Rated M for Mature

This week, I tackled another "read me in one day" book, author Chuck Palahniuk's latest effort, Snuff. This is a shorter book than (I think) any of his others. It's definitely more succinct. Most of his novels seem to be a strange melange of a half a dozen different ideas all thrown in a blender. This novel remains almost entirely focused around a single topic, though one certainly as outrageous as any you'll find in his past books.

Snuff is the story of an aging, no longer popular porn star who wants to do something big to get "back on the map," and in the process earn money she'll leave behind after her death for her illegitimate child. And that "something big?" To set the record for consecutive sexual acts caught on film, by arranging a film shoot with 600 men. The book is told in alternating chapters from the points of view of "Mr. 72," "Mr. 137," "Mr. 600," and the "wrangler" who is keeping all the men in line in the waiting room as they await their few moments before the camera.

This actually is not the most graphic or even incendiary material to come from the mind of Chuck Palahniuk. (I'd give both those honors to his book Haunted.) Nevertheless, it's pretty dicey stuff.

But unlike some of his other books, there's not too much beneath that layer of edginess. Other books he's written really get the mind working, making you think. (I'd recommend Lullaby.) In fact, this book is possibly his most shallow, when you really get down to it.

But, in its favor, it is damn funny. Outside of Stephen Colbert's I Am America and So Can You, and the last George Carlin book I read (you know, books by actual comedians), this is the funniest thing I've read in the last year or two. It actually made me laugh out loud, alone on my couch, on multiple occasions.

I hope that doesn't say too many awful things about my sense of humor.

So I would ultimately say that the book does definitely entertain, even though it doesn't really satisfy in the way that some of Chuck Palahniuk's other books have. I'd rate it a B-. It's certainly worth checking out if you've read any of his other books and liked them. And at a slim 197 pages (with fairly large print), it's not like it will have taken too much of your time if it turns out you don't like it.