I actually picked up this book in high school, i think my senior year, right after I had read to do a report on Fight Club. I read the book first and loved everything about it. I loved Palahniuk's writing style and how it was sort of dark and disturbing but had such a good story line and plot that you tend to look past all the gore (if you're not into it.)
After i had read Fight Club i had gotten the movie and had to analyze it, i can say that i still enjoyed the movie, however i found that i enjoyed the book a tremendous amount more. Hollywood tends to ruin most books for me. Anyways, after doing tons of research on the novel and on Chuck Palahniuk himself, i was really intrigued by his stories and novels. After i had read Fight Club i went out and bought several other books by him as well.
I bought Haunted - which was a collection of short stories he had written that apparently was "so gruesome and shocking" that people at his reading were fainting, etc. So of course, i had to see what it was all about. I also bought Choke, and Invisible Monsters which were two of my favorites, and also got Survivor - another great one but i dont remember if i finished it or not? and Snuff, which i did not finish. Oh, and of course Lullaby.
I remember i picked up Lullaby first to read because i was excited by the sound of the plot. Somehow, at some point, i put it down for one reason or another and started reading the other novels. For me, this was not one of my favorites.
I guess i was expecting something different, and not necessarily more thrilling, but maybe more clear for this novel.
The first time around i never finished it, and reading it now I find it more interesting as i continued past the slow beginning. The story is about a short poem that when is repeated causes the person to die, it is an ancient Zulu culling song, that was originally meant to filter the population during times of famine. As i picked up the book again i was remembering certain images i had gotten when the Helen lady was selling houses that i guess were haunted. In the beginning i did not realize that that was what was happening, and was trying to connect the haunted houses with the lullabies. I guess i was just waiting for the real story with the sudden infant death syndromes.
One thing i always enjoy about a Palahniuk novel, is his sense of humor. Although his novels may be dealing with serious or disturbing matter, there is always some sort of wise crack jokes. One thing i thought was funny was that his computers password is "password" - which is what mine was for awhile so i would not forget. I also enjoy how all of his characters are always such quirky and weird combinations of people. Each character has their own 'thing' about them that makes them unique and stand out from the others. They are all in a way, sort of misfits.
For example, Oyster places bogus lawsuit ads in newspapers, which gradually become more and more absurd, and then Carl who likes to meticulously build model buildings with his hands and then stomp them to bits with his bare feet, and likes to kill people by rehearsing the culling song at speed to people who bump into him on the street.
Little things like that really made the novel a whole other level of depth and story, and i am glad i gave the novel another chance, although it is still not my favorite Palahniuk novel.
