Not sure if anyone on here has read any Palahniuk, he is easily my favorite author. He has a new book coming out in May(Rant an Oral Biography of Buster Casey), which I know is a good ways off but, he is doing a speaking tour, I have never seen him but am hoping I can this time around. For those who aren\'t familiar with his work he wrote Fight Club.
Here\'s a summary of the new book from amazon:
From Publishers Weekly
Buster Casey, destined to live fast, die young and murder as many people as he can, is the rotten seed at the core of Palahniuk\'s comically nasty eighth novel (after Haunted; Lullaby; Diary; etc.). Set in a future where urbanites are segregated by strict curfews into Daytimers and Nighttimers, the narrative unfolds as an oral history comprising contradictory accounts from people who knew Buster. These include childhood friends horrified by the boy\'s macabre behavior (getting snakes, scorpions and spiders to bite him and induce instant erections; repeatedly infecting himself with rabies), policemen and doctors who had dealings with the rabies "superspreader"; and Party Crashers, thrill-seeking Nighttimers who turn city streets into demolition derby arenas. After liberally infecting his hometown peers with rabies, Buster hits the big city and takes up with the Party Crashers. A series of deaths lead to a police investigation of Buster (long-since known as "Rant"—the sound children make while vomiting) that peaks just as Buster apparently commits suicide in a blaze of car-crash glory. This dark religious parable (there\'s even a resurrection) from the master of grotesque excess may not attract new readers, but it will delight old ones. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
In his eighth novel, Palahniuk uses a new form--oral history--to revisit the themes that have always informed his oeuvre. Buster "Rant" Casey, a naturopathic serial killer, is dead, and those who survive him--family, friends, enemies, and hangers-on--are trying to make sense of the void left by his passing. Perhaps offering a meditation on celebrity, the author explores the topics that have always intrigued him: uniqueness and belonging, cross-generational panic, the search for authenticity, and the consume-or-die worldview. If this suggests that Palahniuk\'s biggest influence here is himself, this Tom Sawyer on methamphetamine (the first 100 pages depict Casey\'s boyhood as a poison-obsessed, priapic Pied Piper) belies the influence of William S. Burroughs (in its satire of boys\'-own adventures), William Gibson (characters "boost" each others\' neural transcripts of lived experience), and J. G. Ballard (Casey\'s clique crashes cars in order to feel more alive). Outrageous but not quite over the top, full of energetic humor, Rant (Casey\'s nickname is said to be onomatopoeic for the sound of children vomiting) is a memorable portrait of the cults that gather around authentically different people and a portrait of dystopia that feels unsettlingly contemporary. Palahniuk is no Studs Terkel, but Terkel\'s heartland probably looks more like Palahniuk\'s nowadays. Keir Graff
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
and the tour dates:
Wednesday, May 2 – Portland
7:00pm - Powell’s – offsite
Reading, Q&A, signing
The Baghdad Theater
3702 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd.
Portland, OR 97214
Thursday, May 3 – Seattle
7:00pm - Elliott Bay Books – offsite
Reading, Q&A, signing
Town Hall
1119 Eighth Avenue
Seattle, WA 98101
Friday, May 4 – San Francisco - Unconfirmed
7:00pm - Booksmith – offsite
Reading, Q&A, signing
Address tk
San Francisco, CA
Saturday, May 5 – Berkeley
7:30pm - Cody’s – offsite
Reading, Q&A, signing
UC Berkeley -- Pauley Ballroom
ASUC Building at Telegraph and Bancroft
Berkeley, CA 94720
Monday, May 7 – Los Angeles
8:00pm - Vroman’s – offsite
Reading, Q&A, signing
Beckman Auditorium
332 S. Michigan
Pasadena, CA 91125
Wednesday, May 9 – New York
7:00pm - Barnes & Noble Union Square – with Irvine Welsh
Reading and Q&A
33 East 17th Street
NO SIGNING
New York, NY 10003
*NOTE: All books for this event will be pre-signed. There will not be an autographing at the event.
Thursday, May 10 – Philadelphia
8:00pm - Free Library of Philadelphia – with Elmore Leonard
Reading, Q&A, signing
1901 Vine Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Friday, May 11 – Boston
5:00pm - Brookline Booksmith – offsite
Reading, Q&A, signing Coolidge Corner Theater
290 Harvard Street
Brookline, MA 02446
Saturday, May 12 – Miami
7:30pm - Books & Books – offsite
Reading, Q&A, signing
Historic Coast Guard Hangar
Shake-A-Leg Miami
2620 South Bayshore Drive
Coconut Grove, FL 33133
Monday, May 14 – Lexington, KY - Unconfirmed
7:30pm - Joseph-Beth Bookseller – offsite
Reading, Q&A, signing
Address tk
Lexington, KY
Tuesday, May 15 – Milwaukee
7:00pm - H.W. Schwartz – offsite
Reading, signing, Q&A
Alverno College’s Pitman Theatre
3401 S. 39th Street
Milwaukee, WI 53234
Wednesday, May 16 – Chicago
7:00pm - Borders Books & Music
Reading, Q&A, Signing
830 N. Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60611
Thursday, May 17 – Columbus, OH - Unconfirmed
7:00pm - Barnes & Noble – OSU offsite
Reading, Q&A, signing
Address tk
Columbus, OH
Chuck fansiteChuck Wikipedia linkI\'m hoping to hop the train into the city on May 9th to check that one out if anyone else is interested let me know.
