Stranger than Fiction by Chuck Palahniuk is a collection of short essays from Palahniuk’s life and adventures between writing novels. There is a good chance that everyone could find at least one essay they really liked and one essay they really hated; there is that much variety. Everything from drunken crowd orgy-like conventions to an explanation of the wrestler affliction cauliflower ear is explored in this nonfiction conglomeration. It is almost impossible to summarize what this book is about because it really isn’t about any one thing. There are hardly even any recurring themes within the book. Nothing builds from one story to the next so this book really could be read in any order, or the reader could skip stories they didn’t like and not lose much as far as content.
Chuck Palahniuk is most well-known for his book Fight Club, which was adapted to film 1999. According to the Internet Movie Database, Palahniuk is quoted as saying the movie improved upon his novel, which is uncommon praise given to film adaptations of novels. If they are praising, authors will often say it was a good movie, but not usually that it was better than their own book. Palahniuk says in Stranger than Fiction that he often goes on trips between novels in order to get ideas and inspiration for future writing endeavors. He said that some of the stories were just too good to not be used in their full and original context, which is why he wrote them all down as they happened for this book.
Palahniuk’s purpose in writing this book is up for debate. In my opinion, he wrote this novel to show more common and average people the outlandish lifestyles of others. Kind of like a “This is America” idea. He doesn’t seem to exploit or judge these people, which would be very easy to do. In one scene, a woman is described as spreading her legs to a crowd and allowing them to probe her with their fingers. He never makes a comment about her being disgusting; he just tells it all factually. It is easy to come to these conclusions, but he never comes right out and says them. In another part of the book, Palahniuk tells the story of men who obsessively build castles, one even getting a divorce over it. He does not make fun of these men who want to build castles all the time, even though it would take only minimal effort to do so. He just tells their story to the reader and allows them to make their own opinions.
The information for this book was obtained in several ways. Probably the most common method Palahniuk used was observation. It seemed like he would people watch until he found an interesting story. Once he got his idea, he would explore more and interview the people he was watching. This is how his writing is organized. He almost always sets the scene first and includes a lot of sensory details to put the reader there. He then asks the people involved questions and gives the reader a greater understanding of who these people are and why they are in the situations that they are in. He never really participates in anything. Palahniuk mainly sits on the sidelines, observes, and asks questions.
I thought that this was a fun novel to read. Some of the stories were boring to me, so I skipped them with no apparent consequence. That is a big plus to the book. If there are slow parts that are uninteresting, it works out just fine to skip over them. I am going to create a genre for this novel and call it “Campfire Nonfiction.” I choose this title because it sounds like what happens when you get a bunch of older, life-experienced people around a campfire and just let them talk. It is the zest of life without that uninteresting travel and explanation of how the author (or speaker) got to that point. It cuts to the chase of the interesting stuff, and this “stuff” is all piled together into a book. I wish it would have had more of an underlying theme through each story or some kind of sense as to why it is organized the way that it is, but it isn’t a huge deal. Chuck Palahniuk’s Stranger than Fiction is an enjoyable light read of life’s most interesting and memorable moments.