Pygmy

By Chuck Palahniuk

Book Overview

The Manchurian Candidate meets South Park --Chuck Palahniuk's finest novel since the generation-defining Fight Club . "Begins here first account of operative me, agent number 67 on arrival Midwestern American airport greater _____ area. Flight _____. Date _____. Priority mission top success to complete. Code name: Operation Havoc." Thus speaks Pygmy, one of a handful of young adults from a totalitarian state sent to the United States, disguised as exchange students, to live with typical American families and blend in, all the while planning an unspecified act of massive terrorism. Palahniuk depicts Midwestern life through the eyes of this thoroughly indoctrinated little killer, who hates us with a passion, in this cunning double-edged satire of an American xenophobia that might, in fact, be completely justified. For Pygmy and his fellow operatives are cooking up something big, something truly awful, that will bring this big dumb country and its fat dumb inhabitants to their knees. It's a comedy. And a romance.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385526342
• ISBN13: 9780385526340
• Release Date: May 2009
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.88 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

So much potential

The book sort of takes on a Clockwork Orange feel as far as writing style, where nothing is explicitly written (plenty is explicit). I am afraid that it is a bit difficult to expand much on any issues with the book without spoiling it too much. What I can say is that, with a lot of Palahniuk's books, a lot of the issues I take with them are rooted in the fact that often times it seems like he doesn't end a book in a proportionate manner in which the rest of the book was written. In other words, the book can captivate you to the point where you cannot put it down (or wait to pick it back up again), to have an anti-climactic ending that doesn't truly match the energy of the book. It definitely had it's moments, but there seemed to be too many unanswered questions pertaining to the storyline.

Once you get used to the style

as with a lot of people, I would just like to say that once you get used to the style, it becomes a great story. It only took me a couple chapters, then it began to flow well. This story definitely goes into my top 3 for Palahniuk.

Worth it.

This book is wildly unrealistic and over the top, and personally, I loved it. The writing style is more unusual than it is unreadable, and I didn't find it at all difficult to get through. If anything, this book is better than Palahniuk's others for putting a mirror up to American culture and saying, "Hey look, guys! I can write a book that involves murder, rape, pedophilia, sodomy, abortion, drugs, teenage sex, school shootings, and the destruction of Washington D.C., and what are you bothered by most?! Bad grammar."

Genius.

I was skeptical when I first found out how 'Pygmy' was written. By about the tenth dispatch, however, I was totally captivated by the story and found myself loving the way Palahniuk wrote this novel. I wouldn't call this an easy read, but it was definately a fun one. 'Pygmy' is now one of my favorite Chuck Palahniuk novels.