Telling It Like It Is

I've read most of Chuck Palahniuk's novels, though I wouldn't necessarily call him a "favorite author." For one thing, I'm never itching to read his new novel whenever it drops. Case in point, I thought I was current with his writing -- the last book of his I've read being Snuff. Nope, it turns out he's published two more since then, and has a third on the way this fall.

I decided to check out the generally more well-reviewed of the two recent books, Tell-All. It's a story told from the point of view of a much put-upon employee and caretaker of an aging movie actress. Basically, imagine that Norma Desmond (of Sunset Boulevard) had a much-suffering house-/life-keeper who wrote a book.

I'd try to give you a taste of the plot, but therein lies the major problem with the book. It barely has a plot. It's under 200 pages, and you really don't have a sense of "what's happening," what it's really all "about," until over halfway through.

What fills the pages until that point (and still dominates them after) comes arguably closer to poetry than prose. Palahniuk is more interested in how to turn a phrase, how to express an image, than how to tell a story. He plays a lot with sentence structure, establishing haiku-like patterns that he repeats often. He highlights every proper name in the book in a bold-faced font. And he repeats the same ideas often, giving the sense that an already-slim book was padded out considerably just to get here.

I'd call the entire thing a bust, except that the "poetry" is fairly evocative and interesting. The patterns of language do work, and get you into the mindset of the main character. There are many clever turns of phrase, and more than a few smiles to be found among the pages. The technique and style kept me going long past the point of frustration at the lack of narrative momentum. (Indeed, it literally kept me going until the narrative finally presented itself.)

In short, it's not a bad piece of writing. But it's a terrible piece of storytelling. It doesn't have far to travel, and doesn't get there fast. Whether you find a "scenic journey" interesting will basically determine whether you'd want to read the book or not. In my analysis, it's a C+ overall. It's possibly Chuck Palahniuk's weakest effort, and has dulled my enthusiasm to read his other recent book that I missed.