Chuck’s Baaaack!

America’s most famous “underground” author returns

Comments (0) By Patrice Elizabeth Grell Yursik Thursday, May 10 2007

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The last book tour that brought Chuck Palahniuk to Miami had a reputation for fainting audience members and prop-based theatrics. That book, Haunted, played with literary convention and had a high gross-out factor. Palahniuk’s latest, Rant, plays with literary convention and … hey, wait a minute! Fans of the cult author will definitely recognize his trademark themes of death, destruction, chaos, and angst, but Rant is quite different from the preceding nine books on this author’s resume. And his visit will be different, too. “This tour will be like Haunted squared. One thing I’ll be doing since this is ten years and ten books, is, I’ll be asking trivia questions to the audience. And whoever gets them all right will get a prize. Also, I had this idea about giving spectacular prizes to whoever shows up wearing a wedding gown, male or female. It’ll be a smorgasbord of stuff happening,” he assures us.

The bridal theme takes a gory twist in Rant, which features among many other things (including a superstrain of rabies, a government-enforced segregation of the diseased, and a willfully contradictory oral history about the protagonist), an urban demolition derby that delights in so-called “party crashing.” On designated nights derby teams deck out their cars in “Just Married” regalia, and crash into each other with intent to kill. If this book sounds sick and twisted to you, just wait. “I’ve fallen into a cycle of over-the-top book, and milder book. This is the milder book. My book for next year will piss everybody off,” he declares proudly. So what’s that one about, you ask? His protagonist sets out to um, host the world’s largest gangbang, once and for all. We’re already ready for him to come back. Wear your wedding best and meet Chuck Palahniuk tonight at 7:30 at the historic Coast Guard Hangar at Shake-a-Leg. Tickets are required, and are available with the purchase of one copy of Rantat Books & Books.
Sat., May 12, 7:30 p.m.