DAMNED - Chuck Palahniuk

Here is a book I finished reading on May 22nd 2014 at 4:56pm in Burlington Ontario after a dentist appointment where I had a crown put in.

This book is a two part series.  Part one (Damned) reviewed here and part two (Doomed) reviewed in another post.

The idea to read this book came after a coworker told me how much he had enjoyed it.  Having more than a few things in common with this particular coworker I thought I would gamble and make the purchase.  I had always meant to read some Palahniuk after seeing the movie Fight Club (which he also wrote) but just never found the time or had the desire to follow through.

Without giving too much away; this book follows the life of a prepubescent teenager after her untimely death.  She finds herself in hell with several other characters, as Palahniuk himself admits, are based on 1980's brat-pack movie; The Breakfast Club.
The main character, Madison Spencer, was raised by a billionaire father and a movie-star mother, and she is afforded what might be too much privilege in life; constantly being bombarded with perfectly planned, yet staged family experiences. These experiences have trained her to become cynical of everything that might seem wholesome as far as family-values are concerned. (this becomes clearer in part two of the book series)  This also makes Madison much older in her intellect than her actual age.  In an attempt to win over the affection of a step-brother who Madison feels slightly attracted to, she is accidentally choked to death and wakes up in hell, which is where her tale begins.  While in hell she learns very quickly how to make up her own rules and eventually becomes a powerful and feared member of its most motley ranks.  Her job in Hell (as everyone has something to do) is that of a telemarketer, and when not telling her millions of minions to make hell a "prettier" place, she spends her time calling people in the "alive" world and tricking them into doing things that will make them come to hell.  She takes-on Hitler, giant demons, as well as other interesting faces of history along her journey, until eventually she lands herself back on earth for more misadventure which the author covers in part two (titled; Doomed - reviewed here as well). Part two gives us much more insight into the life of Maddy Spencer and her twisted billionaire parents, and in my opinion you can't read one and not the other, and they truly need to be read in order to fully appreciate.

For the first time since starting this blog I am uncertain how to recommend a book; what type of person to recommend this book to alludes me!  Chuck P. likes to stir the pot and in this book his over-the-top (and constant) descriptions of wealthy and privileged life are rife with intelligent satire, but it becomes too easy to miss what I feel Palahniuk is really trying to show us, as he beats his point to death way too often.   Readers can't miss the in-your-face descriptions of a doom and gloom teenage life, of growing up with rich parents, and the lack of attention they pay for anything unscripted in a world where everything is staged, planned and phoney...all set up for the perfect newspaper headline.  However, it is this obviousness that is constantly being forced on the reader than makes the true satire, and beauty of the book, hard to appreciate and therefore identify.  As with the other Palahnuik books reviewed here, I always finish them feeling like he rushed them, like he was writing them just to get them done. I truly feel so much more time could have been spent on character, plot, and overall story development to help drive some of his more interesting satirical rants home.

This book is 247 pages long and took me two days to read.

On my sliding scale I give this book 5/10.  Although I rather enjoyed the vivid descriptions of hell and Palahniuk's unveiling of the insanely rich, I found that the content was so frequently repetitive in its limited descriptions that it felt as if I was reading the same lines over and over again but on different pages. Perhaps at times striving too much for the shock-value over a good story, Palahniuk lost me on ranking it any higher. Although this has been his recipe for many successful books, and it seems to work for him, it just didn't make me a believer this time.  All that being said, I did buy part two the day I finished this book so I could find out what happens to Madison and her family - perhaps Chuck is on to something.