So - what do you think of Haunted so far?

[QUOTE=Parkaboy]But he didn't have 200,000 dollars. All he had was a sagging waistline and carry on detritus.

Did you read the answer from Chuck or the one in some thread. I remeber the one in the thread too and it wasn't worded well and it was listed as a theory.

Chuck's is pretty clear as I recall if you really want to try and dig it out.

I was wondering if the narrator of Haunted was this kind of secret ending as well, though I suppose it must be Guts-Free as Luddy deduced.[/QUOTE]

Fertility has the money, Tender's assets are all tied up in the Porn Fill.

Probably the one in the thread.

My theory is that Elvis faked his death and took over this abandonned theater, and he's the one narrating it.

[QUOTE=Chixulub]Fertility has the money, Tender's assets are all tied up in the Porn Fill.

Probably the one in the thread.

My theory is that Elvis faked his death and took over this abandonned theater, and he's the one narrating it.[/QUOTE]
Anymore, mama, people are chasing after fame. Fame's an illusion, mama. Love is the way.

Hunk-a, Hunka-a burnin' isn't the right word, but it's the first word that comes to mind.

If you want to get pickle and peanut butter out of a white satin jump suit use a mix of lobster bisque a salt peter.

Lobster, now that sounds good, mama.

If I was to render this here belly of mine, mama, I could make some soap.

I watched an alien on trial today on your, Court TV, oh mama, it used to be married to my daughter.

Turning over in my grave isn't the right word, but it's the first one that come to mind.

For serious, mama.

For serious...

[QUOTE=Parkaboy]Anymore, mama, people are chasing after fame. Fame's an illusion, mama. Love is the way.

Hunk-a, Hunka-a burnin' isn't the right word, but it's the first word that comes to mind.

If you want to get pickle and peanut butter out of a white satin jump suit use a mix of lobster bisque a salt peter.

Lobster, now that sounds good, mama.

If I was to render this here belly of mine, mama, I could make some soap.

I watched an alien on trial today on your, Court TV, oh mama, it used to be married to my daughter.

Turning over in my grave isn't the right word, but it's the first one that come to mind.

For serious, mama.

For serious...[/QUOTE]

Touché.

[QUOTE=erakb]In Countess Foresights story, the man falls backwards because she killed him with the straight razor she had in her hand. She killed him because she saw a vision in it of him being the one who actually killed Marilyn Monroe. He just made up the story of a guy telling him about it. Then the Countess calls her husband to ask how to destroy the video tapes, since they recorded her killing a man. I'm not sure exactly why she says "Do you know what this means?", I wondered that myself. But it sounds like its in reference to the 'baby' in the jar actually being a doll.

As for Hot Potting, I have absolutely no idea why she was melting the snow to spit on his lips.[/QUOTE]

That's a fair question about 'Hot Potting.' I thought it was one of the weakest stories in the lot, way to obvious with the stereotyped religious character talking about hell in terms that describe how he's OBVIOUSLY going to get it in this life. If it wasn't for some of the other stories prior to at least being funny, I might have walked away from the book at that juncture.

Since I work at the local lib, I was on lookout for Haunted... much to my thrilled surprise it arrived a day or two after I started looking for it. I let a friend at work read it first since I was in the middle of something. I've now got about 100 pages left and want to finish it tonight. Everyone I've talked to about it keeps saying it is the first Chuck book to make them squemish.... I agree. The only part that has gotten to me is talking about "when she laughed blood and scabs flew out of her nose".... the rose tattooed ass, guts, Cora eating digets... none of that bothered me. just the blood and scabs... maybe I was just in an odd mood that day...
So I'm wondering....
which part, if any, made you a bit queasy?

