Make Something Up: Stories You Can't Unread

by Chuck Palahniuk

Hardcover

Published January 1, 2015

About the author

Written in stolen moments under truck chassis and on park benches to a soundtrack of The Downward Spiral and Pablo Honey, Fight Club came into existence. The adaptation of Fight Club was a flop at the box office, but achieved cult status on DVD. The film’s popularity drove sales of the novel. Chuck put out two novels in 1999, Survivor and Invisible Monsters. Choke, published in 2001, became Chuck’s first New York Times bestseller. Chuck’s work has always been infused with personal experience, and his next novel, Lullaby, was no exception. Chuck credits writing Lullaby with helping him cope with the tragic death of his father. Diary and the non-fiction guide to Portland, Fugitives and Refugees, were released in 2003. While on the road in support of Diary, Chuck began reading a short story entitled 'Guts,' which would eventually become part of the novel Haunted.

In the years that followed, he continued to write, publishing the bestselling Rant, Snuff, Pygmy, Tell-All, a 'remix' of Invisible Monsters, Damned, and most recently, Doomed.

Chuck also enjoys giving back to his fans, and teaching the art of storytelling has been an important part of that. In 2004, Chuck began submitting essays to ChuckPalahniuk.net on the craft of writing. These were 'How To' pieces, straight out of Chuck's personal bag of tricks, based on the tenants of minimalism he learned from Tom Spanbauer. Every month, a “Homework Assignment” would accompany the lesson, so Workshop members could apply what they had learned. (all 36 of these essays can currently be found on The Cult's sister-site, LitReactor.com).

Then, in 2009, Chuck increased his involvement by committing to read and review a selection of fan-written stories each month. The best stories are currently set to be published in Burnt Tongues, a forthcoming anthology, with an introduction written by Chuck himself.

His next novel, Beautiful You, is due out in October 2014.

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fuckin' Chuck! He never ceases to entertain me. Haha!

[Nikolas Krieger · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title is “stories that you can’t unread” but the only story that really can hold that title is “inclinations”. That one will live in my brain. I was hoping for stories that had killer punches at the end but most of them were conceptual and not as twisted as I was expecting. I imagine they were more phenomenal when the book was released. The stories have aged as societal norms have degraded.

My favorite story is “zombies”. The ideas were good but I don’t think the stories had enough structure. It seemed like concepts rather than stories that let me land somewhere. Maybe that’s what Palahniuk was going for.

“Why aardvark never landed on the moon” was fun too.

[Ron Badgerow III · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, the subtitle does not lie! This is a collection of fiction short stories, most in the classic vein of Palahniuk weird shock horror. The ones that are more toned down are almost more enjoyable, as Chuck has quite the pension for twists. Although he ends things much to the contrary of what you expect, he does this interestingly enough to revel in the misdirection. Well played, sir... Well played.

[Eddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Palahniuk’s prose is very minimal, which makes it easy and enjoyable to read. Several of the stories in this collection are memorable, but not because they are good per se rather they are about shocking subject matters. Palahniuk’s fast paced writing style is highlighted in this collection, but the stories themselves at times are not for everyone.

[Killian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like a really neat collection of B-sides. Stories that either hinge on building up to a grotesquerie, or don't quite make it to novel length.