HAUNTED, by Chuck Palahniuk
I haven’t finished this book, but it’s so good so far, I had to go ahead and write about it because it’s phenomenal. It’s by Chuck Palahniuk, the same guy who wrote Fight Club.
Haunted is about a bunch of writers who believe they are going away to a writer’s retreat to write their masterpiece. They go by Native-Americanesque aliases, named after their shoddiest qualities, like St. Gut Free (because he ripped his intestines out in a freak accident), Miss America (in a demeaning way), and Lady Baglady (a rich woman who goes out as a bum for fun). The book is made of three different kinds of writing all put together. First, there’s the storyline. And in between the chapters of the story, there’s a poem about each character, and following that, there’s a short prose piece that the character writes themselves about their life and experiences.
When you first start the book, the group is getting together and they are all really optimistic. It’s interesting, because when the story starts out, you believe they are going to have a horrible time of it, because of Mr. Whitter, the guy who brought them all there. He’s locked the theatre doors and he says, ‘You are all here to write for three months, we’ve got enough food, yout must keep your promises and stay here until you’re done.’ None of them has any idea what they want to write about however, and they don’t want to take the trouble figure that out themselves, so…. they decide to make their stay at the theatre their own horror story, and they turn their group leader into the villain of that collective piece.
I think they’re just a bunch of manipulative, talenteless artists with writers’ block! Or at least, thats how it seems to me at the moment, but I’m not even halfway through. I’m going to have to finish it, then I’ll update you further in another post.
–the Reader
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