[QUOTE=weareallalittlecrazy]Since I work at the local lib, I was on lookout for Haunted... much to my thrilled surprise it arrived a day or two after I started looking for it. I let a friend at work read it first since I was in the middle of something. I've now got about 100 pages left and want to finish it tonight. Everyone I've talked to about it keeps saying it is the first Chuck book to make them squemish.... I agree. The only part that has gotten to me is talking about "when she laughed blood and scabs flew out of her nose".... the rose tattooed ass, guts, Cora eating digets... none of that bothered me. just the blood and scabs... maybe I was just in an odd mood that day...
So I'm wondering....
which part, if any, made you a bit queasy?[/QUOTE]

The hype about people fainting when he read 'Guts' on tour, I have all sorts of theories about that. The first might have been someone trying to obey the directive to hold their breat while he reads the story. Only a freak could hold their breath for even a rapid read of that story aloud. So someone's trying to hold their breath, and unlike (from what I've heard) most reading/signing events, it's crowded. Which means probably warm to boot, all that body heat and people in close quarters breathing each other's exhaust. So someone has their eyes closed, picturing the details, holding their breath, and they faint.

A kid fainted during a rehearsal for a grade school musical I was in. He'd locked his knees on the riser and gotten too carried away trying to be the loudest gingerbread man, so I figure if that could cause someone to pass out, a similar thing could happen during a reading of 'Guts.'

With the web site (this one, where everyone who shows up has connected with at least one Palahniuk book) tracking the number of faintings, not to mention the 'Postcards' DVD, doesn't it have a fainting episode? Anyway I figure power of suggestion and striving for attention contributed to a LOT of fainting. And I don't doubt that it happened for Irving reading 'Cider House Rules' abortion scenes, the same logic would apply.

Part of it depends on how squeamish the reader is. Me, I can't watch those medical TV shows, 'House' or 'ER' or whatever. In between the hack dialogue, stereotyped characters, and general melodrama, there's the gross stuff. I grew up getting warbly over the PBS 'Body Electric' shows, and I have been warned off by the Community Blood Center because I faint at the finger prick most of the time and basically my blood isn't worth the effort as far as they're concerned.

I can't even be in the room when someone else gets a shot, it's that bad. So some of the visceral dscriptions in 'Haunted' got me, but a surprising number didn't. If you're a guy and you see another guy take a hard shot in the nuts, you have sympathy pains, at least I do. You know how it feels, the ache in the guts, all the way to the lungs.

I think the stories where Chuck was able to get me to sympathize with the character, I could have that kind of response. Not to the point of fainting, but when 'Guts' was published in Playboy, it definitely made me squirm.

By the time I was where you are, 3/4 of the way through, the chief irritant is the connective tissue of the book, which does not work in my view. And to a great extent, the shorts only succeed where you can sympathize with character. 'Hot Potting,' for instance, I really couldn't care if the fat religious freak got himself boiled. Since I didn't care, I didn't imagine me being the guy in the hot water, so the story didn't connect for me.

But getting back to the general squeamish thing, my wife LOVES those TV medical dramas. She can watch documentaries about heart transplants too. It fascinates her but doesn't gross her out. If you're like that, even a little, I don't see where anything in 'Haunted' would truly freak you out.

[QUOTE=Jewelie]Thanks, I had the same questions. I really liked Haunted but I feel the further I read the less I'm understanding the ending of the short stories. I just finished "Something's Got to Give", the Countess Foresight's story and I'm just a little confused. Why did the old man fall backward and when she calls her husband what is she talking about when she says, "Do you know what this means"? Then I read the Baroness Frostbite's story, "Hot Potting" and am a little confused, why was she even melting snow in her mouth for Olsen Read?
I am a HUGE Chuck fan, and this is the only book that I feel kinda lost in. I have trouble keeping up with who's who of the characters when you don't find much about them until later on in the book. Some of the stories I've loved so far. I just getting frustrated now, with some of the endings being so vague, I'm not sure why I'm just not "getting" them.[/QUOTE]
After she killed the store owner she saw that the baby was in fact a doll. She was wrong. She says at somepoint in her story that sometimes her premonitions are incorrect. In this case she just killed an innocent man who had made up a bullshit story to try and sell the jar.

