Reviews of the "Lullaby" of Chuck Palahniuk should be of interest to all admirers of the talent of this author. This novel was first published in 2002, and has since become one of its most famous works. This article will describe the summary of the book, the characters, reviews of critics and reader reviews.
Plot
Reviews about the "Lullaby" of Chuck Palahniuk are very diverse. As a rule, admirers of this author’s creativity are delighted with the book. At the same time, he has enough opponents who do not miss the chance to criticize her.
A summary of Chuck Palahniuk's “Lullaby” allows you to quickly recall the main details of this work. The story begins with an introduction to the main character. This is journalist Karl Streitor. His focus is on sudden infant death syndrome, which he begins to investigate. Interestingly, this is a real medical problem when sudden death occurs in all signs of a healthy newborn from respiratory arrest. This occurs before the age of one year. In this case, the autopsy does not allow to establish the exact cause of death. Sometimes even doctors call this syndrome "death in the cradle", since previously it is not preceded by any symptoms, and death often overtakes a person in a dream.
There are known cases when murders by the parents of their children were given out as sudden infant death syndrome, when this happened intentionally or unintentionally. Criminals passed off this event as death for unknown reasons, and doctors made an erroneous diagnosis of SIDS. In America there were resonant cases when up to five murders of one’s own children could be passed off for this syndrome. Currently, the second death from SIDS in the same family is considered suspicious, the third case is considered unbelievable.
The mystery of infant death
The streitor in Chuck Palahniuk’s novel “Lullaby” is interested in the sudden death of children in their own beds or even in the hands of their parents for no apparent reason. The reporter manages to find out that they all die after they read an old African lullaby from a collection entitled "Poems and nursery rhymes from around the world."
The Africans themselves read these verses to their children when their tribe outgrew the boundaries of their habitat, and they were also pronounced over wounded soldiers and hopelessly sick people, so that they would die quickly and without torment. It turns out that the song is still effective. Ordinary passersby die from her, which prevent the reporter from walking along the street, his editor, a neighbor from above, who was constantly noisy.
Cunning Realtor
The second protagonist of the book "Lullaby" Palanica is a realtor Helen Hoover Boyle, who is also aware of the existence of this spell and has already used it repeatedly, pursuing its own goals and motives.
With a closer acquaintance with a woman, she reveals the presence of a large number of amazing oddities. In this way, it reminds almost all practical and at the same time monstrous heroes of Palahniuk. For example, Boyle specializes in selling houses in which ghosts or ghosts live. She even acquires the exclusive right to make transactions with them. It turns out that this is an extremely profitable enterprise, since the owners of such buildings change every few months.
In addition, Boyle constantly visits stores that sell antique furniture, unscrewing any metal and shiny parts, such as handles. With them, she enthusiastically scratches painted surfaces. As a result, she manages to purchase furniture at a much lower price, not taking into account her age and value. Then she recreates it, combining with the lost parts.
Police doctor
In telling the summary of Chuck Palahniuk's “Lullaby”, one must definitely mention police physician Nash. He is the acquaintance of a reporter who manages to get a copy of the same book with a mysterious spell from the library of Congress. With his help, he manages to achieve a perverse intimacy with attractive fashion models. All the heroes of the "Lullaby" Palahniuk are distinguished by the fact that they use this powerful and ancient text for their mercantile purposes, in contrast to the way African tribes used it. Those read it only in exceptional cases, when it was really required to alleviate a person’s fate.
If you once read Chuck Palahniuk's Lullaby, a brief summary will help to quickly restore the denouement of this unique work of the author in memory. Boyle, along with Streitor, secretary Helen Mona, who is fond of magic, and her boyfriend, nicknamed Oyster, who is passionate about environmental protection, are sent to destroy the surviving copies of these African "Nurseries".
The ultimate goal for them is access to the main book, from where the lullaby was originally written off. It is called the Grimoire. Moreover, everyone in the book "Lullaby" by Chuck Palahniuk has his own goal. The streitor plans to destroy her, Boyle with her help is going to doom omnipotence and resurrect his son, who was once killed by this same lullaby. Oyster and Mona intended to turn into new Adam and Eve, who will settle on modern sinful earth.
In the finale of Lullaby, Chuck Palahniuk, using a spell to control someone else’s body, which was discovered in the Grimoire, Oyster manages to capture Helen, whom he inflicts injuries incompatible with life. The streitor reads the same lullaby over her to save her from suffering. When she dies, her mind moves to a policeman, an Irish national, using a special spell.
It is noteworthy that in parallel with the main plot, another line develops in which events that occur after the end of the main narrative are described. In it, the Streitor, together with the Irish policeman, who is called the Sergeant, pursue the pursuit of Oyster and Mona, who use magic for their own purposes.
Critic Reviews
In general, critics positively praised Palanic’s latest lullaby. Many of them noted that the concept of "imagine" became the main thing in this work. The actual content of this work was a quarrel between the four characters, and not a story written by a famous writer. It seems that "Lullaby" has become a kind of internal rethinking. If you imagine the sequence of thoughts in which Karl was thinking about himself, they would be a step towards an epic work.
He considered mysticism through the prism of the aesthetics of death, which was being transformed in the context of real life. This formed a cult of obscurity and uncertainty, omissions and errors. When such phenomena occur, a transformation of reality occurs. In this case, the author himself clearly indicates the ongoing deformation. This is indicated by a quote from "Lullaby" Chuck Palahniuk.
Magic is the conversion of the necessary energy to the achievement of natural shifts.
At the same time, certain ideals and values make Palanik wonder why they are killing people, not to save lives. The same applies to books that were burned due to a lullaby.
