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Make Something Up
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Make Something Up
Unavailable
Make Something Up
Audiobook11 hours

Make Something Up

Written by Chuck Palahniuk

Narrated by Chuck Palahniuk, Ken Marks, Luis Moreno and

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

3/5

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About this audiobook

A great collection of stories from the author of Fight Club. In 'Zombies', the best and brightest of a high school become tragically addicted to the latest drug craze: electric shocks from cardiac defibrillators. While in 'Tunnel of Love', a massage therapist runs the curious practice of providing 'relief' to dying clients. And in 'Excursion', Fight Club fans will be thrilled to find a side of Tyler Durden never seen before.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateJul 2, 2015
ISBN9781510001121
Unavailable
Make Something Up
Author

Chuck Palahniuk

Chuck Palahniuk’s fourteen novels include the bestselling Snuff; Rant; Haunted; Lullaby; Fight Club, which was made into a film by director David Fincher; Diary; Survivor; Invisible Monsters; and Choke, which was made into a film by director Clark Gregg. He is also the author of the nonfiction profile of Portland, Fugitives and Refugees, and the nonfiction collection Stranger Than Fiction. His story collection Make Something Up was a widely banned bestseller. His graphic novel Fight Club II hit #1 on the New York Times list. He’s also the author of Fight Club III and the coloring books Bait and Legacy, as well as the writing guide Consider This. He lives in the Pacific Northwest.

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Reviews for Make Something Up

Rating: 3.1736841852631574 out of 5 stars
3/5

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  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    And despite the miraculous, well-documented healing powers of the Comedic Arts my old man dies taking a big bloody shit in his bed.

    This is a pretty standard Palahniuk line from one of the short stories in this tome, of which a lot are OK, one's great and a few are...not up to par with his usual writing, albeit in novel form.

    Then, at times, you're jolted by his genius:

    And you know the feeling: You want your best friends and your fiancée to mesh, but my friends grit their teeth and look at me with their eyebrows worried tight together in the middle, and they say, “Dude, did it ever cross your mind that maybe—just maybe—Britney is mentally retarded?” And I tell them to relax. She’s just an alcoholic. I’m pretty certain she’s a heroin junkie, too. That, and she’s a sexual compulsive, but it’s nothing so bad some talk therapy wouldn’t fix her. Look at me: I’m fat; nobody’s perfect. And maybe instead of a wedding reception we could get our two families together in a hotel conference room to surprise her with an intervention, and instead of a honeymoon we could get Britney committed to a ninety-day inpatient recovery program. We’ll work through this. But no way is she retarded. She just needs some rehab.

    Then again, at the worst, he feels like a pastiche of himself:

    He owned a cat he’d named Belinda Carlisle and let drink from the black bidets. It was a long-haired sable Burmese, like a bubble of black hair. Ted loved Belinda Carlisle, but he knew enough not to let her get too close.

    All in all, this is entertaining, yet not too fulfulling. I'll recommend "Choke" or "Rant" much rather than this.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    A compilation of 21 stories and one novella from Chick Palahniuk (Fight Club) that are funny, bizarre, poignant and in many cases incredibly disturbing (thus the subtitle of Stories You Can't Unread.) In "Knock, Knock," a son hopes to tell one last off-color joke to a father in his final moments, while in "Tunnel of Love," a massage therapist runs the curious practice of providing 'relief' to dying clients. My favorite was ) "Zombies," where high school prep school become tragically addicted to the latest drug craze: electric shocks from cardiac defibrillators (thus rendering them less than prep school ready).- I actually found this story hopeful—the description of effect of addition and self-hurt on the entire community was very moving. However for the most part I found these stories disturbing (not in a good way), gross and at times unreadable. I was surprised at the end that could actually force myself to finish this collection. 1 out of 5 stars (though I would give Zombies a 4 out of 5 stars)>
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    While I always appreciate when an author can display a creative and playful bizarreness to his work, and while this was certainly one very strange collection, I was left not really connecting with so many of these short stories. Maybe it was just my state of mind. Maybe I should take it out of my free library donation stack, or maybe I should just admit defeat, and move on.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Wonderful concentrated shots of Palahniuk. Delightful and disturbing. The absurdity of both life and death are on full display. In a precursor story to Fight Club, we ee a side of Tyler Durden never seen before.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Knock Knock - Starts this collection off in true Palahniuk fashion. This tale of a man telling jokes at his dying father's bedside, and reminiscing about their past is full of sentimental pathos - but is also guaranteed to have you cringing in discomfort.

    Eleanor - The main point of this piece seems to be how many malapropisms can be shoved into a piece of writing, while retaining its basic comprehensibility. The malapropisms also serve as double-entendres, for example: 'Jehovah's Witless.' Most of the substituted words are actually funnier than that, throwing an added layer of meaning onto the events. However, although clever, I found it ultimately annoying.

    How Monkey Got Married, Bought A House, and Found Happiness in Orlando - An African folktale veneer overlies a strange little story of a young woman who goes into marketing. Incidentally, the title is not very representative of the content.

