How to read Haunted

That's what my brother did. You're not missing much by doing that.

I feel the same way. Stories are great but the connecting story seems superfluous.

^^^qft

I think the connecting story idea was forced upon him by the publisher, if I recall...

You mean he wasn't in a position to decline? He's Chuck Palahniuk. I'm pretty sure if he didn't want to do that he would have stated his case as to why he thought the end product would suffer from it.

Where'd you hear that from, Mike?

http://suicidegirls.com/interviews/Chuck+Palahniuk+-+Haunted/

Then the stories themselves were going to be just a collection. Then the publishing house talked me into sort of putting them together and making a sort of bizarre novel out of it.

From a publishing standpoint, that doesn't really make sense. Every CP book is an opportunity to make money. Why would they convince one of the world's most popular authors to release one less product they KNOW is going to sell? Something's fishy about that.

I did enjoy getting back on the SG website again. All those girls are incredibly hot.

I don't read that as "forced" exactly...

Additionally,

Anyway, I've been saying for quite a while that I would like to see a collection of short stories from him. This could have been that and been pretty good. The connecting story has some nice moments, but doesn't hold up as well against the rest of the book.

I did read it straight-through as a novel though. YMMV.

He's not exactly a household name. I still have to follow up with, "He wrote Fight Club," to roughly half the people I talk to about him. Regardless, there's a difference between best-selling and popularity. Yeah, he might not sell as much as Stephanie Meyer or Dan Brown, nor make as much off the movies, but he's made the transgressive genre about as close to mainstream as anyone has with less of a fad quality as found with this vampire bullshit. We still get people coming to The Cult saying, "I just saw/read Fight Club..."so it's not like the idea has lost its luster. But I agree, probably not one of the all-time best sellers or even the most critically-acclaimed, but it's evident (to me, anyway) that his work is definitely part of a cultural movement I haven't seen replicated elsewhere.

I am going to have to give "Haunted" another shot, sans the connecting storyline as that was a big part of what didn't work for me.

And I'm definitely looking forward to the writer's workshop anthology. I've read most of the finalist pieces and it's been pure gold for the most part.

"Haunted" was the combination of two books: a collection of shorts and then the story about the writer's retreat. According to a CP interview, the publisher convinced him to combine the two projects. So that means they talked themselves out of a book, which doesn't make sense sales-wise.

I think he wrote the stories before hand. He said in the GUTS EFFECT on the last few pages that he would write stories that he would intend to use in HAUNTED and read them to his friends at like story club or something like that. I think he just connected them using a sick and disturbing cause he is Chuck Palahniuk and that is what he does. I believe it is all in the GUTS EFFECT on the last few pages of HAUNTED.

I would just read the book as it is. I liked it a lot, but a lot of people don't.

You should try reading it from left to right. That ussualy works the best.

I hate having to tell people its the guy that wrote fight club.