Choke

By: Chuck Palahniuk

Narrated by: Chuck Palahniuk

Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's Summary

Victor Mancini, a medical school dropout, is an antihero for our deranged times. Needing to pay elder care for his mother, Victor has devised an ingenious scam: He pretends to choke on pieces of food while dining in upscale restaurants. He then allows himself to be “saved” by fellow patrons who, feeling responsible for Victor’s life, go on to send checks to support him. 

When he’s not pulling this stunt, Victor cruises sexual-addiction-recovery workshops for action, visits his addled mom, and spends his days working at a colonial theme park. 

His creator, Chuck Palahniuk, is the visionary we need and the satirist we deserve. 

©2001 by Chuck Palahniuk
(P)2002 Random House, Inc.

Critic Reviews

"One of the freshest, most intriguing voices to appear in a long time. He rearranges Vonnegut's sly humor, DeLillo's mordant social analysis, and Pynchon's antic surrealism (or is it R. Crumb's?) into a gleaming puzzle palace all its own." (Newsday)
"At times very funny. Also sick and perverted....Readers will love it. Readers will hate it and be offended by it. Must listen to figure out what you think." (AudioFile)
"Displays a Swiftian gift for satire, as well as a knack for crafting mesmerizing sentences that loom with stark, prickly prose and repetitive rhythms." (San Francisco Examiner)

Oh please, not another abridged!!!

Will you please stop featuring such appealing novels only available in abridged format? I am continually stumped as to why oh why anyone with a brain would even bother to read an abridged novel. Several times I have found on your site what promised to be a good read, but only available in the abridged version, and I have gone to the competition and rented the unabridged cassettes. Please stop the insanity!

199 people found this helpful

Oh please, not another abridged!!!

Will you please stop featuring such appealing novels only available in abridged format? I am continually stumped as to why oh why anyone with a brain would even bother to read an abridged novel. Several times I have found on your site what promised to be a good read, but only available in the abridged version, and I have gone to the competition and rented the unabridged cassettes. Please stop the insanity!

104 people found this helpful

Stop the Abridged Madness!

“It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane.”
― Philip K. Dick, VALIS

I'm not sure how this one slipped by me. I normally don't purchase abridged novels or audiobooks. Perhaps, I just really wanted to hear Palahniuk read his own stuff (his voice is uncannily like a friend of mine who suffers from Triskaidekaphobia, but I digress...), but I can't give it a great review because it is ABRIDGED. Half the Mona Lisa might still be 1/2 a Da Vinci, but it isn't the Mona Lisa anymore. It is a piece. A sleave. Ugh.

I really liked this book. In a lot of ways it may be my favorite Palahniuk novel (so far, and ignoring the abridgement which I had to fix on my own by going back to the original novel). You can tell CP is leaving a lot of his own emotion and blood in the narrative. Do I think it is autobiographical? Certainly not, but I think it may be built out of stones that Palahniuk has lifted. He is able to weave many of the themes he will visit again and again into this novel. The struggle of addiction, the struggle to be human in a dehumanized world, the explosive need to not conform to what is being sold is all here.

There is a period in modern life when you wake up and realize that YOU are the beakless chicken destined to spend the rest of your life in a battery cage so small you cannot even stretch your wings. Society will continue to feed and water you as long as you keep pumping those eggs out. Most of us wake up to this existence and either pray or beg for it to end quickly. We might seek to muffle our existence with drugs, or religion, or sex, or exercise, or some other form of mental escape. We all grab for some opiate of the egg farm. Palahniuk is one of those rare writers, one of those rare birds who won't sit still in the cage. He is a chicken that seems fully prepared to burn the farm DOWN.

34 people found this helpful

Original amusing and sexy in a sick kind of way

I sometimes wonder if I have been listening to the same book as other reviewers. This is an ultimately uplifting book about the point at which people break out of destructive behaviors and turn their lives around.
Now that obviously involves delving into the destructive behaviors but since the example given is sex addiction everything has its positive side.
I found it a very funny book. It is completely unreliable on almost everything especially the opening entreaty from the author to stop reading.
If you are easily offended its not for you. If your are annoyed by snowboarder speak...Dude don't do it!
If you enjoy original and irreverent ideas coming at you in twisted but amusing ways get it in your cart!
I bought it because I enjoyed the sample...I think its pretty representative of the whole book so I would recommend you try that, if you enjoy it you will enjoy the whole thing.

