Tell-All

By: Chuck Palahniuk

Narrated by: Carol Monda

For decades Hazie Coogan has tended to the outsized needs of Katherine “Miss Kathie” Kenton, veteran of multiple marriages, career comebacks, and cosmetic surgeries. But danger arrives with gentleman caller Webster Carlton Westward III, who worms his way into Miss Kathie’s heart - and boudoir. Soon, Hazie discovers that this bounder has already written a celebrity memoir foretelling Miss Kathie’s death in an upcoming musical extravaganza. As the body count mounts, Hazie must execute a plan to save Katherine Kenton for her fans and for posterity.

©2010 Chuck Palahniuk (P)2021 Recorded Books

Not awful but just read Diary instead

This book gave me anxiety. Spoilers ahead. Seemed a little too real. The "C'est la vie -- that's Spanish for Gesundheit". I guess I don't get it? Just everything is wrong, is that humor, is it deliberate on the partof the character? I thought it was just saying Miss Kathie was dumb but then the narrator started doing it too. But if the joke is that everything they say is wrong, are all the other quotes and references dubious too? There are so many name drops, but they were mostly people before my time, so I think I was missing the bigger picture. I kept thinking the entire point of this book was a "what if Joan Crawford's house keeper had conspired against and eventually killed her." Maybe that's unfair.

As for the narration: right at the beginning the woman reminded me of the "Dive!" lady from class in the movie Throw Momma From The Train. But that thought faded quickly. I tend to be a little overly critical about mispronounced words, but in this case, I can't help but wonder if they were deliberate??

I'm trying to consume EVERY Palahniuk work. But if you're looking for a one off, I'd suggest choosing one of his books that has supernatural elements instead.

not the most gripping CP book

i only made it halfway through, the excessive detail, repetitive character descriptions, the endless parade of old Hollywood name dropping, like every paragraph 5 Hollywood icons mentioned that have no meaning except for the few people still alive who know who they are and fewer still who care. It was worth a chuckle but its a overwritten showboat.