Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk
a review by William the Bloody
Advertisement: Writers' retreat! Pack up and forget your life for three months! Finally no distractions!
It was an ad which garnered a modest amount of attention in the area, and a small crowd responded and met in the diner. After the words "no contact with the outside world" were mentioned, the crowd thinned. No phone. No television. No e-mail. No internet. After all of this a small group of about eighteen people were left, undeterred and intrigued. Eighteen people, one piece of luggage each, that's all that was allowed. They were picked up by bus at various stops around the city and then dropped of to an undisclosed location in which they were all supposed to write. Something. Anything. Their masterpiece. The idea for this "retreat" came to old man Whittier after hearing the tale of the origin of Frankenstein, in which Mary Shelley and her companions had been stranded inside a villa due to inclement weather and decided rather than reading stories to pass the time that they would write stories. If a legendary work of literature could be borne in such a way, why not set a similar stage? And indeed "the stage" was set, both figuratively and literally, as these eighteen would-be writers discover that their ninety day home away from home is an old, mildew-ridden playhouse. They'll have everything they need: hermetically sealed food supply, heat, hot water, bathrooms, laundry facility. Only, shortly into this endeavor, these eighteen strangers decide that the story, their best shot at fame, would be their own tale of horror, stranded "against their will" in this closed off, dirty theater and captured by Mr. Whittier. The public loves tales of suffering, and they would deliver quite a story... even if they had to engineer and inflict it all upon themselves.
The Good: Yes, that's Chuck Palahniuk of Fight Club fame. I have never read a book by Palahniuk before, but it was a neat style. The story of Haunted is presented in three rotating styles: there's the here and now tale of the eighteen writers in the theater, brief poems centred around one of the characters, and a more in depth character study chapter. The whole book goes theater chapter-poem-character chapter-theater chapter-poem-character chapter, and so on. I have to say, the most interesting thing is the style of writing during the theater chapters. The point of view of the narrative is both among them and apart from them. It's all of them and none of them at the same time. The narrative would say things like "We'd never agree to be stranded if we were really going to be cut off," and yet no one particular person says or thinks this. This is a very good way to get a peek into the collective mind of the potential writers and get the vibe of the collective thought processes. Because boy howdy, does it ever get dark. These writers in their attempt to get famous by being rescued from torture self inflict horrors you don't want to even think about. Seriously, this book is not afraid to cross that line. Each one of the characters is desperate to be the one "worst off" because that's one the media will want to interview the most. They sabotage their food supply. They cut body parts off. And it gets worse from there. The author mentions briefly in his afterword about how that is the beauty of writing books; no one's going to censor you for content like a movie or television show. The individual character studies were all fascinating and true sounding. The woman who would feel bad for beat up old toys. The old rich woman who would pretend to be homeless for a night of actual privacy and unadulterated fun. These would all make for great books in their own right.
The Bad: While cool and amusing, the main characters all refer to themselves by their made-up names relative to past experiences (re: that old rich woman who pretended to be homeless went by Lady Baglady), I found it to be slightly confusing at times. I found it easier to confuse characters this way than by using regular names. Also, as mentioned above, this book is not afraid to "go there" so it is not meant for the squeamish or faint of heart! I'm still not sure of the ending.
All in all, just plain reading this book felt like an intriguing writing exercise. It's a bit here and there and all over the place, but that's what gives these characters a bit of depth while they're in their self made torture chamber. I'm not particularly squeamish and all of the sex stuff and violence and whatnot did seem to come around into part of a greater whole. There were many great ideas all over this book which I can't help but refer to in everyday life (an example: referring to raising a child as training your replacement before you get fired, which I though was an interesting way to put it.). My only disappointment is the end of the theater bound story (it feels like it ends in a kind of rush?), but I enjoyed getting there.
A-