Damned by Chuck Palahniuk
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Blurb: Thirteen year old Madison has problems: she’s overweight, ignored by her movie star parents, and in love with her adopted brother. She’s also dead. But not just dead. Madison is in Hell. Chuck Palahniuk’s latest, Damned, takes us on Madison’s journey through Hell, as she navigates the Hillocks of Discarded Nail Pairings and the River of Vomit, meeting everyone from Charles Darwin to Marilyn Monroe, with a colorful cast of characters (damned for unspeakable acts, like wearing white shoes after Labor Day), to determine why she’s really there, and whether she will be damned for eternity. In Damned, Hell really does exist, as a place where your only career choice is telemarketer (yes, that’s where those calls actually originate), the currency is Halloween candy, and ‘the in-flight movie is always The English Patient, never The Breakfast Club.’ (Jonathan Cape, 2013)
Liam Rudden, The Scotsman
“Here, Palahniuk follows a well-trodden path of biting social satire common to his novels. And though some say it’s time for a new trick from the American author – that his work is trite, formulaic, gimmicky and only written to shock – Damned is fresh, laugh-out-loud funny, and has more original ideas per chapter than most authors can conjure up in a lifetime’s writing.”
George Pendle, The Financial Times
“Transgression needs something to transgress against and hell’s infinite possibilities and lack of restraints seems to both blunt Palahniuk’s wit and dilute his usually squirm-inducing prose. There is nothing here as visceral – nor satirically caustic – as his depictions of hyper-aggressive male subcultures in his most famous book, Fight Club.”
Peter Carty, The Independent on Sunday
“It is entertaining to witness Palahniuk’s energetic flailing, while he flogs the dead horse of another narrative into fictional pulp. If death is done to death and beyond, Damned is an entertaining addition to his oeuvre …”
Justine Jordan, The Guardian
“Damned lacks that steely focus, drifting into repetition and inconsequential pastiche, marking time in the genres it inhabits rather than warping them out of shape. And though it’s refreshing to see his gentler side, Palahniuk’s inferno isn’t quite funny or original enough to work as kooky comedy”
David Annand, Literary Review
“Part Judy Blume homage, part Wiki-guide to theological anthrolopogy, part metafictional meditation on the autonomy of imagined characters, part Breakfast Club pastiche, part juvenile fantasy romp and part Brangelina character assassination: it manages, beyond all reasonable expectations, to be worse than this makes it sound.”
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