Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk *****

Survivor is the story of where it all went wrong. The point in our lives where we have all had choices to make. The choices that affect the rest of our lives. Survivor is the search for something far and something big, maybe something bigger than all of us, it is one mans search for something true.

In this apocalyptic tale Tendor Branson relives his entire live in an attempt to find closure. As he retells his story of servitude, and his survival from the same things that constrict us all we realize the things that are actually important and the emphasis we put on somethings just isn't worth it.

Survivor was UpChuck's second novel and possibly his best. Written with great literary prose and clever anecdotes it is both his most uplifting and insightful, as well as his most humoured and comical. Chuck Palahniuk did it again with Survivor.

I wasn't expecting much at first, but then I couldn't put it down. Great book.

over the top satire. Best I've read since Tom Robbins. It just keeps coming at you.

I wanted to read a book like Fight club (which I have never read) but I saw that movie so I bought this instead. I do not regret that since this book had some good sections which was entertaining. However I found it slow and not so captivating as lets say Stephen Kings books. Not even close. It was an ok book would not really recommend it, infact at the end I just wanted the book to be finished already..! I would buy Fight club instead I think it would be better but I don't know =).

How disappointed I am to realize only 20 or 30 pages into the book that Survivor is a cookie-cutter version of Fight club with a different premise. Let's look at the basics:

Main character of each, a quirky, nihilistic anti-hero whom you develop an odd sympathy for.
(sort-of) Antagonist -- Tyler Durden/Adam Branson -- character that the protagonist can't live with or without.
"Love" interest - Marla/Fertility, women whose weird personas heavily influence the protagonist's life and the unfolding of events. They, along with the antagonist, force the main character into a strange situation he wouldn't otherwise be in.

In both Fight Club and Survivor, the protagonist spends an awful amount of time explaining facts on how-to's and other trivial matters. This is what annoyed me the most with Survivor -- Chuck, you already did this extensively in Fight Club. I didn't care when I read about how to thread a film projector (though I just went with the flow) and I certainly don't care how to get blood stains out of a carpet.

Any there's plenty of prose style that's similar between the two. It gets old fast. It get annoying fast.

Enough comparison. Let's talk about the story itself. I think the basic idea is great. But then he throws in a half-baked twist every thirty pages. And these things come in out of nowhere. One minute Tender's a pawn cleaning houses, two (short) chapters later he's the most popular man in the country. Things enter the story almost without precedent. Here, you can really see how he is TRYING too hard. And you will not get a real sense of anything beyond him cleaning the house. I found it hard to believe that Tender was a media mongol. I was reading the words, but I couldn't feel them. And the ending was the most arbitrary I've ever read in a novel. You can tell Chuck was running out of steam. I won't spoil anything about it.

Reading Survivor is like watching an ant colony construct a nest. You look at it from far above and you visualize the overall blueprint and result of everything, but it whizzes by so fast and so removed from your point of view, you can see what the ants built but you didn't experience anything.

I've been told by multiple people that all his books are similar, not in basic story premise but in other smaller characteristics, much like I explained above. I, therefore, will probably never read another of his books because, in the parlance of Palahniuk, they read like Survivor reads like Fight Club reads like... I suggest reading Fight Club and stopping there. You're not missing out on anything beyond that.

"You won't be able to tell your friends about this book. You'll feel dirty just listening. And in the end it will be one of your favorites ever. Palahniuk's brilliance is his ability to wrap subtlety inside of blinding excess. He's like a guy who punches you in the face to disguise the fact that he's putting $100 in your pocket" I am quoting a review of another Chuck book, 'Choke'. That is pretty much my opinion. It has so many memorable quotes that your head will be spinning, and this guy is a brilliant writer. I actually "read" this as an audiobook, my first, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, because the voice was just as I had imagined it, indifferent and calm. Great great book, but your friends will judge you for reading it. The last sentence was so brilliantly handled that even if you may have thought it wouldn't work, it does, so much.

Not to set the bar too high for this book, but I think this is better than Fight Club. This might be because I read Fight Club after seeing the film, so I already knew most of the story, but it's hard to say.

This book is not hard to get into, like Diary was, it pulls you in right from the first page (Diary might have been a good book, but I wasn't able to get past the first 40 pages). As has already been mentioned, this book starts off at the last page and works down, so you know how close the end is, but it doesn't feel rushed or hurried. This is a great book with a great story and characters that Mr. Palahniuk does so well. I don't want to spoil any of it, but you won't be disappointed. It's brutal, funny, and a great commentary on modern superficial culture.
So, see if you like it better than Fight Club. Even if it comes close, that's a pretty good sign it's a great read.

