When I first started reading Choke, my expectations were pretty low because I'd read another one of Chuck P's books before and didn't enjoy it at all. As it turned out, I really liked Choke. It had a very interesting story, and it seemed to have comedic relief in all the right places. Because of the theme of the book, I really had no idea what to expect on the next page, but I can definitely say that I was never disappointed.

I really enjoy the way Palahniuk can incorporate graphic sex scenes and disturbing scenes of violence to the point of indecency and still get away with a really entertaining and wholesomely enjoyable book. It's a quality to be admired. This particular novel left me wondering if Chuck Palahniuk REALISES he's a bloody genius, or if he's one of those ones that are unaware of his massive intelligence. Just the concept of this book is brilliant.

Of course, like the rest of his works, the book isn't for kids alright, but it's definitely an invigorating read for the rest of us.

A man pretends to choke in restaurants, thereby allowing someone different to be a hero every time he does it!

Those people are left thinking they just saved someones' life, which of course they have not, but they feel great as a result! They also feel very connected to the 'chokee' and often send him gifts on his birthday and at christmas.

As a result, the main character has a sweet racket going where he gets free meals in restaurants, and gets free stuff from all of the past 'saviours'; until of course someone sees him choke on two different times at two different restaurants.

Regardless, one is left wondering whether he should be allowed to keep choking, as it seems to be beneficial for him (i can only assume he would be on welfare, and a burden to the state without this alternative 'job'), plus it is beneficially to those that save him. Wouldn't you feel great if you saved someone's life?

So why not sit down with a nice big snack, take some big bites, don't chew very much, and 'Choke' on this great read?

In my top 10 books I read in 2009.

If you can get four or five hours to yourself , CHOKE can be read in a single sitting. This is a pre-Clark Gregg review, the movie will be out in September and after the film the book will never be the same.

CHOKE was Palahniuk's first novel to appear after the DVD edition of Fight Club made it to market. Fight Club bombed at the box office due to scathing reviews about its excessive violence and fraternity. Invisible Monsters and Survivor were published in 1999 with some circulatory success but Choke hit it fairly big. It was widely reviewed and read.

In a fairly recent interview (Summer 2008) Palahniuk suggested that Choke was a kind of sequel to Fight Club. I thought it was pure PR but after reading it again I changed my mind. It is in many ways written like a sequel to Fight Club. It was probably written on a tide of enthusiasm for the DVD, amidst hundreds of interviews about the film and laudatory praise for its fierce imagination. So . . . I'm willing to grant that it is a kind of sequel. Ida Mancini could have been Tyler Durden's mother. I'm assuming that this is deliberate, why mess with something that works.

Since the novel has been out for several years I don't consider including Spoilers unfair game. Consider yourself warned.

The novel begins and we're introduced to Victor Mancini and his mother. The philosophy of his mother is written on the wall: "You had to risk your life to get love. You had to get right to the edge of death to ever be saved" (3). Thie novel is Victor's confession, step four in the twelve-step recovery program. Victor is a sex addict. Like many of his novels it uses the techniques of journalism to tell its story (Choke is a confession, the fourth step in a recovery program; Survivor is a confession recorded by a flight recorder; Rant is an oral biography, etcetera).

Victor on distraction:
"That's pretty much how we get through our own lives, watching television. Smoking crap. Self-medicating. Redirecting our own attention . . . Denial (60-61).

"Every addiction, she said, was just a way to treat this same problem. Drugs or overeating or alcohol or sex, it was all just another way to find peace. To escape what we know. Our education. Our bite of the apple" (150).

Fight Club "copy of a copy":

"Wednesday night mean Nico. Friday nights mean Tanya. Sundays mean Leeza" (16).

When Victor has an orgasm, "I've got no problems in the world. No mother. No medical bills. . . I feel nothing" (19).

The love triangle: Victor Mancini, Ida Mancini, and Paige Marshall (narrator - Tyler Durden - Marla Singer).

I am Joe's . . . is replaced by:
"Parasite" isn't the right word, but it's the first word that comes to mind (33). "Beatific" isn't the right word, but it's the first word that comes to mind (36). Followed by "Pilgrimage" (36), "Freedom" (38), "Savior" (39), "Hero" (39), "Charity" (50), "Ponzi scheme" (79), "Stalking" (110), "Revenge" (119), "Incorrigible" (160), "Vandalism" (177), "Tombstone" (195), "Morning sickness" (230), "Defused" (232), and "Widower" (270).

The "Fight Club" chapter is chapter 6 in Fight Club. The "Choke" chapter is chapter 7 in Choke. "Why I do this is to create heroes" (49). This isn't unlike the scene in Fight Club where he makes a human sacrifice, putting a gun to the head of a clerk and threatening to kill them unless they live out their dreams. "It's the martyrdom of Saint Me" (51).

Tyler Durdenisms:

"Screw history. All these fake people, they're the most important people for you to know," the Mommy said (97).

"Another thing she said was, 'The Enlightenment is over. What we're living in now is the Dis-Enlightenment'" (98).

"'My generation, all of our making fun of things isn't making the world any better,' she says. 'We've spent so much time judging what other people created that we've created very, very little of our own'" (111).

"Parenthood is the opiate of the masses!" (112).

"If you're looking for enlightenment, the Mommy said, a new car isn't the answer" (148).

"Without access to true chaos, we'll never have true peace. Unless everything can get worse, it won't get any better" (159).

"She used to say, 'The only frontier you have left is the world of intangibles. Everything else is sewn up too tight'" (159).

"Because nothing is as perfect as you can imagine it. Because nothing is as exciting as your fantasy" (164). This becomes a mantra throughout the rest of the text. This is the first time the phrase appears.

"These men and women sitting behind unlocked doors know a bigger house is not the answer. Neither is a better spouse, more money, tighter skin . . . The answer is there is no answer" (256).

The recommendations are related to the religious themes in CPs novel.