"Art never comes from happiness." So says Mancini's mother only a few pages into the novel. Given her own dicey and melodramatic style of parenting, you would think that her son's life would be chock-full of nothing but art. Alas, that's not the case. In the fine tradition of Oedipus, Stephen Dedalus, and Anthony Soprano, Victor hasn't quite reconciled his issues with his mother. Instead, he's trawling sexual-addiction recovery meetings for dates and purposely choking in restaurants for a few moments of attention. Longing for a hug, in other words, he's settling for the Heimlich.

Thematically, this is pretty familiar Palahniuk territory. It would be a pity to disclose the surprises of the plot, but suffice it to say that what we have here is a little bit of Tom Robbins's Another Roadside Attraction, a little bit of Don DeLillo's The Day Room, and, well, a little bit of Fight Club. Just as with Fight Club and the other two novels under Palahniuk's belt, we get a smattering of gloriously unflinching sound bites, including this skeptical bit on prayer chains: "A spiritual pyramid scheme. As if you can gang up on God. Bully him around."

Whether this is the novel that will break Palahniuk into the mainstream is hard to say. For a fourth book, in fact, the ratio of iffy, "dude"-intensive dialogue to interesting and insightful passages is a little higher than we might wish. In the end, though, the author's nerve and daring pull the whole thing off--just barely. And what's next for Victor Mancini's creator? Leave the last word to him, declaring as he does in the final pages: "Maybe it's our job to invent something better.... What it's going to be, I don't know." --Bob Michaels

Product Description
Victor Mancini, a medical-school dropout, is an antihero for our deranged times. Needing to pay elder care for his mother, Victor has devised an ingenious scam: he pretends to choke on pieces of food while dining in upscale restaurants. He then allows himself to be “saved” by fellow patrons who, feeling responsible for Victor’s life, go on to send checks to support him. When he’s not pulling this stunt, Victor cruises sexual addiction recovery workshops for action, visits his addled mom, and spends his days working at a colonial theme park. His creator, Chuck Palahniuk, is the visionary we need and the satirist we deserve.

Before we get this review started, a word of warning: THIS IS NOT FOR LITTLE KIDS. THIS IS NOT FOR PEOPLE WITH WEAK STOMACHS OR ARE EXTREMELY SENSITIVE.

Okay, with that said, I found Chuck Palahniuk's "Choke" to be a very strange, perverted, dark, and bizarre novel....but it's supposed to be. And, it's a very creative novel, despite if you love the novel or hate it.

I had read "Fight Club" after seeing the movie, and I found the novel to be just as entertaining and creative, if not more. So, I wanted to read another novel by him, so I picked this up. Wow....nothing could've EVER prepared me for this.

"Choke's" main character is Victor; a compulsive sex addict who creates heroes by purposely choking at restaurants and allowing himself to be saved. He does this to feel better about himself, and to help pay for his very sick and dying mother's medical care. And as the story and novel goes on and on, the more twisted and darker it becomes, adding up to one hell of a shocking climax.

The novel is told by the narrator, just like in"Fight Club." He still uses the same sense of thinking, the same amount of sarcasam, and the same dark humor found in "Fight Club." And yet, it's still just as refreshing. I never thought of novels told by the narrator to be all that great, until I read his work.

Again, this is not for kids, and this is not for those who get offended easily. It is a VERY sexually explict novel; I don't think I have ever read anything so sexually graphic! It's going to be one of those books where you're going to be embarrassed to read in public, fearing that somebody just might snatch it out of your hand and start reading it aloud. As intense as the sexual content is, it fits the story.

I found "Choke" to be a really entertaining and thought-provoking novel. Palahniuk has a way of words, and knows how to create a very dark world that none of us have ever seen. Again, this novel is not for the weak and sensitive. If you liked "Fight Club," or any of the other novels by Palahniuk, chances are you will enjoy this one as well. While it may not be one I'm going to read over and over again, it is one I am glad that I took the time to read.

Sorry that this review is so short, and believe me, I'd LOVE to tell you more. However, this is a book in which you must be careful how you describe it. If you give too much away, then you just might ruin it for the reader. I feel I have given the right amount of information that you need to know. The great thing about this novel is even after reading the back of the cover, you still don't know where this story is going to go, until it sucks you right in, whether you're ready or not.

"End" isn't the right word, but it's the first word that comes to mind.