Tender Branson, the supposed sole and only survivor remaining of a creedish death cult is taken from being a social slave and cast into fame and stardom when he is the only survivor left of the cult. When Tender wasn't telling people to kill themselves on a suicide hotline, he read obituaries and visited graves. He falls in love with a girl, Fertility Hollis (who dreams of the future) and sees in the paper that one by one survivors are being picked off. Once he's the last remaining survivor Tender becomes a modern-day messiah fronting a religious monopoly and being transformed into a worldwide celebrity. But now he's hijacked a commercial airplane alone spilling his story into the black box in the cockpit as the plane is running out of fuel and eventually to crash in the Australian outback. Read this book to find out the sequence of events that lead to the demise of Tender Branson and learn a thing or two about cults. It's a great book and is sure not to disappoint.

This is a really great book, filled with the prose indicative of Chuck Palahniuk (by the way...no idea how to pronounce that). The story is exactly the kind of thing that makes you wonder how a guy that looks so normal can write something so twisted. I couldn't give it five stars though; I kept waiting for some really unexpected twist at the end. I don't want to give it away the ending for those that haven't read the book, but I felt he could have done more.

Book arrived quickly and in great condition. I would buy from this seller in the future.

I found this novel inconsistent and not as stylish as many of Chuck's other novels (makes sense, though, as this was only his second novel, the follow up to the hugely successful Fight Club). Tender Branson, the former cult member turned media messiah, is the last of his kind after Heaven's Gate-like mass suicides takes place in the cult's compound. I enjoyed the first half of the book the most, with Tender's innocence still somewhat intact as he cleans up a wealthy household and gives us the background of his upbringing. His transformation into a manipulated and manipulating media sensation seems too much of a reach for someone with such a humble and conservative upbringing. His controlling agent seems too over-the-top, and Tender's acquiescence to all of the agent's wild schemes seems a bit contrived. Tender becomes less and less sympathetic throughout the narrative and other characters are just plain superficial. Love-interest Fertility is shallow and her gifts of prediction are a little too convenient for Tender's escalation to fame. His maniacal brother Adam doesn't add all that much substance to the story other than the great revelation as to how the cult developed Tender's extreme fear of sex.

Overall, I liked the original concept, but wasn't entirely thrilled with how the story developed. It had its humor and its typical Chuck shock-value. It was quick read that won't make you feel like you've wasted your time, but it wasn't Chuck's best.

I am obviously vastly in the minority, but I thought this book was a waste of my precious reading time. It never made a point. It's humor was developed much too slowly and wasn't very funny to begin with. I would not recommend it to anyone.

This is only the 3rd of Palahniuk's books I have read. This was the first real page turner, and it was full of humorous observations and satire about every day America. Choke and this one are highly recommended. Fight Club...well interestingly, the book might not be as good as the film. I cannot wait for Survivor to be made into a movie!

Survivor covers the same territory as a lot of Palaniuk's cultural criticism--our anti-hero has mommy/daddy issues, sex issues, girlfriend issues. He's an outsider, critiquing consumerism, mocking religion, an expert on obscurity (victorian flower symbolism and home ec, in this case). His story includes a spattering of repeating sentences and is titled ironically--Survivor.
Despite revisiting such familiar territory, Palaniuk creates a character who is unique from his others. The main character--Tender Branson--has been banished from the Garden of Eden, as the story begins. His sex interest, Fertility Hollis, is Palaniuk's equivalent for Eve. Fertility (an appropriate name for the Bible's mother of all mankind), who knows everything (tree of knowledge), guides Tender and his twin brother--Adam--until the story's last page.
Adam's greatest contribution is debunking Tender's illusions that the home he was kicked out of was a paradise. This idea that paradise is a lie, a false construction is reinforced by Tender's job as the book begins. He's charged by his masters (secular gods) to maintain their garden, a job which he completes by using fake flowers.
I thought this metaphor was really clever and I only caught onto it on the second read. Not that I didn't enjoy Tender's later transformation in a desperate bid for eternal life--in name if not in fact, but the first part of the book was just more fun for me.
Even with that said, I think Choke is a better written book. But after you've finished that, Survivor is a worthwhile second read.

Here's one of the best tell-tale sentences in this book: "According to the journalist watching the director watch the agent watch me watch the TelePrompTer, according to her I'm very happy and fulfilled now that I'm free of the Creedish Death Cult." Does that sentence make even a lick of sense? Sure, you get the general idea, but the structure is pitiful. Chuck's complete disregard for commas and proper grammar is idiotic. Apparently, after the soaring success of Fight Club, he thought he could write however he wanted no matter how ignorant it looks on paper, and thought he could criticize the system that got him famous in the first place. This is a hypocritical look a popular culture and your fifteen minutes of fame, told from the perspective of a bland and unexciting character who spends 1/3 of the story rambling off how to clean a house. If anything, he should have shortened it a lot and told the same story. The parallel structure he uses...he uses it so much it becomes almost unbearable to read...and all the superfluous 'he says' and 'he tells.' If he eliminated most of those, the story would be ten pages shorter.