    Zombies - Have you ever felt that all your problems might stem from being too smart, and that life would be easier if you were lobotomized? Well, yes, most people would find self-administered lobotomies pretty terrifying and repulsive, and that's what this story of it becoming a fad/epidemic among disaffected teens hinges on.

    Loser - Frat boy becomes a contestant on 'The Price is Right' while tripping on acid. Manic, with a dash of irony.

    Red Sultan's Big Boy - Wow. It begins as a tale of a well-to-do dad seeking to assuage his young daughter's grief by buying her a horse to replace a beloved pet that recently died. But the dynamics shift, and it becomes something quite different. This is a thoughtful, insightful story - if you can get past the subject matter, which is not for the squeamish.

    Romance - A guy who knows he's 'nothing special' meets a gorgeous woman on the way to Lollapalooza, and the next thing you know, is head-over-heels in love. But, given that this is Palahniuk, you kind of know that a disturbing twist is coming... watch for the clues!

    Cannibal - Hmm, well, this one succeeds in being disgusting, but I wasn't convinced on a logical level. High school angst about sex is taken to a new level.

    Why Coyote Never Had Money for Parking - Back in pseudo-folktale-land, we meet another employee of the food marketing company we found out about in "How Monkey Got Married..." This redneck-ish young man has found himself living in the ghetto, saddled with a wife and baby, his dreams of rockstar-dom gone up in smoke.

    Phoenix - A woman away on a business trip worries about being away from her toddler for the first time. Intercut with this are scenes that gradually reveal details of a house fire their family experienced. Nicely paced, with the feel of a thriller.

    The Facts of Life - Learning the details of 'how babies are made' might come as a shock to many six-year-olds. But this 'talk' that a father has with his young son is designed to shock even the most jaded reader.

    Cold Calling - Hmm. When I was a Teenage Telemarketer, I actually never did encounter anyone who heaped racist abuse upon me.
    Nevertheless, this story about several levels of bigotry and false assumptions is thought-provoking, and well-crafted.

    The Toad Prince - Yet another gross-out extravaganza; this one taking teenage sex right into the realm of the bizarro.

    Smoke - Ever just really, really not been in the mood to make small talk? If so, this story might speak to you.

    Torcher - Cynicism and affectionate humor mix in this quirky almost-mystery about a murder at the Burning Man festival.

    Liturgy - It's a send-up of life in gated communities, and of homeowners' associations - and it's also gross.

    Why Aardvark Never Landed - Sometimes things are funny because they're true. But this faux-folktale is more heartbreakingly sad because it's true. Some people might think it's funny, too... but I couldn't bring myself there. It's about school bullies, and the effect they have on some of their victims.

    Fetch - Can it be? A sweet, heartwarming, positive story from Palahniuk? I absolutely loved this tale of a haunted tennis ball. (It's not without its creepy moments.)

    Expedition - An homage to the writings of the Marquis de Sade; this story takes the ready into the dark underbelly of the Paris of a bygone era - both figuratively and literally. I really enjoyed this one - the affected writing style might not wholly convince (although it has an amusing explanation) but the themes tackled are quite effectively done.

    Mister Elegant - An 'inside' look at life as a traveling male stripper. As you might expect, there are some cringe-worthy moments.

    Tunnel of Love - Here, we meet a massage therapist who specializes in something quite different from what we think of as 'happy endings.' Although, one could say that's exactly what he specializes in.

    Inclinations - My favorite story in the book. It's disgusting. It's terrifying. It's over-the-top. But it also captures perfectly a certain mentality of teenage-hood, that I don't think I've ever seen depicted quite so clearly. It's where your experience of the world is limited, and reality seems so awful, that it also seems that just about anything is possible. It also shows a certain kind of flawed - but heroic - decision-making process that is sad and yet admirable at the same time... and also, all-too-familiar. It's tragic, and, if you read much about teen 'reform school' programs, much closer to truth than is comfortable.

    How A Jew Saved Christmas - Palahniuk writing a heartwarming Christmas story? Yes, it happened! Which is not to say that there aren't some wince-worthy moments along the way, in this story of nasty office politics and a Secret Santa that goes wrong.


    Overall, this is the sort of collection that it's hard to give a 'star rating' to. Either you're going to like Palahniuk's style and themes - or you're not. It's definitely not for everyone. But, although I feel that at times the gross-out element veers into the gratuitous, at other times it's effective and appropriate. There's more going on here than just the shock factor.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The collection is really the first thing to surprise me from Palahniuk in years. I didn't realize he had some of these bits in him, whether its the emotional deftness of several tales or just the thematic shifts. I wonder if he's finally realizing that his fan base can and will follow him anywhere - and I wonder if this collection doesn't signal a little more exploration in his novel-length work. His next book hasn't, to my knowledge, been announced yet... and while I've always said that I'll be there on release day regardless, I find that I'm actually genuinely excited about whatever's going to happen next. And that's the best gift a book can give.

    More soon:
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A few stories in this were really brilliant, a few nearly made me vomit, several were simply unreadable.