This might sound like a simple question, but I would argue that it is by far one of the most complex questions a reader and a writer can face. On the face of it, it might seem innocuous, innocent, a simple answer hiding behind the face of its words. But this little question can even be a stumbling block to the best writers...
I have to admit, Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club is one of my favourite books. And I have to admit that I buy his books without even reading the blurbs. I have almost all of his books, and I have read four or five of them. Two of them fall into the category of Best Books Ever Written, one falls into the Meh category, and two of them fall into the What, Why Is This Even Written? category.
Unfortunately, Adjustment Day falls into the latter category. Along with Beautiful Me, I wonder what even went on in Palahniuk's mind. The latter, Beautiful Me was definitely just an idea that he could not develop into a good book, but Adjustment Day feels like a middle-aged man who struggles to find his place in an ever-changing society. It felt like I was the narrator in Fight Club stumbling upon Project Mayhem, but in this case, gender and racial politics took over in a strange absurd way.
Before I carry on, let me try and explain what exactly this book is, why I started with the question, Why do we read books?, and how Palahniuk just fell off the track with this one.
Where do I start? Why do we read books?
Different people have different reasons why they read. But let us for a moment speculate that we read for the purpose of being transported from our everyday life into the world created by the author. We immerse ourselves in the world created by the words on the paper. Reading, therefore, is highly subjective. We construct worlds based on the paper and our minds - a highly contextual and subjective thing. Two readers will get vastly different things from the same book. Some passages might be brilliant and life-changing to one, and the same passage might be skipped over by another.
So what then happens when an author wants to merely convince you of something? What happens when an author gets tangled up in identity politics and convinces himself he is the middle ground, the voice of reason, the one that can see with a so-called godlike perspective? What happens when an author wants to take something so far it becomes absurd, when an author tries to suck it up, grovel, or in my home language which says it so beautifully "gat kruip" (literally, ass crawling)?
You will get Adjustment Day by Palahniuk. This book is borderline racist, sexist, and I am not sure what it tries to accomplish.
Let me rewind a bit and give a very biased and subjective summary of the book.
This dystopian novel follows the fall of America as we know it, following the mistranslation of a book narrated by a strange figure. (I could never really get into the novel, there were too many characters, too many scenes and time jumps.) We follow the fallout, in which America is radically changed into three broad zones, "Caucasia", "Blacktopia", or "Gaysia" (I am not kidding...).
Some of us are familiar with the meme (internet joke) floating around that if Africa had never been colonised then it would have had flying cars and so on. Well, according to Palahniuk when all African Americans are segregated and placed into "Blacktopia" they would advance in less than a month into a society so advanced that they could levitate. If this is not either grovelling or racist, I am not sure - to be honest I am not sure what he was trying to do here.
"Caucasia" falls back into old European ways, with one man having tens of hundreds of brides, impregnating them all, before his newest wife, the queen, amputated his groin with a spider bite, flinging the newly amputated member from the window... Again, I am not making this up... And "Gaysia" becomes a totalitarian dystopia - the identity politics cannot get worse...
So, why do we read books? To relive the fantasy of an old man who cannot get with the times? To share in these fever dreams that he had whilst tripping on some sort of drug, getting so scared of the future, and trying to get on the "right" side of history? Does it help to say that those in "Blacktopia" will flourish, or is this an attempt at mocking the idea entertained by some?
Not only this, the writing is also really bad, and the storytelling even worse. For about 70 pages, we never hear from a character, only to return to her already married; we the reader in Palahniuk's mind are apparently not allowed into the privacy of the story. Show don't tell... But this books is one long storrytelling; he shows us nothing but his limited ability to create a world we can envision - we are treated like children who cannot think for ourselves.
There are also two odd references to Fight Club in the book, where he inadvertently praises himself as a writer... I found this very odd, and a strange way to break the fourth wall.
To be honest, I could never really get into the novel. The characters feel lifeless, mouthpieces for Palahniuk to spew his strange ideas of races, genders, and politics. It felt like a last attempt at being relevant. There is something about pushing boundaries, but if you go so far beyond the boundaries you wanted to push, you end up with a piece of writing that misses the mark so much.
And this was kind of one of my problems with this novel, for who was it written? Left-leaning liberals will not touch this, but right-leaning conservatives will not read this. Who was the target audience?
This was a far cry from the Fight Club Palahniuk that I fell in love with. This felt like Beautiful Me, an idea in Palahniuk's head that needed to stay there...
Postscriptum, Am I too Harsh?
Am I too harsh? Maybe. I am biased, this is my opinion. But this book was really not a pleasant read. It did not transport me, it told me a dystopian story from the perspective of a White Male. I am not one for politics, but Palahniuk did nothing good with this book.
Luckily I spent only a dollar or two for the book.
Fight Club and Choke will remain on my list of incredible pieces of art. This book with Buitiful Me will remain on the "Why????" list.
Have you read anything by Palahniuk recently?
Happy reading, and keep well.
The Fermented Philosopher's Library
| 🕮 The Book of Malachi | 🕮 The Outsider | 🕮 A Clockwork Orange | 🕮 Perfume |
|---|---|---|---|
| by T.C. Farren | by Stephen King | by Anthony Burgess | by Patrick Suskind |
| 🕮 The Uninvited | 🕮 Life Is Elsewhere | 🕮 Philosophy as a Way of Life | 🕮 The Space Between the Space Between |
|---|---|---|---|
| by Geling Yan | by Milan Kundera | by Pierre Hadot | by John Hunt |
| 🕮 Ezumezu: A System of Logic for African Philosophy |
|---|
| by Jonathan O. Chimakonam |
"We immerse ourselves in a world created by words..."
How fascinating is that really hey! I mean I'm more of a fictional reader but I have the educational book here and there... all some good reads but heck fantasy and fiction is my go to! Anything and everything sword related... I'm hella geeky for those things!
Same here. I am a philosopher, so my bread and butter is in literature, thick books, sometimes really boring stuff. But I always turn to stories and fiction to make burden of academia a bit better.
It's interesting how an author can generate such polarized reactions. I love that you shared your reading experience and how you felt about it. In the end, that's what counts: the connection we did or didn't make with the book. Thanks for the recommendation and for sharing your thoughts!
Exactly, and thank you so much for the wonderful comment. That is exactly what it is. If we can never really connect with the work, it says nothing really about the work itself but more about us just not connecting with it.
I haven't read anything from Palahniuk's recently. You reminded me that there's always a book I haven't read 😆 and my list keeps growing everyday.
Glad that I could put some books on your list! You need to read Fight Club and Choke, if you have not done so.
The cover making me corious to add my book wishlist.
The idea that the author dealt with was very good, but the execution was not so much. I hope that you enjoy it!