Choke

I am searching for things to say about Choke that I have not already said about Palahnuik. I seem to use ‘roller coaster ride’ a lot, as well as some swear words. Let’s see how I do here.

Choke is about a man named Victor Mancini who has a dying mother, a bad job, and a sex addiction. To make money to keep his mother in an upscale nursing facility, he goes to restaurants and chokes on food so someone will save him, feel bad for him, and send him money. We explore his past, but live his life as it’s happening. This is different from Invisible Monsters and Fight Club, where we start from a point, and go back to see how we got there. I also feel like Victor is more relatable that other Palahnuik characters. Note the qualifier.

The book, of course, is dark twisted and “informative” as to taking a look into the minds of Victor and others. St. Anthony’s, where Victor’s mother is staying, is less a “nursing” facility as much a psych ward. It is hard to say that it is like the other novels by him that I have read, but it is. BUT it is also very different. More philisophical, I feel, that the other two. There is a lot of religious over tone in the book for a while, and you get sucked into the idea that none of the characters really know where they are going in life. It is well worth the read. Later.