Pygmy

Last night I finished reading Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk. It has to be one of the oddest, most strangest stories I have ever read. Although some online comments (I like to read online comments after I finish an interesting/odd book) talked about it being comparable to the style of Trainspotting or Clockwork Orange, I daresay the vernacular used in those were far more effective and coherent. Pygmy read like a Mao Zedong speech run through both Google translate and a Yoda-speak translator. The vernacular was also a little trite, and I fail to see how it added enough to the book to justify it's existence.

Still, criticisms inside, it was the nihilistic and enjoyable plot I expected it to be - with lots of interesting surreal happenings. I ended up finishing the book in less than 48 hours. Definitely memorable if nothing else.

Also, I think the cover illustration is brilliant, parodying those ye olde Chinese communist propaganda posters. In fact, I think it's directly aping this fellow:

On another note, I am meeting CNE for lunch tomorrow before he jets back to the United States. Hooray.