The other thing: He starts in the beginning telling the reader about him being in the plane, how he'll die. In that respect, the reader has nothing to look forward to because we already know the end. All the in between is just filler that mocks media and other elements of society, stuff I've heard plenty of times before with much better quality.

Basically, Chuck ruined a good story idea for another author who could've done a much better job and spoiled it by writing this heap.

Chuck Palahniuk's "Survivor" takes the reader into the world of Tender Branson, the last surviving member of a suicide cult. As the book opens, Branson, the narrator, has hijacked a Boeing 747 with the intention of crashing it, with himself on board, into the Australian outback. Having emptied the plane of passengers, he proceeds to tell his account of his life - ostensibly as it 'really happened' - into the flight recorder, from his childhood under the repressive authority of the Creedish Church to being propelled years later to media stardom as the last survivor.

The first thing that the reader will notice is that the book begins with Chapter 47 on page 289 and counts its way down to Chapter 1 and page 1 at the end, a device which serves to constantly remind the reader that Branson's last minutes are ticking away even as he retells his story, lending an air of foreboding to his words. Palahniuk also has Branson constantly backtrack upon himself in a way which mimics such a stream-of-consciousness dictation. The writing style throughout is informal and extremely sketchy as regards description. Even the names of key characters are never revealed - including the government caseworker appointed to prevent Tender from following the rest of his cult members into suicide, and the agent who later drives him to stardom. On the other hand, by having Tender talk at great length about apparently unimportant and superfluous things such as how to correctly eat a lobster, Palahniuk gives us a sense of Tender's quirky and disturbed nature, almost as if he exists slightly out of tune with reality.

This is a book which tackles big themes: birth and death, murder and suicide, free will and determinism, belief and unbelief, truth and falsehood. Palahniuk conjures up a vividly dystopian and disturbing world, which only grows darker as Tender is drawn within the media culture - a culture which proves every bit as restrictive, false, twisted and soul-destroying as the Creedish society that he used to belong to. What really engages the reader, however, is the strength of the main characters: firstly Tender, who struggles throughout the story to find meaning in his life and to become truly free; and secondly his friend Fertility Hollis, who claims to be able to see the future and acts as Tender's guide. It is their relationship which forms the backbone of the story right up until its climax in the final chapter.

Pacy, inventive, often funny, "Survivor" is a fine (though dark) book, and one that I can easily recommend.

This book is easily one of the best novels I have ever read. Survivor is just as good as Fight Club, both are equally entertaining. Palahniuk paints vivid characters and settings with his words, you do not have to struggle to imagine who or what he incorporates into his books. This book takes aim with religious fanatics and the obsession over the apocalypse. Chuck Palahniuk offers refreshing and new ways of looking at the world, and Survivor definately does not disappoint. I do not want to give away details of the book, because I cannot do it justice. Try this book, sit back and relax as you enjoy what is going on in the mind of this talented writer.

This is a very entertaining story. Another scathing indictment of contemporary culture from Chuck Palahniuk.

I must say, though, that as the story progressed I was a little disappointed with the direction it was going--that is until a hilariously surprising plot twist revived my interest. From that point on it continues strong and doesn't let up until what I remarkably found to be a fitting ending.

What made the entire story even more amusing is that as Palahniuk gives his literary indictment of contemporary mass produced religiosity, my mind produced a protagonist in the image of Joel Olsteen!

I was a little surprised when Survivior started at the end of Branson's story and worked its way backwards, so events in the novel unfolded backwards. After I again got used to this format (which got a little annoying), the story itself just did not hold together. Fight Club was fast-paced and dramatic, but Survivor dragged. At 2/3 through the novel, I could care less about Branson, the set-up, or his destructive ways, and I felt that Palahniuk's sharp wit was bitter rather than edgy, as in Fight Club. The book was okay but I will not read it again.

Tender Branson is the last surviving member of the Creedish cult, but not for long as he has hijacked a plane which he intends to crash after he finishes telling his life story into the flight recorder.

The book starts and ends with Tender Branson in the hijacked plane where he has nicely served everyone their last meal, landed the plane somewhere so everyone could disembark except the pilot who jumps out with a parachute later on so that Tender can die on the plane himself. He has been telling his life story into a flight recorder the entire book because that is what Fertility, a girl he is fascinated with that can see the future, told him to do. She hates her gift, but tells him about the future so that he can use it in his messiah gig, which he becomes sick of himself and eventually leads to the hijacking.

The writing style is very similar to Palahniuk's other books that I have read. There is a lot of repetition to make a point or to add humor, especially when Tender was made into messiah from agents and other media types. Throughout the story, there are injections of the best-selling prayer books that have his name on them, yet he never wrote. Prayers such as The Prayer to Delay Orgasm, The Prayer to Prevent Hair Loss, The Prayer to Silence Car Alarms. He has been turned into a messiah once all the other members of the Creedish cult have killed themselves in response to an apocalypse. The members they have sent out into society to make money to send back to the cult are supposed to kill themselves as soon as they hear the news of the deaths. It takes a while for them to all do it, but they finally do until Tender is the last one standing. The media hounds on this and make him famous.

