A review of Chuck Palahniuk's Pygmy

I consider myself to be a decent Chuck Palahniuk fan. Generally, I have a hard time putting his books down, finishing them within a couple days. An hour ago, I decided to start Pygmy and I am already finished because the book is terrible and I cannot continue reading it.

Pygmy is written in the voice of the central character: a 13-year-old terrorist agent who plans to carry out some sort of attack while living in America with his host family. The whole book is written in broken English that doesn't make sense. The broken English doesn't make sense for a couple reasons. The first reason is that it is an intentional trick that Palahniuk uses to make the book more interesting, although it fails. You are forced to break down the language to figure out various normal things that are taking place (also some things that are not normal). Unwrapping a gift, going to Walmart, shaking hands, etc. are all elaborate tasks that are purposefully described in confusing ways. The second reason that it doesn't make sense is that the mastery of the vocabulary seems to be light years ahead of the sentence structure, which makes the book even more annoying to read. Great big SAT words are peppered throughout the language of someone with the cadence of a caveman. I don't mind putting in a little "work" when an author plays with voice and language. I loved A Clockwork Orange and Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, so I don't think the problem is a bias that I have. Anthony Burgess' story requires a glossary, yet it seemed like less work! I was hoping that the language would evolve throughout Pygmy, but as I skipped ahead, I realized the whole book is written this way.

The plot of the book is also something that is terrible and nothing new from C.P. I'm tired of hearing about Walmart. I'm tired of hearing about the flaws in the American way of life. I don't even consider myself to be the biggest patriot, but I was so disheartened when C.P. comes out swinging with these nickel-and-dime tactics where he pairs Pygmy with a stereotype of an American family.

There's an extremely graphic scene early on in the book that was a huge dealbreaker for me, and prompted me to just look up the synopsis of the remaining story as I was ready to give up. Is the scene supposed to be funny? I'm not sure. Upon reading the synopsis, I was happy that I quit reading when I did, as this graphic scene proves to be central to the ridiculous story.

How far into the book did I get? Just a few chapters was all that I could stand. This is definitely a book where you should read a few pages before you buy it.

I am a few books behind being current with C.P.'s work, and Pygmy has made me a little afraid of his recent offerings.