I am Sane by Comparison: Chuck Palahniuk's Fugitives and Refugees
Written: Jul 31 '03 (Updated Aug 05 '03)
Product Rating:
Pros: A piece of the Chuck Palahniuk pie. A life as crazy as his novels.
Cons: I have to wait another month or so for his next novel.
The Bottom Line: Chuck cuts us in on the secrets of Portland, Oregon. A tour-guide for closet manics and other crazies, those unrepentant liberals who don't care about getting a little sinful.
avepythagoras's Full Review: Chuck Palahniuk - Fugitives and Refugees: A Walk i...
Warning: This review could possibly offend people. Sorry, its Chuck Palahniuk.
On A Personal Note
I have traveled significantly over the past 22 years of my life. I was born in Monterey, CA and lived on the West Coast only long enough to survive major thoracic surgery to fix a congenital birth defect in the left atrium of my Heart. By the time I was healthy, I had moved from Cali before I even realized how much I loved the place. Ever since, as an excuse for my many neurotic nervous twitches and insane tendency to do stupid things, my mother would blame it on California. After all, she said, 'It is the land of the Fruits and the Nuts.' I guess I was a Nut perhaps? But, now I know that¡¦s not true. If anything all the crazy people live up north in Oregon. And Chuck Palahniuk is my proof. Just read his most recent book: Fugitives and Refugees: A Walk Through Portland, Oregon. I am sane by comparison. And am much happier about myself now that I know CA isn't the Asylum for the United States. We're all just a bunch of grievously rich techies and movie moguls with too much time on our hands. Now Oregon, there's some crazy folk.
I can't say I've ever had the pleasure of spending time in Portland. Though if I ever did its definitely in the realm of one of those pre-cognitive memories from my very early 0-th year of life. With no language or symbolic vernacular, I could've been abducted by aliens and would've never known. So maybe I've been their and maybe I haven't, needless to say, we did a lot of traveling around that time. So, I can't really verify the craziness first-hand. I just have only my affirmed belief that, due to Chuck Palahniuk's residence in Oregon, its probably a pretty @#$?up place...but in a good way.
Descent Into Madness
Fugitives and Refugees only adds to my initial hypothesis. Yes, Palahniuk is a crazy man. And yes Portland is the inspiration for his novels. And in many cases, his life mimics his insane no-holds-barred fiction. Try his theory on Davids: On 5th and Alder Chuck was brutally assaulted by a group of thugs, beaten soundly and left alone, to bleed along the curbs and trash of the Portland city-streets. As he hobbled over to a pay phone to call the COPS he was told there was nothing they could do. So he called a friend, Gina, who was busy cooking dinner for her new boyfriend David. While Gina was in the kitchen cooking a pleasant meal, it seems her boyfriend had given himself over to a particular edition of Cosmo and left a sperm soaked sofa to prove it. When Chuck called, beaten and unable to mouth words without wincing in pain, she had just made the discovery: apartment empty, door wide open, old lady with groceries standing wordless by her front door, remnants of the perverted crime just beginning to dry. Even in pain, knowing how much it was going to hurt, Chuck had to laugh.
"Gina asked if any of the attackers was named David. She was blaming everything on what she called 'The curse of the Davids.'"
And that¡¦s not the half of it...
So, if you're ever planning a trip to Portland, you've got to read this book first. And plan your trip accordingly. Chuck provides a brief, 'unwritten' history of Portland. From the most disturbing and gruesome, to the outright hilarious. Try the "Emily Dickinson Sing-Along," a December 10th karaoke night where the entire oeuvre of Dickinson is sung to the tune 'Yellow Rose of Texas.' Or the insane SantaCon, aka the Red Tide, aka Santa Rampage, where hordes of crazy anarchical neurotics dressed as Santa Claus spend a night trashing about through the streets of Portland, dancing, singing, drinking, carrying jingle bells, and generally partaking of a veritable orgy of crazed Christmas tom-foolery. And sometimes the SWAT team gets called to break it up.
You like animals...er...as pets? Try the Pug Crawl, a mixer for pugs and their owners, just another excuse to pound down endless liters of beer and cheap food. Or go to the Zoo and meet Mochika, a Humbolt penguin with a fetish for black leather boots. "He really likes boots, in the biblical sense, he knows boots." Says Krista, a zoo caretaker.
Regardless of your sanity, Fugitives and Refugees is a snapshot of Portland life, life gone insane, and for good reason. Portland has a distinct history, chock full of pirates, prostitutes, and other ne'er-do-wells, setting it apart from most of mainline America. It¡¦s a cheap place to live, according to Chuck, and hordes of Artists and other extremists have given themselves over to the charms of Portland's insanity. "This gives us the most cracked of the crackpots. The misfits among misfits." And Chuck Palahniuk calls it home. His crowned jewel of western America. His muse and creative energy. A place where everyone lives three lives, with no regrets or inhibitions. I am sane by comparison I've said. And its good to know there are crazier places than California.
Well, At Least It's Worth Something
I've seen a fair share of America. I love to travel an I generally don't buy travel guides. They always seem to be a waste of money and the time spent reading them. I never get a sense of "what its all about." They constantly treat you like some ingrate or, worse, ignorant foreign menace bent on corrupting the flow of traffic or some such. Chuck gives us so much more. He gives us a piece of Portland, that we can take home and cherish. Something to tell the grandkids later in life when they ask, "Grandpa did you ever do anything fun in your day?" "Well let me tell you, there was this one strip club in Portland..." And if you let Chuck be your tour guide, it'll happen.
Another deranged beauty by Chuck Palahniuk. He's quickly becoming one of my favorite authors, and this particular work has deified Chuck in my pantheon of 'Craziest People I Want To Meet.' A good book to read even if you are not planning on going to Portland. It'll make you laugh at least. Or even better, you'll realize how sane you really are.
Kicking off with an introduction featuring Katherine Dunn, author of the bestselling classic Greek Love, this journey showcases Palahniuk s hometown w...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.