Deviant Nation : Palahniuk : Rant: The Oral Biography of Buster Casey

Palahniuk - Rant: The Oral Biography of Buster Casey

Label: First Anchor

By: Patton
Oct 03 08

9 Comments

Rant the latest work from acclaimed author Chuck Palahniuk is a must-read. Seriously. I thought that perhaps Palahniuk’s career was starting to wane when I read his book Diary a couple years ago, but this shows the author still has some pretty witty writing chomps.

This shows the author still has some pretty witty writing chomps.

You may know this author as the guy who wrote Fight Club, which has a movie that helped make Palahniuk an underground name sort of. He is considered one of the most popular authors with the younger generation and has yet another movie coming out based on one of his books, Choke. But enough about his background, more about Rant.

Rant (First Anchor Books) lets you know how to interpret the book from the beginning with a small note from our illustrious author:
This book is written in the style of an oral history, a form which requires interviewing a wide variety of witnesses and compiling their testimony. Anytime multiple sources are questioned about a shared experience, it’s inevitable for them occasionally to contradict each other. For additional biographies written in this style, please see Capote by George Plimpton, Edie by Jean Stein, and Lexicon Devil by Brendan Mullen.

You never hear from this character, as he is dead from the very beginning.

This book however isn’t exactly a biography, but it does give you a great idea of our protagonist, Buster “Rant” Casey. You never hear from this character, as he is dead from the very beginning. You hear crazy (and I mean crazy) stories about him. He is a serial killer of sorts, but this isn’t your hack and wear the skin sort of story, its more complex, funny and charming than that. With characters named “Echo Lawrence,” “Shot Dunyan,” and Tina Something, you can tell the author knew exactly what he was wanting and the creativity is really there.

My favorite parts are when you have “From DRVR Radio Graphic Traffic Reports.” They are fun to read and pretty, well, graphic. Without giving too much away, Chuck Palahniuk fans will probably really enjoy this book. It not only will make you crack up laughing, it will make you have to think about what exactly is going on.

One small complaint from my side, the last few chapters it seems Palahniuk’s imagination runs away from him and becomes a bit too far fetched. Though the story is crazy in itself, it could lose the last few chapters in my opinion.

Enjoy the read!!!

Excerpt from Rant:
Echo Lawrence: As an adult, Rant’s favorite way to skip work was to put a drop of red food coloring into each eye and tell his boss he had conjunctivitis. You know, pinkeye. For a week’s sick leave, he’d use yellow to imply hepatitis. Rant’s real master stroke was to arrive at his job and let someone else see his eyes, red or yellow, and make the boss force him to go home.
Rant would arrive at my place with his bright-yellow eyes, and we’d cruise the field for a tag team. (page 46)