The scene opens at an up-scale California wedding gone wrong. Palahniuk’s unnamed main character kneels over Brandy Alexander, a transvestite con-artist who has taken the main character under her wing. Brandy has just been shot, and as he lays dieing, the main character reflects on what brought them to this exact moment.

The main character’s story opens in a hospital room. Her face is wrapped in gauze and she is unaware of what has happened to her. She quickly finds out she has been involved in a car accident and half of her jaw had to be removed. This is especially devastating to her, an up-and-coming model.

In recovery, she meets Brandy Alexander who quickly bonds to the main character, helping her with speech therapy and giving her veils to wear to hide her face. The two soon end up on the road together, running away from just about everything in their lives. Brandy starts a con smuggling drugs off of the rich by touring mansions in California that are for sale and stealing the owner prescriptions with innocent trips to the bathroom.

The plot twists and turns as the main character recalls her up-bringing, her misadventures with Brandy, and takes a harsh and honest look at the world around her. The words Palahniuk writes in this novel are witty observations of the human condition. I highly recommend this book for a little insight, a good laugh, and a dark and dramatic you-never-saw-THAT-coming end.

Any Palahniuk fan, anyone who likes honest reflections on the human condition, anyone who loves a little sarcastic humor, and anyone who loves a grotesque for the main character.

Everything in this book. Especially the ending.

Throw the book across the room. The ending was so upsetting because it was so far from what I thought was the truth in the plot. It was amazing!

Is a writing god.

You will NEVER find a more twisted and honest writer. Palahniuk is not afraid to go where no authoer has gone before.

My copy of this book is dog-eared to high-heck. I have underlines witty observations, poetic lines, and things that just struck me as amazing. I have read this book about ten times and it never gets old.

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Created Dec 11, 2007 at 11:02am • Submit your own review...