That is the second half of the book, which was amusing, but not my favorite part of the book. I loved the first part where we learn how the Creedish kids try to assimilate into regular culture, but not very well since they seem to be some kind of Amish knock offs. They are experts at cleaning and organizing things. Tender is a maid, cook, butler, gardner and general servant to a rich couple that he has never met in person. They leave him a journal of daily tasks he needs to complete and only communicate through the journal and speaker phone while at work or dinner parties. He knows how to prepare any kind of food and clean anything. The repetition technique was at work during that part of the book with the various cleaning tips, which I found to be hilarious and useful. Maybe someday, I'll run into the need to get blood or some other stain out of various clothing and upholstery, and now I know how!

The first part also has the side story about how a suicide help line phone number was misprinted in a newspaper story and gave his phone number instead. When people called, he didn't tell them they had the wrong phone number, but would give them awful advice, like killing themselves. It is this dark, twisted humor that makes me like Chuck Palahniuk. It is also this section of the book where he mentions "suicide girls," which apparently is where the website feature old school '40s and '50s pin-up-style photos of goth, punk and indie girls. He only mentions it in one sentence of the type of people who call the help line, but how it is a super popular phrase. Crazy.

This is a fascinating, outrageously satirical novel that will appeal to anyone who finds humor in morbid places. Often I'll read a novel and then later have a hard time remembering what it was about. Not so with Survivor. The novel, if nothing else, is memorable.

Chuck Palahniuk may not appeal to everyone but I have to say that I was fascinated by Survivor's strangely twisted plot and morbid humor. True, Palahniuk is treading on familiar ground here (the `unlikely media messiah' bit has been done more than a few times before) but the author manages to put his own spin on things. The novel is uneven at times and I couldn't help but feel that it started to fall off the rails a little near the end, but all in all, it is an entertaining read(riotously funny at times) and definitely makes an impression on the reader.

Palahniuk uses this novel to explore issues of free will. (He also sets his sights on modern media culture and religious extremism). Tender is raised in such a way that he has no apparent ability to think for himself while Fertility has the ability to see the future. Subsequently life becomes meaningless for her (and her brother) because there are no surprises left.

My primary criticism of this novel is that I found the characters behavior inconsistent and I never fully accepted them, even as satire. Admittedly in satire, the author can take liberties and exaggerate character traits to the point of absurdity but the reader still needs to feel that their actions, even if it's hyperbole, is `true' to the character. Through most of the novel Tender is unable to think for himself, a perpetual follower who does what the church tells him, what his case worker tells him, what his agent tells him, what Fertility and his brother tell him. In contrast, he treats his employers with disdain, ignoring them at times. He is shoplifts, takes the initiative to set up a fake suicide hotline and decides which of his callers should live or die. Maybe it's just me, but I had trouble reconciling the two very different Tender Bransons.

My other beef is similar. In satire, the plot can be (should be) absurd. But even so, things have to make sense within the context of the novel. I know things like this shouldn't irritate me, but I couldn't help thinking that if the agent choreographed the wedding at the Super Bowl and pre-recorded the entire ceremony in advance, that he would never have permitted Tender to make his prediction unrehearsed and without knowing what it would be. And why would the agent have wedding rice dropped on an empty parking lot? The grand gesture would be entirely lost because there is no one there to see it. The obvious answer is that the plot required it. I realize the novel is a parody and isn't suppose to be realistic and I'm not complaining about the plausibility of things like the small book of prayers (which is hilarious) or the fact that an actress is hired to fill in for Tender's future wife during the wedding ceremony (also hilarious). These kinds of things are consistent with the tone of the novel and make sense in their satirical way. The plot developments that seemed to serve no purpose except to move the plot in one direction or another bothered me.

As for the ending (and I'm not giving anything away here because the novel ends at the beginning) it would appear that the narrator dies in a fiery plane crash. The ending though is actually a little ambiguous. My personal opinion is that Palahniuk doesn't kill Tender (there are a few clues to suggest this). My personal preference (not that it matters) is that Tender die. His survival (if he did survive) would feel like a 'cop out' to me.

You'll have to decide for yourself how you think the novel ends.

This is a fascinating, outrageously satirical novel that will appeal to anyone who finds humor in morbid places. Often I'll read a novel and then later have a hard time remembering what it was about. Not so with Survivor. The novel, if nothing else, is memorable.

