Sharon’s Comments (group member since Sep 16, 2012)

Sharon’s comments from the The WTF? Book Club group.

Thought by many to be a satire of reality television programmes, in Palahniuk’s words, the novel is actually about “the battle for credibility” that has resulted from the ease that one can publish with modern technology. (A similar theme that occurs in more than one of Palahniuk’s works, Celebrity being a focal theme in his novel ‘Tell-All”.) Other dominant themes in ‘Haunted’ are Sexual Deviance, Sexual Identity, Social Distastefulness, Desperation, Death, and Murder.

The novel focuses on a cast of seventeen characters, and unusually, the main body of the tale is revealed through a series of short stories; each chapter comprising a poem about one character (the author of which is never revealed), a story section and a short story written by a character. The short stories all have a similar confessional tone, and each tells of the particular reasons that character has decided to abandon their lives for three months to attend the writers retreat.

The reputation of one short story ‘Guts’ is probably enough to put the faint hearted off reading ‘Haunted’, upwards of 30 people fainted at the first reading Palahniuk did, due to the fact the story starts by advising the reader to hold their breath whilst the story is told. Subsequent readings brought the total up to 60 victims of fainting, and Palahniuk is more than happy to make this fact known. Though not knowing the full story before I read the book made me think that ‘Guts’ was going to be a lot grosser than it actually was. Apparently the sensibilities of American school boards are easier to offend, as one teacher found out when admonished for letting high school students read ‘Guts’.

Palahniuk is not an easy read, with complex and dark themes that take a bit of thought, you’ll never find a Richard & Judy sticker anywhere near a Palahniuk book (now that’s a scary thought), and he can be hit and miss with his penchant for experimenting with storytelling devices and unusual formats, but ‘Haunted’ is definitely a hit. Darkly compelling, horribly illustrating the greed and self-centredness of modern society, I loved every minute of this book.

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