Chuck Palahniuk is one of those writers with such a clear, distinctive voice that a reader hardly needs to see his name on the cover to know a book is his. His bitterly sarcastic, wacky characters are completely unlike anything else out there. Choke reads much like Fight Club. Victor, the main character of Choke isn’t a mirror image of the narrator/Tyler Durden, but he definitely has similar quirks.
Victor works at an historical theme park where breaking character, even for a moment, would mean a trip to the stocks, and too many trips to the stocks means unemployment. By day he pretends to be from another time, but by night he attends group therapy sessions for sex-addicts. Unlike in Fight Club, Victor actually needs the therapy group he attends. Sometimes he will attend the meetings just to get laid by the women who attend from the local prisons, but sometimes he realizes that he actually needs the help.
Victor’s mother is losing her mind. She is getting on in years, and she lives at a nursing home. They never had much money and Victor never even knew his father’s name, so it’s up to him to take care of his mother. The salary of an historical theme park employee isn’t quite enough to keep his mother taken care of in style, so when he’s not working, having sex, or going to his support group, Victor chokes. Victor doesn’t just choke anywhere, and he doesn’t do it just for fun. He does it for the money.
When he goes out to eat he chokes on a piece of food, pretending to almost die. Some kind man or woman will “save his life” and forever after they’ll feel they have to help him out. He’ll get checks periodically for birthdays, the anniversary of his choking, and sometimes just because the person is worried about him.
At his mother’s hospital, Victor befriends an attractive doctor. She wants to sleep with him, but thinking he might actually love her, Victor refuses. She becomes a large part of his life as she advises him about his mother’s care, and he becomes more and more intrigued by her mysterious ways.
For those who liked Fight Club, Choke is a must. It is a great book, and an incredibly entertaining one. For those who are easily disturbed by sex, drugs, or weirdness, maybe you better find another book to read.
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