Chuck Palahniuk may not appeal to everyone but I have to say that I was fascinated by Survivor's strangely twisted plot and morbid humor. True, Palahniuk is treading on familiar ground here (the `unlikely media messiah' bit has been done more than a few times before) but the author manages to put his own spin on things. The novel is uneven at times and I couldn't help but feel that it started to fall off the rails a little near the end, but all in all, it is an entertaining read(riotously funny at times) and definitely makes an impression on the reader.

My primary criticism of this novel is that I found the characters behavior inconsistent and I never fully accepted them, even as satire. Admittedly in satire, the author can take liberties and exaggerate character traits to the point of absurdity but the reader still needs to feel that their actions, even if it's hyperbole, is `true' to the character. Through most of the novel Tender is unable to think for himself, a perpetual follower who does what the church tells him, what his case worker tells him, what his agent tells him, what Fertility and his brother tell him. In contrast, he treats his employers with disdain, ignoring them at times. He is shoplifts, takes the initiative to set up a fake suicide hotline and decides which of his callers should live or die. Maybe it's just me, but I had trouble reconciling the two very different Tender Bransons.

My other beef is similar. In satire, the plot can be (should be) absurd. But even so, things have to make sense within the context of the novel. I know things like this shouldn't irritate me, but I couldn't help thinking that if the agent choreographed the wedding at the Super Bowl and pre-recorded the entire ceremony in advance, that he would never have permitted Tender to make his prediction unrehearsed and without knowing what it would be. And why would the agent have wedding rice dropped on an empty parking lot? The grand gesture would be entirely lost because there is no one there to see it. The obvious answer is that the plot required it. I realize the novel is a parody and isn't suppose to be realistic and I'm not complaining about the plausibility of things like the small book of prayers (which is hilarious) or the fact that an actress is hired to fill in for Tender's future wife during the wedding ceremony (also hilarious). These kinds of things are consistent with the tone of the novel and make sense in their satirical way. The plot developments that seemed to serve no purpose except to move the plot in one direction or another bothered me.

As for the ending (and I'm not giving anything away here because the novel ends at the beginning) it would appear that the narrator dies in a fiery plane crash. The ending though is actually a little ambiguous. My personal opinion is that Palahniuk doesn't kill Tender (there are a few clues to suggest this). My personal preference (not that it matters) is that Tender die. His survival (if he did survive) would feel like a 'cop out' to me.

You'll have to decide for yourself how you think the novel ends.

Wow. I really enjoyed the book. I feel that people who did not enjoy it were too simple-minded. I enjoyed the layout and the story. It was a privalage following Tender through his incredible journey. I feel this is a "must read."

I own all the Palahniuk books, and by far this one is my favorite. I recommend this novel as a good starter point for anyone who is interested in CP's work to get your feet wet. After reading Survivor I turned back to the first page and read it again. Great book, will make a great movie if the right director is attached to it.

A member of a former religious cult becomes an evangelist hero and with the help of a precognitive woman finally learns the truth about himself and his world. Palahniuk has some interesting observations about late 20th Century society in "Survivor," but ultimately this novel is much more unsubtle and bitterly sarcastic than "Fight Club," his previous effort. In the end, I couldn't really see the point of this book, although it is well-written and entertaining in parts.

i really tried to like this book. the plot is unrealistic and boring. a real lack of substance in this one. i ran out of toilet paper and didn't hesitate to use a page from this garbage. no hesitation. seriously, then i threw the rest away.

the chapter about lobster is the best. i've re-read it several times and i've introduced it to friends, who have been awed by its awesomeness.

I thought the plot in this book fell a little short. There were some threads that Palahniuk started in the beginning of the book that were intriguing, but he didn't follow them through to the end. Not nearly as interesting as Fight Club.

This was the second book by Chuck Palahniuk that I read and it just added fuel to the fire. It's and interesting story with VERY interesting characters that you will not be able to relate to but it's ok.

The way the book is set up is you're reading the book backwards. You're at the end of the book when you first open it, but it doesn't give important things away. It's a very unique way of telling a story and it worked for Chuck.

Fight Club was amazing. It was later made into a David Fincher film. LOL I love how every single one of Chuck's books has to mention that.

Anyways, Fight Club's ending in his book is a bit lame. The movie's ending overshadows it and even Chuck said the film's ending was better. Don't get me wrong Fight Club is great, but this is how Survivor edges out Fight Club.

The entire book just made me keep wanting to read. Never put that book down. Unlike Haunting, which made me want to give up reading, this book was just long enough and reading it was fun.

The only problem, if there was any, was the concentration on his celebrity status. It seemed a little drawn out and unnecessary. But it built on Tender's character. So whatever.

All I can say is, once you get to the end.. You'll be stunned.

PS. When you are finished being stunned, head over to Chuck's official website and read exactly what happens to Tender. I love this book.

Survivor is an absurdly funny, yet penetratingly accurate look at modern society, in perhaps a not-so-good light. As a follow-up to the wildly successful Fight Club, Survivor carries over some of the elements I found so fresh and new about Palahniuk's writing, while still keeping the story fresh and new. In other words, this is definitely not Fight Club, Part II.