[QUOTE=gingerdollarman]
The thing I noticed is that almost every Chuck fan has a differnt worst-to-best list, proving how differnt we are, but yet can all agree on liking Chuck's writing.[/QUOTE]
Wow, that sounds like some sort of pan-demographic new age religion of tolerance. We should start a...

Oh, wait.

Nevermind.

[QUOTE=erakb]yeah, my list seems quite different than most's here.
Haunted>Diary>Survivor>Choke>Fight Club>Invisible Monsters>Lullabye

I read them in chronological order too, so there's no "first read" bias.[/QUOTE]
What name did you used to post under?

I remeber you and that story. Very good man, Chuck.

As to the Haunted story, remeber that everyone in there has killed someone unjustly or has done something bad, (for the most part). Thus I think her pschometric reading was off this time and perhaps Marilyn did die because of the Will, but I don't think the man killed her. I think that's why she said: "Do you know what this means?" She realized she killed the wrong guy.

We can find out when Chuck does the B&N read-along.

[QUOTE=Jewelie]Finally finished last night. I enjoyed the book, but felt the same way as other people, that the short stories were better than the overall story of them in the theater. I had trouble even keeping with who was who b/c there was really no character development. I liked most of the short stories, but thought the Miss America one was just a big waste of time. Her character overall was a big waste of time, except for the cat eating bit, that was funny. My favorite stories were Director Denial's (couldn't believe she put razors in those dolls!) and The Missing Link's (I actually found myself watching a show about Big Foot last night just because of it.) Overall I enjoyed "Haunted" but it wasn't my favorite. I still hold "Choke" up as my favorite Chuck novel.[/QUOTE]
I have a stuffed sasquatch in my corner. I hit him while drunk driving. I charge a quarter a look, line forms at the door, two drink minimum.

For real, my Dad called me Sasquatch when I was growing up. Not at first, but I got my height early (passed the six foot mark before I was out of grade school) and hit puberty ahead of the curve (pit stench and pubic hair/peach fuzz starting at age 9). Plus, I idolized KISS and AC/DC in late elementary school and started growing my hair.

So I've always believed in Bigfoot, because I believe in me.

[QUOTE=Chixulub]
So I've always believed in Bigfoot, because I believe in me.[/QUOTE]
But do you believe in Crystal Lite?

[QUOTE=Parkaboy]But do you believe in Crystal Lite?[/QUOTE]

I used to believe in Crystal Lite, but I lost my faith.

The Haunted Book Club discussion is here for June: [url]http://www.chuckpalahniuk.net/community/showthread.php?p=654347#post654347[/url]

Be there or be square, Daddios.

I could swear I was in the book club, but I can't seem to get a password that lets me in there...

[QUOTE=Chixulub]I could swear I was in the book club, but I can't seem to get a password that lets me in there...[/QUOTE]
I PMed the damn thing to you, now post!

Hello, I did. Going to bed now.

[QUOTE=Keiran_Horn]Finished [I]Haunted[/I] about two hours ago. I am not entirely sure exactly what I have just read, but I know it was incredible. I never thought I could love a Chuck novel more than [I]Survivor[/I], but [I]Haunted[/I] may have just changed my world.[/QUOTE]

That's strong praise, putting it on a 'Survivor' level. Did you find the poems and overall connective material compelling, or did you just enjoy the shorts?

I thought that Saint Guts-free's poem was tight.

I bought this novel - and was so excited about it - as soon as it was released.

It is in the trunk of my car. I have not yet finished it.

I have loved, loved, loved every one of Chuck's books - every word - until I got to this one. And I just can't bring myself to keep reading.

I'd read "Guts" when it was appeared in Playboy, before the book was released, and I thought it was really funny. I later heard that people were getting grossed out and fainting when they heard Chuck read it. But when I read it, I thought it was a totally over the top joke + punchline, brilliantly done. I looked forward to the book even more, thinking I could expect more of the same.

