Well, there is a lot of shit in it. I remember finding this book at like, Borders or some normie bookstore, on the sale table. I didn't find the book particularly shocking. And although it's certainly full of very, very gross descriptions, I think this book doesn't get enough recognition for its humorous elements.
That said, I think that book stands above many of its type simply because of the time it was written. I feel like a lot of Pahlaniuk's work is, while technically well-written, has an air of shitpost. That is... when he's good, he's great, but some of his books just reek of trying far too hard.
I'd like to contribute a few more books to this thread:
The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison
Young Pecola is floating in what seems to be a sea of ugliness, prays every day to be 'beautiful'--- to be white, to have blue eyes. Set in post-depression Midwest, this story gives us a lot of perspective on the complex influences race has on society, the concept of beauty, social conventions, poverty/employment. The storyline is somewhat simple, but the unwinding of her family's history is a slow burn that goes deep enough to gouge. Pecola eventually starts to unravel herself, chasing an impossible dream of beauty, in a suffocating world of incest, loneliness, anger, and racism. This is a very harsh read for numerous reasons, one being that it is through the realistic voice of a child (actually, two children, some chapters are from the perspective of her friend), and that Pecola's world is so brutal, cold, and ultimately relateable for many people. This one isn't a "blood and guts" fucked-up, it's looming and dark, with a dreamy, almost-grey-scale-psychedelic edge.
The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
A young boy lives on a remote island, spending much of his time alone. He passes his time building weapons and conducting obsessive, bizarre and sometimes violent rituals. Woven through our young psychopath's 'adventures' in isolation, we see that his brother is due to return home after release from a psychiatric hospital. Bit by bit, he begins to uncover answers to questions and curiousities their distant father wouldn't acknowledge.
This is a good read if you like a grim, clammy atmosphere interspersed with feverish twists and turns, yet not without some very dark humor. One of my favorites by this author (although everything I've read of his is excellent, imo)
The Tin Drum - Gunter Grass
It's better to read this before you see the film, although it won't ruin it if you've seen it already.
A little boy in Nazi Germany receives an inexplicably enchanted (haunted?) drum for his birthday. He makes a wish, that he will stay a small child forever. This offers advantages in many ways during the war, but also makes for various disturbing (and sometimes, just wrong) scenarios. As Herr Grass is want to do, the book starts slow and reels you into a deep spiral of brain-melting contemplation, and leaves you feeling...clammy and disoriented. Has one of the strangest sex scenes I've ever read (which is fucked in the film but even more bizarre in the book). If you are not familiar with Grass, this is an excellent place to start!
The Ass Saw the Angel - Nick Cave
Yes, that Nick Cave. This kind of reminds me of Harry Crewes, but with a noticeably more Australian sensibility. An outback hillbilly drama of sorts, this is one of those stories of existential dread. Physical poverty smashed together with emotional poverty, violence, bad homemade booze, and a murky nostalgia for scenes from a sour life--- remembered only as a drowning man could. This one has a uniquely forceful yet almost dreamlike narrative that really sucks you in, only to wretch you back out as you turn the last page. Excellent.
TRANCEformation of America - Cathy O'Brien
I felt this deserved a mention as several users mentioned the ubiquitous Sov Cit genre. Cathy is a woman who alleges that she was a part of an MK Ultra-like experiment called Project Monarch. She claims to have been programmed as a spy, a sex slave, and a sacrificial lamb--- All for the "elites". That is, yknow, the Bushes, the Rockefellers, Dick Cheney, and a bunch of country music stars (like Johnny Paycheck). We're treated to a dizzying, psychotic narrative that is somewhat hard to read in structure, but nauseatingly descriptive. She does her best to explain how 'mind control' and psy-ops work, the network of evil Freemason Pedophile Trump's Chosen People that Run the World, and just how big Cheney's rapetastic cock is. Plenty of insight to a symptom known as 'loose associations' (which she interprets as commands). Bonus scene of Hilary Clinton mutilating her vagina to look like a witch face. [whatthefuckamireading.jpg]
the truth is out there
PUSH - Sapphire
This got made into the movie "Precious", which... really doesn't do it justice at all. The film isn't nearly as stark, brutal, realistic and hopeless as the novel. Precious is a young, obese black girl living in a large city (probably NYC). She lives in a cramped, shitty apartment with her abusive parents. She is pregnant (again) with her father's child, which causes her mother to be jealous and vengeful. She can barely read. She has no friends, her only real comfort is binge eating. Glimmers of a better life shine through to her via a kind, patient teacher, but a doctor's appointment gives her even more bad news. The ending of the book is completely different than the silly ass ending the movie supplied. Personally, I hated the film because it really did not encompass the raw atmosphere of the book, and it seemed like they tried to end it on a high note. Thanks to this book I won't think of chicken grease the same way ever again.
The End of Alice - AM Holmes
As we've all heard of "Lolita", here's another along the same vein. A man in prison for sex crimes against children finds himself receiving letters from a 19-year old college student, who begins to reveal her ephebophilia to him. Her fantasies become increasingly open and strange. The develop a deep friendship, waffling around the "nobody understaaaaands us!" trope that all pedos seem to have. Eventually, he reveals what exactly landed him in prison. Part of what makes this book so fucked up---beyond the obvious--- is that it's deliberately written in very flowery, poetic words, and the fantasy scenes are almost like erotica (because that's how a sick fuck would think of them). Its got a level of realism that seems at odds with its careful, excellent prose. Never once will you feel sympathetic to the characters, but you will find yourself uncomfortably drawn into their explanations and excuses.
en.m.wikipedia.org
