Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk
(Tuesday, May 5, 2009)
In most of his books, Palahniuk, famed author of infamous Fight Club, lets America really have it. His 10th book, Pygmy, is no exception. This time, it’s not about an underground beat-up club with a line-up of male misfits sending gigantic silver spheres tumbling into expensive Manhattan buildings. While the theme of male misfits remain, these fellas are younger — 13-year-old teens (who may or may not be all under the pygmy height of four-foot-11). They’re entering the States under the guise of foreign-exchange students, but their studies all surround the totalitarian quotations of Marx, Hitler and even that Last King of Scotland character Forest Whitaker got his Oscar for. Call ’em terrorists, and their mission is to shut America way down through Operation Havoc, a mass destruction to-do disguised as a science project (DIY volcano? Ha!). From church to spelling bees to the local TV news, our narrator, the skinny Pygmy, destroys all with a Columbine intent. If this sort of could-be-real-life havoc spooks you or if bad gammar irks you to the core (Pygmy’s speech is … special), stay away. Otherwise, enjoy what could be Palahniuk’s best work yet.
YESTERDAY’S DO-IT: Hilarious Stand-Up 360 in theaters!
