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Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk – Review

Pygmy is the tenth fiction novel by my favorite author, Chuck Palahniuk.  He is best known for writing Fight Club and Choke, both of which have been made into films.  His latest book, Pygmy, was released in May.  I bought it in June and held onto it for the fourth of July vacation I was going on.  Chuck's books are usually great vacation reads.

I didn't want to spoil anything, so I didn't look at the book at all.  I wanted to be surprised.  I knew about the plot.  Pygmy is a 13 year old boy who comes to America from an unknown USA-hating country as a foreign exchange student.  He must traverse the landscape of being an American teenager while preparing for Operation Havoc and a winning science fair project.

When I finally opened it, I saw that it was an epistolary novel told via dispatches from Operative 67, or Pygmy as his host family calls him because of his small stature, back to his homeland.  It's told through his point of view, but some crucial information if crossed out such as locations and dates, like leaked government documents.

Palahniuk is an author who enjoys playing with the notion of structure and style.  It is one of the reasons that I love his books so much.  This book's style, though, makes the book extremely difficult to read.  Certain sites dub it as being written in 'Engrish': a variation of English that is translated from another language and often has mistakes, odd sentence structure or other errors.

For a relaxing vacation read, I was disappointed.  I got about five pages in before trading it in for another book that was a tad more vacation friendly.

A few weeks ago, I finally picked Pygmy up and delved back into the madness.

And I have to say, once I became a bit more accustomed to the erratic style, you get drawn in.  Sometimes it can even bit a bit fun to try and figure out what he is saying.  One of my favorite examples of this:

"All must sine nonsense or no allowed college, no advanced physics and training.  Force compelled to sing how yearning for location on top arched spectrum of light wavelengths crated by precipitate.  Exact song expressed Judy Garland, woeful martyr, slaughtered pawn of capitalist entertainment machine combined pharmaceutical complex."

Roughly translated, Pygmy is saying, "I am pissed that I have to take choir as a class or I won't be able to go to college and take classes I want.  I have to sing Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Judy Garland who was a victim of show business and a pill addiction."

While sometimes it can be fun, it can be frustrating when you are uncertain of what the hell he is describing.  But I'm sure Palahniuk wanted some things to be lost in translation.

I think he is on to something with this one.  It has an interesting theme of seeing the horrible villains of the world from another point of view.  Throughout the book there are quotes from glorious tyrant Mao Tsetung, brutal king Adolph Hitler, steadfast revolutionary Che Guevara, appealing fascist Benito Mussolini, and pugnacious visionary Vladimir Lenin to name just a few.

Another enjoyable reoccurring theme includes when Pygmy would think of the different fighting techniques he could use to incapacitate his intended target.  Through flashbacks you also gain a glimpse into the lengths his country will go to achieve victory.

The plot is interesting, but lacks the growth I was hoping.  There are a few patented Palahniuk twists, but the ending was abrupt and a bit too easy.  It is definitely an improvement from his last book, Snuff, which was my least favorite of his.  Pygmy ranks somewhere in the middle, but is not a good introduction for Palahniuk virgins.

Reading Pygmy was certainly a challenge, but it was worth it.  It was interesting and unique.  The style reminded me of A Clockwork Orange, the exception being that Palahniuk didn't create new words, he just took the ones we already knew and put them in a way we aren't accustomed to.  It was a bold move for a writer, but since it was his tenth book and he has a considerable following, he can afford to try new things.

Chuck also had a new book coming out next year called Tell All which will be about Lillian Hellman (a real life playwright) and her incredible life & exploits.  He also has about four or five of his books in various stages of being made into movies.

To find out more info about Pygmy including an excerpt, Click here.