As an author, Palahniuk's best quality is his willingness to take chances. From the backward numbering the pages and chapters to the edgy themes contained therein, we can be certain about this: there is no topic too sacred.

A few of the "twists" toward the end didn't live up to the set-up for me, but it's not much of a let down when the book is still so much more interesting than the rest of what's out there these days.

I've read a few of Palahniuk's books, and I have to say I like this one the best so far. Tender Branson is a dark man, but not too dark, and is shrewdly sardonic, yet witty and likeable. His comments on human nature are disturbingly truthful. By the end, I hoped that Chuck would allow him to "live happily ever after."

I have read nearly all of his books and I've been waiting for years to finally read this one. It was of course everything I expected it would be; dark, funny, thought provoking. I found it extremely quotable like that of "Choke". I love his way of over-exaggerating our media driven world. It's hilarious. I will probably re-read it again some time because there's many things I know I missed or want to think more about in this book. I didn't know it would be that deep. It's wonderful and I encourage everyone to give it a read.

"Give Yourself, Your Life, Just One More Chance. Call Me for Help."

Tender Branson, one of the last remaining survivors of an offshoot Christian death cult (the Creedish), puts these signs up near every payphone in his city, ready to receive desperate cries for help each night so that he can answer them with "Kill Yourself." Thus is born another comically bleak character by minimalist pop writer Chuck Palahniuk.

With the pages numbered backwards, and the chapters feeling like a countdown, the reader dives in to Survivor to discover that the narrator is the only person on a plane that is quickly running out of gas and headed for a crash in Australia. With that bit of exposition aside, we dive right into the story of Tender Branson's life and how he ended up in such a predicament.

Survivor is so full of vivid images and beyond-satirical characters it's equal parts hilarious and disturbing. The Creedish cult, the sassy red-headed love interest (if you can call her that) who can see the future, the twin brother who may or may not be alive and may or may not be out to murder the protagonist, the lifestyle of a too-famous celebrity preacher and steroid addict, and the caseworker who is constantly curing her patient of a new condition. Survivor is chock full of these colorful characters, so much so that the novel can start to feel a little too heavy handed in its stressing of the terrible waste that life on earth is.

Like all of Palahniuk's writing, though, it's hard to put down once you've started. With no chapter being longer than eight pages, and the story moving so quickly, on a collision course for conclusiveness, the reader starts to feel like maybe they're the one trapped on the doomed flight with no means of escape.

While Survivor isn't as short and sweet as Fight Club, and lacks the consistency of Invisible Monsters, it's still a quick and exciting read and Palahniuk's style makes up for the lack of subtlety he displays in getting his point across here. For a good read on an airplane or at the beach, check out Survivor.

Similar to many other reviewers, this is my favorite Chuck Palahniuk novel (second favorite is "Haunted: A Novel" -- my first Chuck Palahniuk novel); so far, I have read all his books except for Fight Club! Anyway, I liked it so much I recommend it to all my friends and have started buying/sending it to others. It's THAT good. I love his darkly humorous satire of contemporary (American) life.

I have bought most of Chuck's books release so far. I got this one as a present actually.


I expected a lot more from this book. I did like the style of how it counts down instead of up. The chapters start at the highest and work their way down as is with the pages.

If you read the premise of this book, you would understand why.

I have read a few of Chuck's books and love the twists he plays with in them. However, this book just left me asking "Why?", "What happened?"..etc. Maybe I missed something...maybe something was not implied correctly. After I put this book down I thought someone else must have written it.

This book is a sinker compared to "Fight Club" or "Lullabye".

I read Choke, Lullaby, and saw Fight Club before reading Survivor. I really liked them all. I find his stuff hilarious; but if you don't have a dark sense of humor, you probably won't get it, and will find this work morbid and meaningless. I, on the other hand, thought it was brilliant satire of religion and the entertainment industry, and funny as heck. There are a few parts that are absolutely classic (I don't want to ruin it), but you will read a section or two several times.

My only criticism is that after Fight Club, Choke, and Lullaby, Palahnuik was actually predictable with this book (I know Survior was before Choke and Lullaby, but the point is the same): Main character with bizarre, implausible hobby or vocation, weirdness building to a crescendo, fatalistic ending. I never thought I would use the words predictable and Palahnuik in the same sentence, but there it is.

He also uses this style of writing where he breaks up his line of thought with short, redundant one-liners, and it starts getting old. For example, while telling the story with the characters going down the highway, between every few sentences he throws in: "the road said yield", then "the road sign said exit ahead", and on and on an on...it starts to get old, and appears in all his work. If you have read it, you know what I mean, if you plan to read it, you soon will.

Aside from those little nit-picks, it's a great read, and Palahnuik remains unlike any author you are likely to find.