Professional critics noted that the frequent and popular trick that the author constantly uses in the novel is self-citation. Due to this, a multi-level composition of the text of the work is created using plot and stylistic repetitions, phrases that constantly sound like refrain, peculiar “roll calls”. Literally in every chapter, the author provides the reader with various newspaper ads that are surprisingly identical in their wording. Here is one of them:
If your dog, purchased on the specified farm, was sick with rabies, call and join forces with other victims to file a class action lawsuit.
It is important that such repetitions do not make the work primitive, but serve as a signal indicating that in the near future an important message will follow, which will have a certain value for key characters. The multilevelness of the text also manifests itself in the fact that even in the full version of Chuck Palahniuk's Lullaby, the scene or the direct process of murder is never described. The protagonist only says that the bayul song sounds in his head, and after that he hears complete silence in the receiver.
Reviews
In reviews of the "Lullaby" of Chuck Palahniuk, readers at the same time leave mostly conflicting opinions. Of course, the books of this author are often amazing, forcing many to be taken aback. In this series, this novel looks like an exception.
At the same time, readers in reviews of the book "Lullaby" by Chuck Palahniuk acknowledge that this is a very difficult novel in which at first such a large number of deaths scare, especially when innocent babies become victims. Particularly striking is the ease with which the characters begin to decide who lives and who dies when this deadly weapon appears in their hands in the form of a lullaby that is harmless at first glance.
Comparing “Lullaby” with the author’s most famous novel (Fight Club), some readers noted that this work is much weaker, even reminiscent of an ordinary lady’s novel. The narrative itself is less cruel, but at the same time more elegant, ironic and original. Impeccable execution and the original plot clearly demonstrate the imperfection of the world around us, as well as humanity, which is busy with what is destroying itself.
Negative
At the same time, it is possible to meet a lot of negative reviews about the "Lullaby" of Chuck Palahniuk. Readers complain that the novel is perceived very hard, wading through the ornate author’s syllable is very difficult. You even have to force yourself to read, despite the fact that the work carries away.
It became frankly unpleasant for some to look at the world through the eyes of Palahniuk, as the way the author sees it proves that the surrounding reality is ugly to its very essence. Judging by the reviews of the book "Lullaby," it is extremely difficult for many to realize.
about the author
Chuck Palahniuk was born in the US state of Washington in 1962. When he was 14 years old, his parents divorced. Due to constant family quarrels and scandals, he constantly had to stay with their grandparents at their ranch, where they raised cattle.
In 1986, Palahniuk became a graduate of the Department of Journalism at the University of Oregon. Soon after, he moved to Portland, where he began to write reports for a local newspaper. Then, for some time, he worked as a diesel mechanic at Freightliner, America's largest truck and tractor manufacturing company. In parallel, he wrote training manuals in which he told how to repair trucks, and continued to engage in journalism. In 1988, he unexpectedly left this profession for many after attending a company seminar that offered personal development programs.
It is noteworthy that the future writer constantly sought to ensure that his life became more than just a job. To achieve this goal, he worked as a volunteer in a hospice and a shelter for the homeless, brought terminally ill patients to meetings in support groups, where they met people with similar problems. His work was reflected in the most famous novel, Fight Club, where the main characters attend such meetings in order to get an emotional discharge.
Unique style
In the literary world, Palahniuk is valued for his unique authorial style. The common features and style of criticism were noted in all his works that preceded Lullaby. In them, the main characters became characters whom, for one reason or another, society rejected and did not accept. As a result, often this ended with a manifestation of strong aggression aimed at self-destruction.
Palanic himself called this style "transgressive prose." In addition, in all works, the author touches on problems that are important for his contemporary society. He changed his attitude to this approach after the events in the USA on September 11, 2001, when a lot of debate and discussion began to appear around this topic. After that, Palahniuk began to more subtly approach the topics that he decided to raise.
Starting with the novel "Lullaby", his style is fundamentally changing. Since then, his works have become similar to satirical horror stories. Often in the books of Palahniuk, the narrative begins from the end in chronology, when the hero begins to recall events that happened earlier. In "Lullaby" it is especially noticeable how the author begins to use several varieties of plot presentation at once. This is a linear, most common narrative that intertwines with a story that begins at the chronological end.
At the very end of his novels, significant deviations from the main plot often occur, which in one way or another are connected with the chronological ending.
Criticism
Many actively criticize Palanik, calling him a "shock writer." This definition is often used to characterize his style, since many of the situations he depicts are too unusual. At the same time, they have to be treated with humor in many ways because of how the characters behave.
Many professional literary scholars often have legitimate doubts because of the relevance of the so-called journalistic stakes in his works. Palanik himself claims that he considers such a form as convenient for the reader to perceive, in addition, it proposes to present a fictional story in such a form as if it had happened in reality. Finally, all this allows us to experiment with the structure of the work itself, significantly reducing it, placing nearby completely incompatible things at first glance.
Palanica is often accused of being prone to nihilism, although he himself claims to be an ineradicable romantic. Finally, reviewers believe that the imaginary worlds that he creates are not very similar to those in which the vast majority of his readers live. The world of Palahniuk is as gloomy, sophisticated and shocking as possible.
In his unhealthy interest in pathologies, many see the usual misunderstanding of the norm. In addition, it is much simpler to write about pathologies; it is unimaginably more difficult to describe an inhabitant with all its everyday mechanisms.
Summing up a peculiar result, most critics claim that Palanic’s novels are designed primarily for a new generation. Parents of these works can be horrified; people with weak nerves are generally not recommended to read them. They also have a bad effect on those who take events taking place with the heroes of the work too closely, since these incidents are too harsh and caustic, and often simply outrageous. Observers are also surprised at how serious Palanik describes things that are unimaginably difficult to imagine in modern society. The novel "Lullaby" in this regard is no exception.