Ebonlight's Review of Lullaby

Title: Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk
Topic: Book (Modern/Fiction/Dark Comedy)
Review Date: 9/05/2003
Link: Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk

Review:

A work by Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club (You probably know it. It was turned into the film starring Brad Pitt and Ed Norton. Remember? --> "The First Rule of Fight Club is You Do Not Talk About Fight Club. The Second Rule of Fight Club is you DO NOT TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB, et. al.)

Anyway, If you've read that book or seen the movie, those should be reasonably good indications of what to be expecting style-wise. Its seems indicative of typical Palahniuk fashion: dystopia and black humor at its best.

Not terribly surprisingly, Lullaby's protagonist/narrator is a disaffected outsider with a jaded and cynical view of the world. This time out, however, there's a distinctively more occultish feel to the work (at least compared to my experience with the author, which is, admittedly, solely limited Fight Club). Without, hopefully, giving too much away, the plot revolves around the uncovering of a so-called "Culling Song*," by the protagonist (a journalist investigating apparently reasonless so-called "cradle deaths") in a book of Lullabies.

I've gotta say that I found this book a reasonably enjoyable read; Lullaby is definitely a quick and easy read (which can be a good or bad thing depending on your view). Palahniuk's style is fast, dark, and often quite funny- its also quite memorable and quoteable at times. The book (in my opinion) starts off strong, and dives you right into the action with the uncovery of the Culling Song.

Sadly, I personally found the later portions of the book a good deal less satisying. Though oftentimes interesting and always shocking in his views, the character "Oyster" is just no Tyler Durden in my book.

*HIGHLIGHT FOR BRIEF SPOILER* The discovery of the Book of Shadows was also less then spiff or satisfying, in my opinion as well.

I did, however, find the ending (which left things hanging) preferable to some tidy, but ultimately unfufilling, conclusion. Anyway, a reasonably fun and easy read if you like Palahniuk's style- and if you don't, you sure as hell shouldn't be reading his stuff ;-) As always with Palahniuk, I found him highly stylish and concise (...though clearly not a work Shakespeare). Substance-wise I found it a little uneven, however. Certainly ultra-cynical (and often blackly humorous ) philosophy permeates his work. Still, I found myself a little discontented plot wise. Certainly its a personal opinion sort of thing, but damnit, this is my review so deal with it! :-)

*A song that kills anyone it's sung to, orginally made to "cull" the sick and dying into a painless death. The discovery of this little gem leads to a good deal of murderous hi-jinks throughout the book)

Quote(s):

There are worse things than finding your wife and child dead. You can watch the world do it. You can watch your wife get old and bored. You can watch your kids discover everything in the world you’ve tried to save them from. Drugs, divorce, conformity, disease. All the nice clean books, music, television. Distraction. These people with a dead child, you want to tell them, go ahead. Blame yourself. There are worse things you can do to the people you love than kill them. The regular way is just to watch the world do it. ~Chuck Palahniuk, Lullaby
The trick to forgetting the big picture is to look at everything close-up. The shortcut to closing a door is to bury yourself in the details. This is how we must look to God. As if everything’s fine. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, Lullaby

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Ratings Breakdown:

Substance: 60% (Above Average. But uneven, and sometimes uninteresting plot)
Style: 75% (Good! stylish, darkly funny, and cynical)
Quoteability: 80% (Excellent! only if you go in for dark/cynical quotes- which I happen to)

Overall: 72% Good! (A must for Palahniuk fans or cynical/darkly funny modern fiction fans. I'd probably borrow it, or skip it, otherwise)

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