I read Choke, Lullaby, and saw Fight Club before reading Survivor. I really liked them all. I find his stuff hilarious; but if you don't have a dark sense of humor, you probably won't get it, and will find this work morbid and meaningless. I, on the other hand, thought it was brilliant satire of religion and the entertainment industry, and funny as heck. There are a few parts that are absolutely classic (I don't want to ruin it), but you will read a section or two several times.

My only criticism is that after Fight Club, Choke, and Lullaby, Palahnuik was actually predictable with this book: Main character with bizarre, implausible hobby or vocation, weirdness building to a crescendo, fatalistic ending. I never thought I would use the words predictable and Palahnuik in the same sentence, but there it is.

He also uses this style of writing where he breaks up his line of thought with short, redundant one-liners, and it starts getting old. For example, while telling the story with the characters going down the highway, between every few sentences he throws in: "the road said yield", then "the road sign said exit ahead", and on and on an on...it starts to get old, and appears in all his work. If you have read it, you know what I mean, if you plan to read it, you soon will.

Aside from those little nit-picks, it's a great read, and Palahnuik remains unlike any author you are likely to find.

When I first read Fight Club, I doubted anything else I would read by Chuck Palahniuk will live up to it. Fight Club was one of my favorite books of all time. Since I was amazed by Palahniuk's writing style, I got two other books: Survivor, and Lullaby. Survivor now holds the spot as my favorite Palahniuk book, and I've read most of them. yeah yeah, this book is offensive and morbid and whatnot, and half of these reviews are written by soccer moms.

Five big fat shiny stars for Survivor.

This was the first book I've read by this author, who I was curious to check out after seeing, and for the most part enjoying, the movie Fight Club. Unfortunately, I found the book to be a little heavy-handed in its theme, and I regret buying it in the first place.

The book isn't without its good points, which I'll highlight first. The author takes an interesting and original idea (suicide cult and its members) and with it, touches on the ideas of morality, capitalism, media hysteria, and endentured servitude.

One problem I had with the book was that its gimmicky premise. The book starts with a narrator describing his situation, which is not very good. He's on a plane, alone, and it's on a crash course for Austrailia. Before he dies, the author wants to set the record straight on what happened and how things got to where they are now. Then the book does a countdown (the page numbers start at around 200 or so and count down in descending order to bring the book right back to where it starts). Okay, I thought. I'll give it a shot.

For a book that's billed as satire, however, I would have expected it to have a least a little humor, even if it was dark. Well, the book didn't make me laugh once, and I doubt that I even smiled. I did roll my eyes a lot, however - so maybe that counts for something.

The biggest problem is that none of the characters are easy to sympathize with. There is no good guy. There are a lot of bad guys, however, and a lot of people in the gray area.

The author's main theme seems to be that famous people are slaves, in a sense, to the consummerism and media superpowers that control EVERYTHING. Celebrities, according to Palahniuk, are no more responsible for their success than a can of soda is responsible for whether it gets bought or sold. People are marketed, altered, and re-engineered to appeal to their target audience. To be famous, one must give up free will and do as you're told.

The fact that the protagonist doesn't once seem to object to this (perhaps because he was previously a slave in a more literal sense - he cleaned houses all day) struck me as somewhat odd. Also, the protagonist is directly responsible for the deaths of dozens of people who he encouraged to kill themselves. People would call him for help and he'd tell them to blow their brains out, for no other reason than entertainment, I guess.

A protagonist so morally bankrupt is a tough one to sympathize with, which makes it kind of tough to really care what happens in the book.

In the end, I was glad when this book was over, as I found it completely lacking in anything approaching humanity, love, and compassion. It was just a sad, twisted little story with no humor. Clearly, many people liked it, but I'll confidently align myself with the minority opinion here, and say the book was pretty lousy.

This is really an ingenious satire. Mr. Palahniuk is the man to go to when you want dark, brutal humor. He also raises very intelligent points from time to time, catching you by surprise. Surprisingly, I found it every bit as good as Fight Club.

"Survivor" is an exellent novel and Chuck Palahniuk is now my new favorite author. It is twisted, dark, and satirical while telling one of the most creative and entertaining stories I have ever read. The irony at the end of the book will make you think so much about life, it is just incredible. However, this book is NOT for kids and should not be read by anyone who cannot stomach dark subject matter. The only reason that it does not get five stars is because the plot was sometimes a bit confusing. My advise is to just keep reading because your questions will be answered within five to ten pages. This book inspires me to read his whole collection. There are so many profound one-liners here that every Fight Club purist will be highly satisfied. BUY IT!!!!!

Chuck Palaniuk writer of, FIGHT CLUB has another succsees with survivor.
The book starts from the end as the main character reflects on his life as a survier from a death cult, turned celebrity.Like fight club the main charator is very self destructive, starting as a good little worker, his job as a house cleaner offers heavy satire on the way the wealthy depend on there subordanits and then how he comes to righly on his. If you have read fight club odds are you'll like this book too. I loved this book but its not as good a fightclub. Its a very fast read if your looking for somthing to read on a plane this is the book for you.