17 people found this helpful

Completely mis-understood work of genius

This book has been reviewed by several prudes on this site, and that's cool. But this book contains so much more depth and insight into people's actions and the motivations behind them. It is one of the most insightful and thought provoking books I've ever read, and it's a shame that so many people can't see past the "vulgarity and sex talk". Have an open mind with this one and you might walk away a different person. I know I did.

18 people found this helpful

A very subtle, very brilliant, author!

Chuck does something not many other people do and he may not do it intentionally, but the wisdom of his writing is buried underneath a sort of "shock test" that you have to be open-minded enough to accept as having some value, before his brilliance really starts to surface for you. 'Lullaby' is better, but 'Choke' is good.

3 people found this helpful

Loved this book!

Very dark and dry humor, kept me interested the entire time. The author narrates the book which I really enjoyed. His dead pan delivery of some of the most shocking material literally made me laugh out loud numerous times. If you like sarcastic dark humor you must check this out. If you are very serious about a 12 step program you belong to this book might not be for you.

3 people found this helpful

sobering

I got this book because I really enjoyed the movie "Fight Club." I was a little unnerved by the extensive and raw description of what goes on in the mind of a sex addict. Though this was disturbing, I found the book compelling. In the end I felt that the author's narration set the perfect tone. I enjoyed my little journey in someone else's mind--a reminder that the world is composed of all kinds.

10 people found this helpful

Dull voice performance

The author read his book with no emotion at a very slow pace. The story had some great disgusting imagery, and a great premise but was poorly executed.

1 person found this helpful

Does not live up to hype

First off let me start by saying, this book is not offensive, edgy, or even really that "erotic". It is in fact fairly boring and highly uneventful. I was told (when I asked what Palahniuk book to start with) that it had some brilliant subtext and original characters. What I got was subtext that was repeated so much that it was no longer subtext but text written 10 feet tall on a billboard. The sexual acts within the book were some of the most tame, uninspired,snooze fests I have ever read/listened to. Its not even the authors voice that does it in, his voice lends itself well to the story. This book should have been condensed to about half its length. I didn't need a million descriptions of why his mother is crazy/the anti anti hero. I get it, move on with the story. I don't need a million examples of his sex life, he's pathetic, I get it, move on. I don't need a million repetitions of repetitions to make me feel like I'm losing it with the character, I have a better imagination then that, I get it, move on. This story kind of meanders about in a little circle never really speaking out, never really making an impact. The characters seem very forced, like 2D characters bent in half to try to make them somewhat 3 dimensional. Its a book that tries to hard. Its like the kid in grade school you see desperately trying to color inside the lines, nearly shaking with frustration from trying to keep the crayons tip inside the treacherous little black lines. Someone needs to tell that kid that sometimes, its ok to color outside the lines. Don't try so hard, we're not stupid. We get it. Hope his other books don't disappoint.

4 people found this helpful

Monotonous

Audiobook: Even though the monotone style of the narrator fits the book well, I ended up returning this title. Tried first to just listen while strolling but had to pick the book up quickly.

Book: I decided to take a chance with a genre I usually don’t read, and it took a while before I realized what was going on. It had some laugh out-moments and it got better as the story went on.

Choke Palahniuk

Some great unique concepts and ideas, unfortunately without enough of a logical plot to tie it all together in a way that makes you want to keep reading.

Brilliant

though flat toward the end this story was evocative and emotional.

Really enjoyed the narration from the author. No one does it better

if you liked fight club you'll love this

This is a headscrewer of a story and it is one I'd gladly go through again. Chuck narrates this in a brilliant tone!! buy and never look back

powerful

beautiful isn't the right word but it's the first word that comes to mind. see also gripping see also hilarious see also disgusting

Bizarre

Dealing with a world of sex addiction - not one for the faint hearted! Gets more intriguing as the book goes on. Chucks reading style is quite monotonous and droning... but it does kinda fit the theme of an addicts life ‘on repeat’ . It will be a good one for the book club!

Very talent individual. Very inspiring!

chuck is definetely an inspiration to myself and my writing career which I just started. I enjoyed reading and listening to this novel immensely.

Very unique

Took me a while to work out what was going on, but I throughly enjoyed the story once I got into it.