Make Something Up: Stories You Can't Unread

Reading Chuck Palahniuk has really helped me grow as a person in so many ways. I love what his writing can do to me. He is really incredible. I bought this book because I had heard him discussing it during a podcast, in which they later read his short story "Zombies" in front of a live audience. That story was so beautiful, it dragged me back into my Chuck addiction--as I had read and thoroughly loved some of his other books & Zombies reminded me a lot of how moving I felt Invisible Monsters had been. I really do love this set of his short stories. I feel like it gives you the pleasure of reading his books but in smaller servings. You sort of get to tear through several at a time and then just walk away thinking about what you just took in (until your next read). A lot of fun & would recommend to any fan or possible new fans, wanting to get a taste.

Chuck Palahniuk's Make Something Up: Stories You Can't Unread started off in such a way that I felt like I might actually be disappointed. The first story included in this anthology, 'Knock-Knock,' wasn't something that really jumped off the page for me. 'Eleanor,' the story that immediately followed was almost bad enough to make me put the book down and dismiss it as a lost cause as far as decent reading material was concerned. Thankfully I kept at it just the same. Of the 23 stories included in this book, 'Eleanor' was the only one that made me genuinely feel like I was wasting my time. The remaining stories were typically interesting enough to read, but there were almost a dozen that really stood out to me as being great pieces of literature, or as close as Palahniuk gets to that. The loosely connected 'How Monkey Got Married, Bought a House, and Found Happiness in Orlando,' 'Why Coyote Never Had Money for Parking,' and 'Why Aardvark Never Landed On the Moon' were interesting and wholly unexpected modern fables, with the gritty sort of charm that one comes to expect from Palahniuk after even minimal familiarity with his work. 'Torcher,' my favorite story in the collection was a fascinating murder mystery set in the perverse circus-like environment of an event quite similar to Burning Man. 'Red Sultan's Big Boy' puts a very unique, introspective spin on the combined topics of parenthood and bestiality. The potentially disturbing form of abortion being practiced by high school girls in 'Cannibal' is definitely Chuck at his humorously/irreverently gruesome best...at least until you read 'The Toad Prince,' which provides an absurdly perverse glimpse into body modification/body hacking taken to an extreme. Many of the stories have a poignant, sad commentary to them, especially 'Zombies,' which focuses on the pressure and strain we place on our children in preparation for the life of toil and disappointment that often seems to be all they have to look forward to. There is humor here too, 'The Facts of Life' stands out as being essentially one long joke with a terribly dark punchline...and I loved it. There are other stories worth mentioning; 'Phoenix,' 'Fetch,' 'Romance,' and 'Expedition' were all thoroughly captivating, the latter tying into Fight Club with a semi-subtle reference to Tyler Durden, portraying him less as a man than a force of nature who appears decade after decade to teach disillusioned men to come to terms with disappointing fathers and that pinnacle of disappointing fathers, God. I could probably comment on every story included in this book, but the ones I have mentioned are those that had the biggest impact on me as a reader. I wasn't sure I would like this book when I first started reading it, but I definitely came to love it.

This is definitely not a book for the young, young adults, the faint of heart, or the easily offended. There are 21 short stories and I do not believe they should be read all at once in a series. The directions Palahniuk leads the reader are too many. There are wide differences between stories in language and vocabulary as well as themes. It is a good idea to read one story, reflect on it, and then proceed. The best story to start with is "Expedition." It was the 19th story in my collection and I read it in order. I felt that had I read it first I would have been able to better appreciate Palahniuk's mindset. In this story he is writing about writing. What is the responsibility or role of the creative writer? There is a hint with "Where the horrors of actual human suffering fell short, his own imagination provided the more-extreme elements,". For "his" substitute an author name. There are messages in almost every story that apply to those of us in the "normal" world. But the settings in which the messages are delivered are many times gory and gruesome. "Liturgy" is an example of a disgusting gruesome gory context for a statement on bureaucratic stupidity. "Red Sultan's Big Boy" followed a course to an almost predictable ending but the political correctness angle on the correct naming of things was hilarious. Mechanically, there are interesting semantic creations. Palahniuk invents words that I am confident do not exist outside the Urban Dictionary. But I do not care because they make sense in their context, sometimes even when they stand alone. Who does not know what "polystenchous" means? "Glulubrious" might require context (location 3219 Kindle ebook). Then there are phrases. "Obfuscating the melee, Gazelle, she lectern Randy." (in [Eleanore] location 283-284). This language play will delight the avid yet jaded reader. However, it is the sort of dark writing I like, hence the several stars.

This is a middle-of-the-road book in my opinion. My first book by him was Fight Club and I loved it. Then Choke. Loved that too. Haunted was hard to read because of the short stories breaking up the main plot line but I have ADHD. Concentration is difficult for me sometimes. This book had some winners for stories and some other ones I just didn't get. Worth picking up if you like Palahniuk though.

I'm required to post 20 words. I don't want to. I enjoyed the book. All but one story was a delight. I won't mention which story because I suspect you'd dislike a separate one since literature can be objective. I did find one unique story here that I'll think about for a long time. There are good stories. There are bad stories. This particular story was disgusting but good. I've never experienced that before. I recommend this book whatever that means to you.

There were happy stories, funny absurd stories, and gut wrenching sad ones. The saddest to me was the second to last. "Inclinations" which was also the longest one. I knew I couldn't hope for a happy ending for suede but reading all of what happened to troublemaker just broke my heart. Still any of the stories are a great read though if you want quick a quick literary jab once in a while.

This is short and sweet, but it comes with a warning. This is not (completely) your typical Chuck fare. He has room to experiment with some of the stories (and does). Rest assured, it's still Chuck. It's still great and unique and fun to read. Do I recommend it? Absolutely. Was it my favorite? No. Will I read the stories again? Yes.

I like most of Chuck's works, but many of the later ones did not give me a burning emotion of loving how the story was resolved. A bunch of stories here did. Every story can be broken down into three aspects: style, idea/twist, and how fully the idea and twist are worked out. In many stories here all 3 aspects are done great. Sometimes I didn't like the idea (not "it disgusts me" sort, but "doesn't seem to work" sort), but there wasn't any obviously bad stories. Phoenix, Torch, Why Aardvark never landed the Moon, Inclinations and some others are pure gold. For other readers, it may be others. The more you can connect with the character's ideas and way of thinking, the more it works for you. 5/5, my only complaint is that I want to read it again soon, but really can't unread the stories inside.

Chuck is, as always, an amazing writer but not one for the faint-hearted. The brilliance and grossness of these stories just makes you wonder how he comes up with them and certain stories will definitely never leave your mind! I love Chuck's writing anyway, but I needed a book of short stories for my university work. Make Something Up proved the best choice and has not only helped me, but also aided my creative process. Absolutely amazing book by an always amazing writer. Would recommend to anyone who likes to see a new take on situations.

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I am a big fan of Chuck Palahniuk’s work, but this is my first time reading his short stories. I think this format works well for him. All the stories are creative and enthralling.

Nice !

Genial, kurzweilig und schräger als erwartet! Leseempfehlung für alle Kenner des Autors aber auch für jene die auf ungewöhnliche und out of the Box Kurzgeschichten stehen!