Author of Fight Club --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the author of the cult sensation Fight Club (now a major motion picture starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter) comes Survivor.

"A turbo-charged, deliciously manic satire of contemporary American life." --Newsday

"The only difference between suicide and martyrdom is press coverage," according to the "been there, done that" wisdom of Tender Branson, last surviving member of the Creedish Death Cult. At the opening of Chuck Palahniuk's hilariously unnerving second novel, Tender is cruising on autopilot, 39,000 feet up, dictating the whole of his life story into Flight 2039's "black box" in the final moments before crashing into the vast Australian outback.

Not since Kurt Vonnegut's Mother Night has there been as dark and telling a satire on the wages of fame and the bedrock lunacy of the modern world. Wickedly incisive and mesmerizing, Survivor is Chuck Palahniuk at his deadpan peak.

Survivor - a prophetic howl of outrage from the X Generation
I was blown away by Survivor when I first started reading it. Sassy, sharp and similar to Fight Club in it's controversial take on contemporary society, Survivor is the second book from an author who is rapidly becoming a cult icon. But don't just take my word for it, here's what the reviewers have said:-

'Survivor has, if this is possible, even more millenial angst sparking across the sentence gaps than Fight Club' ESQUIRE

'A vital, vibrant writer' UNCUT

'A comedy of horrors, a pantomimic romp through America's obsession with secrets and confessions' ARENA

Survivor attack the roots of modern disillusion with a skill and veracity that will restore your faith in contemporary fiction. An important book.

Survivor will be featured on Channel 4's late night book show, PULP. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Chuck Palahniuk's five novels are the best-selling Fight Club, which was made into a film by director David Fincher, Survivor, Invisible Monsters, Choke and Lullaby. He lives in Portland, Oregon. (20000801) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.