This book is amazing i don't want to give anything away but if you liked fight club then i think your going to like this book.

This book was an incredibly underwhelming read. The summary on the back made it sound exciting, but just like with commercials for talk shows, the exciting parts end up being over-inflated. This book read just like Fight Club, so that annoyed me because Fight Club has already been done. Ed Norton was my Tender Branson. The story felt rushed, so I couldn't get in to it or care for any of the characters, and I was irritated by the author's categorizing and generalization of society and their views on death and fame. Don't tell me how I think or act. The story was pretty absurd and far-fetched to me. The ettiquette and cleaning tips I found quite helpful, so you get that extra star.

The story was terrible. Didnt care for any of the characters. Couldn't put it down cause I was just trying to get to the end in hopes it got better.... It didn't. The best thing about it was it was a pretty quick read and I will now avoid Palahniuk in the future. No idea why everyone loves this book. Dont get caught up in the hype. It Stinks.

In addition to being entertaining, this book is also quite educational with bits of useful information such as "What you forget when you're planning a hijack by yourself is somewhere along the line, you might need to neglect your hostages just long enough so you can use the bathroom." Having now read several Chuck Palahniuk books I am now convinced I will definitely be reading his entire catalog. The characters in this novel are complex and twisted; the plot is fast-paced entertaining, and unpredictable; and the dialog is profound, yet hilarious. This book is just every bit as witty as Choke, and Invisible Monsters. The satirical slant of this book concerns the media, and religious cults while commenting on our society's unhealthy obsession with fame. Survivor is an exceptional read, and I will definitely revisit it in the future.

"Survivor" is a masterful look at contemporary culture. Much like "Fight Club," "Survivor" shows the degeneration of our society. This story is the autobiography of Tender Branson, the supposed last remaining member of a cultish religion who becomes a media icon and an idol in contemporary America. The entire story follows the pattern of much of cable television these days. Disappointingly enough, Tender Branson is everything that pop-culture wants us to be. He is the perfect transgression of a multitude of efforts including his agent, his public relations person, his medicinal distributor, and his prophetic "friend."

"Survivor" is guaranteed to be a contemporary classic. Palahniuk has a clever writing style that is easy to get lost in. Never once did I lose the story but often enough, the story kept reminding me that this is, in fact, the world we live in. You won't see this side of Extreme Home Make-Over or live-Plastic Surgery. Like "Fight Club," there is enough in this story to make this story completely implausible; however, there is enough truth to recognize the similarities and truths with our own culture.

I fully recommend "Survivor" to anyone who is getting tired of prime-time cable television and anyone who has once thought that maybe the world is actually going to heck in a hand basket.

An odd story about a journey from obscurity to fame to infamy, "Survivor" is a perfect jab at several aspects of American culture. It is also, in my opinion, a look at a foreseeable future; where left unchecked, society could decay from within.

While lampooning religious extremism and celebrities, it's as if Palahniuk wanted to show the ridiculousness of each life style. Similar to the group-think of extremists like the Heaven's Gate folks, the protagonist, Tender Branson, is a follower of Creedish beliefs (a bizarre cult and Amish blend), and his obligation is to commit suicide when his religious leaders declare that the apocalypse is nearing.

Instead of suicide, however, he's telling his bizarre story at 39,000 feet in an airplane on its way towards a guaranteed crash/explosion. It's a countdown until the explosion (literally - the book's page numbering is descending), and Branson is trying to squeeze every bit of info, every quirky dance in a burning building, every suicide hotline, cleaning tip into the flight's black box.

It's quirky, funny and purposeful; each chapter introduces a new situation, character, plot-twist, interesting fact, or Martha Stewart tip for household cleaning. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and recommend it without reservation. If you like to read, or if you liked Fight Club, don't hesitate to pick up this book.

This was my first Palahniuk book, and it got me hooked. I recommend it to others looking to test the waters. He's got a style all of his own, and each book is wildly different. In this one we learn the story backwards (it has decreasing page numbers), which seems like an odd gimmick, but in this case, it works well. The book starts out with a mysterious ex-cult member cleaning a house for a voice on a speakerphone, and the fascinating story of this man, Tender Branson, slowly unravels. Only two other characters in the book, Fertility and Adam, ever get proper names. Everyone else is referred to my common nouns.

Palahniuk hits home on the theme of marking, of the selling of an image, and this is so relevant as marketing continues to overtake American life. The marketing of Tender Branson is a hilarious satire that almost hits too close to the truth as our culture gets more and more image-conscious.

Unique style, fascinating narrative, wacky characters, important themes, poetic writing. What more could a reader ask for?