I won't criticize the construction - the poems and storyline running between the short stories. All of that was OK by me. I think what got me is that it didn't seem to be in the voice that I crave when I read Chuck. And instead of the naturally occuring kind of gross stuff/violence that I've come to respect in Chuck's books, it seemed forced.

This book just didn't do for me what all the others did for me...I didn't feel like I was dating this book. I wasn't excited to see it waiting for me when I got home. I didn't get the butterflies. I wasn't recruiting readers.

What is wrong with me?

[QUOTE=a-bit-odd]
What is wrong with me?[/QUOTE]

Why assume it's you? Maybe the book stinks.

Chuck wouldn't be the first writer I generally admire to write an egg-sucking dawg.

So far I've found it "alright".

The support story is getting repetitive and boring and there's so many characters that I find it hard to keep track of who's who, even with their weird nicknames. It keeps pounding the same, tired old messages about people dramatising their lives and art coming from conflict that he tried to put across in 'Diary'. I mean hell, it was put better in the movie "The Third Man" and that came out years ago.

As for the poetry/mini stories. They vary quite a lot. Some of them seem almost like leftovers from the research he did for other stories. For example, the one about the reporter and the former child star sounds a bit like something from 'Lullaby' and the one by chef assassin is a bit like a certain section of 'Fight Club'. The rest of them seem like ideas he had for novels but couldn't quite stretch that far, rather than ideas that were meant to be short stories. Then again, I guess that could be the point really, the people went there to write their books but they don't have enough substance so they resort to making their lives their stories.

[QUOTE=Raize]My suggestion:
1) Read all the short stories: laugh, cry, sit in awe.
2) Never read another word in the novel.

I *really* disliked the main story. Very much. In fact, I thought the main story was amateurish and juvenile. And you can say that the characters were amateurish and juvenile, and desiring their fifteen minutes of fame, but the story itself was as if it was written by a teenager.
[/QUOTE]
perhaps it was
i think the theory that maybe Whittier or one of the others told the entire story
maybe Whittier is telling the entire background story creating all these characters until they start to tell their own individual stories and take on a life of their own
might also be a way to get away with everyone criticizing all the stories being in the same "voice"

i haven't read the book since i first got it last year, might pick it up again and give it another chance

I just finished Haunted, and I wasn't all that pleased with it. Sure it was entertaining, had some great short stories, and some gory parts in the main story... but I kinda walked away with nothing from the book... like I wouldn't recommend it or anything, just because it ended abruptbly with no real message... and cutting off fingers and toes does get old after a while... I have sort of decided that I would read his earlier stuff now too... but am eager for a new book tho.

Oh! Also didn't like the fact that the characters were in it mostly to get money from a movie debut... but Chuck never said anything more than that at the end of the book... but I wasn't all that enthused about the movie idea anyways, so I didn't really care. Also, this would have been better if he had just expanded a bit on the short stories, and just released them inside of this book, instead of having a main story that was really weak

Your review is not alone.

When I hung out to get autographs in KC a couple weeks ago, I talked to some of the people waiting. This was after 11:00 when the chick I'm sweet on bailed and had me drop her at her car. I came back, mainly to get her 'Lullaby' autographed.

The 'favorite' books people were talking about varied. People who loved Invisible Monsters (probably the bottom of the stack for me, because at least Haunted has some good short stories), people who loved Survivor (my favorite of his), fans of Lullaby, of Fight Club, discussions about how the movie was better than the book in some ways but favorite scenes from the novel we wish had made the screen, etc.

No one mentioned Haunted except to kind of shrug and say, 'Meh, not so much.'