"Because nothing is as perfect as you imagine it,"   May 25, 2001
 44 out of 50 found this review helpful

"We spend our lives letting the world tell us who we are. Sane or Insane. Saints or sex addicts. Heros or victims. Letting history tell us how good or bad we are. Letting our past decide our future. Or we can decide for ourselves. And maybe its our job to invent something better." Palahniuk never ceases to inspire. Behind all the satire. Behind his often hillirous look at life and the little things that make us human, or at least the views that he portrays in his unforgetable characters, Palahniuk, never stops to apologize, and there no reason to because he writes the truth in it most crulest of ways. "People sit home and watch Friends, because they have no Friends." I dare you to read any Palahniuk book, be it, Fight Club, Survivior, IM, or Choke, and not be inspired to do something better with yourself. Improve yourself. Create something. Destroy something. Do Something with yourself other than sit in front of a mind-numbing television set, and dream about the life you could have, get off your "" and do something! At least that's what I get out of Palahniuk work. Since the first time I picked up Fight Club, I was hooked, his words are like heroin to me. I've lost track how many times I've read that book, and Survivor. IM about four times. There are many messages in Chuck's work, some hidden, some in your face, some crammed down your throat, and forced into the pit of your stomach. The most important message, in seemingly all his works, is do something with yourself other than waste away precious brain cells in this repetitive world as we know it, we all have a talent for something, find yours, and make it happen, for yourself, and nobody else. I predict that Chuck will be a household name after his next book Lullabye comes out, and after the movie adaptation of Survivor comes out, and possibly an Invisible Monsters movie. Everybody will know who Chuck is, good or bad, that I don't know. Loved or hated, probably both, but do yourself a favor and read his works now while he's got his little cult following, this way a few years down the road, when everybodies on the literary band wagon, you can laugh and tell everyone, "I TOLD YOU SO." Buy this book, read it more than once. Save yourself, and find your place. "Because nothing is as perfect as you imagine it," I'll shut up now.


Brilliant isn't the right word...   June 14, 2001
 30 out of 32 found this review helpful

...but it's the first that comes to mind.

The problem with Chuck Palahniuk novels is that they do not lend themselves well to reviews. Reveal too much information, and the fragile twists and turns of the plot are destroyed, robbing the reader of the thrill one receives upon discovering these intricacies for themselves the first time. Reveal too little, and a coherent review is almost impossible, leaving the reader with a false impression of complexities and tangles which are insurmountable.

Choke is the fourth novel written by Palahniuk, a master at angry, adult male angst. Our narrator is one Mr. Victor Mancini, a med-school drop out with a mother suffering from Alzheimer's disease, and an addiction to sex. Like other novels such as Fight Club and Survivor, we are exposed to the dirty underbelly of a society we don't want to acknowledge exists - from prisoners who go to sexaholic meetings for sex and kinky masturbation tips to the problems bending over in the stocks of a colonial theme park creates.

However, unlike the dry sarcasm of Fight Club or the biting satire of Survivor, Choke returns to the humorous yet heart-felt writing of Invisible Monsters, and exposes us to a more humorous side of Palahniuk's nature. From Tanya and her string of plastic balls to Gwen, who insists Victor wouldn't know how to rape a woman if he tried, Palahniuk presents us with incredibly memorable characters and scenes that will have you laughing long after you've closed the book.

" `Why do I do this? Why do I always pick the guy who wants to be nice and conventional? The next thing you'll want to do is marry me.' She says, `Just one time, I'd like to have an abusive relationship. Just once!' " (Page 175)

Humor is not the only factor in the story of a man who is led to believe his origin is divine. Victor is most likely one of Palahniuk's most complex characters today, a man who is trying to be anything he is not, who is rebelling against a psychotic mother's abuse while he drops out of law school and takes a job at a Colonial Williamsburg-like village in order to pay for the necessary care and treatment of his ailing mother. A man who believes strangers saving him from choking in a restaurant is not only a financial resource but an expression of love and sainthood, Victor is wonderfully human and am incredibly sympathetic character. While we may not be able to validated all of his choices, his is a character we can understand and perhaps even respect.

Palahniuk manages to dazzle and amaze with his ability to turn pithy little quotes into personal mantras and catch phrases, which once read, cannot be burned, pushed, hammered, or flooded out of one's short term memory banks. The same way you will always remember that the first rule of fight club is you do not talk about fight club, you will remember that "this" or "that" isn't the right word, but it's the first word that comes to mind.

The martyrdom of Saint Me.

What would Jesus not do?

However, Palahniuk's novels are about more than catch phrases and plot twists that would impress Rod Serling and Alfred Hitchcock. Choke is a very funny, very sad tale of a man who professes to love the wrong choices, while exposing to the reader the very humane side that even he cannot see.

Imagine your friend is beating his sexual addiction by collecting rocks, with which he builds a castle. Imagine being a sex addict and unable to have sex with the one woman who desperately wants to have sex with you. Imagine discovering the complexity of the Mile High Club, and what it means to "ride the circuit." Imagine telling school children about the black plague while giving tours of colonial buildings in clothing so authentic, you can smell the dirt on them.

Imagine yourself in the life of Victor Mancini, and you'll never see life the same way.


Not Palahniuk at his best   December 1, 2004
 18 out of 26 found this review helpful

Chuck Palahniuk has written some great books over the last few years. In Choke his skill with narration is still top notch. Choke is a quick read full of hilarious and gross moments. The main character Victor Mancini is a con artist that fakes choking spells to capitalize on people's generosity and finds sex by going to sex addiction anonymous meetings. The characters that Victor encounters along the way are just as depraved.

