If there's a theme running through the Chuck Palahniuk books I've read for, it's the search for identity through extreme and really unusual measures -- or sometimes really mundane measures that are exploited for completely different reasons. In this book, Victor Mancini has spent his life trying to interpret and remember the "facts" his insane mother has been telling him any time she gets a chance, and as an adult, he's become a sex addict and someone who tries to give people a moment of glory through saving his life (which, incidentally, nets him a pretty steady income). However, if his mom's the ultimate in unreliable narrators, how can he find his identity through her? And if everything he tells his would-be rescuers is a lie, is that providing anyone with anything?

I wouldn't call it the best of the Palahniuk books I've read, but I definitely don't feel like I've wasted my time with it, and I'll certainly be looking out for more.

Tags: chuck palahniuk, identity search, reading