Obviously someone likes it or it wouldn't get enough WOM to sell as well as it is, but you could tell, for the hard core fans, the mentality was 'hopefully the next book will be the good stuff.'

i still say, whereever it was i first read it, that if haunted did come in over 500 pages it would have been Incredible !
i think the 100 pages they cut out of it were from the wrap around story and made it a stinker of a wrap around story

I just figured Chuck was getting bad feedback. If you've been on the bestseller lists, I'm sure editors have a tendency to say, 'well that seems to work for him' on stuff a first time novelist, or any mid-lister would have to make a case for if it stayed.

I hear Cormac McCarthy had to cut a ton out of 'No Country for Old Men.' That was an awfully good book, too, and it's hard to imagine he really had 150 more pages of stuff that belonged in it.

i just got da book last week its pretty good a bit disturbing and funny i dont think most of the stuff is gross its funny 2 me

I just finished the book and all i can say is wow, it was really good! I love his writing completely. now i gotta move onto Invisible Monsters! I especially liked the little thing at the end of Haunted that talks about how a ton of people fainted during the book signings when he read Guts aloud to a group of people. Makes me wanna start carting the book with me and reading it to people to see if they get similar reactions from it.

[QUOTE=Strifefox;1071946]I just finished the book and all i can say is wow, it was really good! I love his writing completely. now i gotta move onto Invisible Monsters! I especially liked the little thing at the end of Haunted that talks about how a ton of people fainted during the book signings when he read Guts aloud to a group of people. Makes me wanna start carting the book with me and reading it to people to see if they get similar reactions from it.[/QUOTE]my woman had a similar reaction. what made it worse was that i had her read it to me, and we were dented a pint of whiskey in at the time.. she didnt finish reading the text at that time, though. she's since finished his library, but her first initial reaction was that this palahniuk guy is fucking sick. reading stories to one another can be very rewarding sometimes. like the time i made her shed a few tears while reading to her amy hempels short story in the cemetary where al jolson is burried. there was i dont know, five minutes of silence before she struck my arm, called me an asshole, and later thanked me for reading it to her. if you like short stories, her library consists of three great books and one very decent book. and sf.. welcome to the cult !!

Why thank you! honestly, i had already read Lullaby a few months previously and when i saw a chance to get Haunted I did. Someone in the past had already read 'Guts' to me and that was initially made me go but Lullaby then go get Haunted....lol, it took me so long because i never knew the name of the book. With vigilant web surfing i found out where it came from though. I love his work, absolutely LOOOOOVED the movie Fight Club and can't help but smile when i read anything of his. Usually I'm only a high fantasy reader - you know, dragons and magic and all that. But some how our wonderful Chuck drew me into his little world and beat me with the 'thats interesting' stick. Haunted by far was what really sucked me in though. I could only read a chapter or two before I had to set the book down and really ponder on what I had read. The characters were amazing and it kinda got to me how everyone was so damn selfish. It really makes you realize people are jerks when they think they can get money. I mean, gods damn - no one actually even brought a pencil or paper with them except one guy. It makes you think . o O (did anyone have the intention of even writing in the first place?)

So end of that little rant there

after fight club and choke this was my 3rd book from him. and i realy like it instead of the poems and the footjob story. the rest of the book was realy entertaining and made me think about a lot of stuff thats going on or made me laugth like the story from chef assasin. realy great book!

just finished haunted...hubby wanted to read it then thought after starting "guts" he couldnt finish but with encouragement after reading "guts" and laughing he decided to finish the book now i have and i only have one question or thought "What kind of childhood did Chuck have?"......i dont mean that in a bad way ....i found the book to be very good and will now be on a reading frenizy to read all of Chuck's books....thank you so much

This book just isn't doing 'it' for me, at all. I can normally get through a Chuck book in one or two days, but this is dragging on and on. I just don't seem to want to pick it up! The short stories are good. The poems and the linking story are just boring me though.

Anyone think it'd be ok for me to skip the shit and just read the shorts, or should I stick it out?

My mom wants to start reading it...She likes Invisible Monsters, so of course she is interested. But she will never make it through the book.

Pg. 353, hoping to finish the book today. All I have to say is damn.