Survivor is the latest offering from the devious mind of Chuck Palahniuk. This is the book he wrote after releasing Fight Club, and is just as twisted. I'm starting to think that Chuck might be the real Tyler Durden.

The story begins with a man on a plane, recording his suicide message on the black box. He has hijacked this airliner and kicked everyone off but the pilot, who sets the automatic pilot before parachuting out. From there, the story is told in a series of long flashbacks which recount the bizarre past of this man and how he ended up alone on a plane, headed towards the water.

This guy is one of the last remaining survivors of a suicidal cult. He was sent away from the colony as a young teenager, and the rest of the group committed mass suicide not too long after he left. There are hundreds of surviving cult members scattered about the country. When they start to die in mysterious ways, he begins to wonder if someone is deliberately killing them off, trying to finish the final order of the cult leaders. This is just one part of the plot.

Another aspect of the plot involves a suicide hotline that misprints their phone number in print ads that go up all over the city. The phone number goes to the main character's home, and he doesn't appreciate getting calls in the middle of the night from crying people that are looking for help. They tell him their problems and he nonchalantly instructs them to "just kill yourself." A love story then evolves after he meets the sister of one of his victims while visiting the guy's grave. He comforts himself by calling assisted suicide, rather than murder.

The final aspect of the story involves this guy turning into a religious media icon. He predicts future events. He heals the sick. He writes books and makes videos. And it is all fake. It is all for show. His publicist and agents write the books for him. He becomes nothing more than a drone that does what other people tell him, just like how it was in the cult.

The story ends with a critique on fear and control and talks a lot about religion. Though this guy escaped from the strange and simplistic beginnings of the cult, he ends up in another type of cult, where he has money and power. This is some of the most interesting reading I've done in a while, and I love Palahniuk's work. He combines valid social commentary with dark, twisted humor.

The softback version of this book begins on page 289 and counts backward to one. I don't think I've ever seen anything like that before, but it really sets the mood for the whole thing. From the first page (page 289) you know that the main character is going to die, so the whole countdown aspect is very fitting for the situation.

If you want to read something dark and original, you should look into Survivor. It is definitely not for the squeamish, as it has lots of talk about sex, suicide, and religion. I would love to see this made into a movie.



Recommended: Yes