Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk (2008)

Review by Jaime

I’ve been a fan of Chuck Palahniuk before I even had read one of his books. "Fight Club" was just that great of a movie. My signed copy of "Fight Club" is one of my prized possessions. My wife, also a Palahniuk fan (and friend of his on MySpace . . . I know I know, but we can pretend that he’s really our pal) has pretty much read every single book he’s written. I’m still playing catch up. "Snuff" is his latest novel, and I don’t know if this will be accurate, but it is one of the most fucked up books he has written, and as well, one of the most fucked up books I’ve read in quite some time.

Don’t get "fucked up" confused and think this book is bad in any way, shape, or form. This book should be required reading for anyone who isn’t easily offended. With a name like "Snuff", what could this book be about? If you think that it involves someone’s death, then yes, you would be correct, but you’ll never see it coming, and it will leave you thinking about just what transpired for days; or hours, depending on your attention span.

But, other than the death part of the book, what else is going on? Well, an aging porn star is trying to go down in history as being the one and only woman to ever complete a 600-man gangbang. The event unfolds through the eyes of a few key players in the gangbang: the talent wrangler with a past, a young man trying to save someone near and dear to him, a disgraced television personality with something to prove, and the seasoned porn professional trying to make sure that things go down as they should.

Peppered throughout the book are fascinating facts (or they could be made up, you’ll have to ask Palahniuk if they’re true) about old Hollywood stars of the past that really enhance the whole experience. The book sometimes reads like a textbook in pain for the sake of art, and this layer of extra Hollywood folklore ties up the main theme of the book rather nicely.

The only drawback that this book has, and it’s just a minor personal quibble, is that it’s too short. That, and from the descriptions you might read, I was led to believe that I would be seeing the story unfold through the eyes of more than just a handful of the gangbang participants. I read most of it while sitting through a company picnic on a hot Friday afternoon. To its merit, it did keep me from going postal, but it’s still painfully short.

You can also check out some of the fake trailers that were produced as publicity for the book. Just type in “Cassie Wright” into the search field in YouTube, and you can see video interviews with the famed (and fake) porn star, as well as quick trailers for such timeless classics (if they had ever been produced) as: Chitty Chitty Gang Bang, Twilight Bone and The Wizard of Ass.

- Jaime run Blogs Are For Wusses and is a semi-regular contributor for Analog Medium