There is no doubt that Mr. Palahniuk keeps coming up with clever ideas, but Choke lacks the intriguing story lines of his previous works. Even so the writing is good enough to make the book enjoyable. Choke is required reading for all Palahniuk fans, but for those trying to introduce themselves to his writing there are better places to start.


"Welcome to Hell"   July 27, 2001
 17 out of 18 found this review helpful

I wish I could say I was cool enough to have known about Chuck Palahniuk before others had discovered him, but I had actually never heard of his first published novel, Fight Club, until I had seen director David Fincher's brilliant film version of it. A few days later, I bought the novel, read it and then quickly bought his second and third books, Survivor and Invisible Monsters, devouring them one after the other. I was enraptured by Palahniuk's world of anarchists making explosives from human fat, transsexuals feeding estrogen to unsuspecting chauvinists, suicide cultists, and fashion models without faces wreaking vengeance on old boyfriends. I became an instant fan.

In his new novel, Choke, Palahniuk introduces us to Vincent Mancini, a twentysomething whiling his life away in a shitty, low-wage job at a colonial amusement park. His mother is wasting away from Alzheimer's in an expensive elder-care facility, and to make enough money to help her, he goes into restaurants, stuffs food into his mouth and pretends to be choking. When someone comes to the rescue, a plea for financial aid soon follows. Feeling an obligation to look after the person he's saved, the "hero" eagerly complies.

Faced with his mom's painful end, Vincent goes into meltdown. He becomes obsessed with death and sex, diagnosing people's minor ailments as symptoms of potentially excruciating death, cruising addiction sections of bookstores and going to Sexual Compulsives Anonymous (SCA) 12-step meetings to pick up women. Not that he doesn't realize just how much of a lost soul he is. Written in the form of a brutal self-inventory-Step Four of the 12 Steps to Recovery pioneered by Alcoholics Anonymous-Vincent warns us off at the beginning:

"If you're going to read this, don't bother. After a couple of pages, you won't want to be here. So forget it. Go away. Get out while you're still in one piece. Save yourself."

A chapter later, he's humping a girl on the floor of a 12-step meeting bathroom while giving us a philosophical introduction to the world of sexual compulsivity. The bit is both funny and hot enough that we're inclined to agree when he says, "I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a hot-gushing, butt-cramping, gut-hosing orgasm."

But there's despair here amid the debauchery. Vincent's mindless fucking around is a symptom of a deep ennui laced with a soured spirituality. In Fight Club, the relationship with God is always seen in the context of the absent father: If I never know the warmth and trust a good father delivers, then how can I love and trust a faceless, seemingly absent Father in heaven? Daddy's missing in Choke, too-Vincent has never known his father. When he's tossing off a line like "Parenthood is the opiate of the masses," he's not just flipping the bird at people who've found some measure of happiness in breeding; he's also mourn.ing his own loss of family.

Sadly, the origins of the fiction in Choke are rooted in Palahniuk's real-life tragedy. His father-a chronic womanizer-was murdered by a girlfriend's ex-husband who stalked and shot the couple to death. Trying to reach some parity with that loss, Palahniuk attended 12-step programs for sexual compulsives, hoping to get a line on how his father's mind worked.

He's gotten the details right, based on my attendance of SCA meetings with a onetime girlfriend. (Yes, you get laid a lot with a compulsive girlfriend, but there's little joy in it. Sooner or later, infidelity and sexually transmitted diseases rear their ugly heads.) He's nailed the 12-step minutiae dead-on: the circle of blandly normal faces; the small green church meeting rooms; the coffee and cigarette smoke; the horrific, matter-of-fact recitation of stories that sound like urban legends; the trembling raised hand; the eyes that look only at the floor; the weeping and self-loathing; the fact that you'll never ever look at people without wondering what secrets they're harboring.

I don't mean this to sound like the book is a downer because it isn't. The particular strength of each of Palahniuk's books is that no matter how colorfully degraded the characters, his tight, economical writing never bores. It's also never preachy, delivering the bitter pills of his sharp observations with wry humor and a steely-eyed but generous humanity.

For Palahniuk and his readers, the unexamined life isn't worth reading about. His characters have to reach the lowest depths before they can reclaim their lives, and, like a 21st-century Virgil, he's there to take our hand and give us a guided tour of hell. Palahniuk's interest is in redemption, not nihilism, despite the objections of uncomprehending critics.

But social criticism isn't enough unless you're prepared to follow through and actually change things. That's a tough truth to take to heart, and I suspect many will simply gloss over that aspect of the book, preferring to focus on the sexual activity and snarky asides simply because it's easier. Palahniuk warns us that we can only tear down the world-and one another-so much before we run out of things to level.

It's a sober lesson, but once you've learned it, you're fucked. You can't go back; you can only move forward and try to improve things or stay where you are, frozen in panic.