He went off the rails for me a while ago.

He had such a fucked up upbringing that his early work was quite refreshing in how well it walked the tightrope between physical and psychological violence, relentless torment, absurdist comedy, and profound lucidity. Almost like he mixed this perfect blend of nihilism, Buddhism, violence, anger, growth, and an almost Vonnegut-like acceptance of life’s extensive irrationality.

Now, I say early work when I’ve only read a few books of his. Nothing post early 2000’s. So, it’s not my place to speak beyond that. But, I haven’t had a desire to read any more. And, from hearing all of you and seeing interviews, it seems like his own internal conflicts have kind of overcome that original artistry that helped him channel it all effectively one to two decades ago.

Palahni-hack peaked twenty years ago and never bettered his debut.

I’m in the middle of it and I’m not engaged at all. It is very repetitive and isn’t going anywhere.

As someone who read Fight Club and was eager for more of his work, I’m going to join the dog pile and say that Chuck Palahniuk doesn’t have much substance in any other work of his I’ve tried. It feels like he’s constantly trying to one-up himself with “shocking” stuff, but it feels very surface-level, so it’s very easy to be mostly apathetic towards it.

Which is a shame, because I feel Fight Club was legitimately deep and I liked the edginess, and I couldn’t wait to get more from where that came from.

Somewhat ironically, Consider This is one of the best books on writing I’ve ever read, though.

I read his Fight Club and Invisible Monsters, Haunted back in a day. Retrospectively, I still like Fight Club, but his other books, not so much. They just… Tire me. It’s just a bit too much “edgyness” etc.

I was a Chuck addict for many years but somewhere around Snuff the wheels started to come off. I haven’t liked much of anything since.