Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
W. W. Norton & Company (2018), Edition: 1st, 336 pages
Description
Fiction. Literature. HTML: The author of Fight Club takes America beyond our darkest dreams in this timely satire. People pass the word only to those they trust most: Adjustment Day is coming. They've been reading a mysterious blue-black book and memorizing its directives. They are ready for the reckoning. In this ingeniously comic work, the author's first novel in four years, Chuck Palahniuk does what he does best: skewer the absurdities in our society. Smug, geriatric politicians hatch a nasty fate for the burgeoning population of young males; working-class men dream of burying the elites; and professors propound theories that offer students only the bleakest future. When it arrives, Adjustment Day inaugurates the new, disunited states. In this mind-blowing novel, Palahniuk�??an equal-opportunity offender�??fearlessly makes real the logical conclusion of every separatist fantasy, alternative fact, and conspiracy theory lurking in the American psyche… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member ouroborosangel
Aww, man, I love Chuck Palahniuk. He's one of the only others that can actually turn my stomach. So I know what I'm in for when I read one of his novels. But this one I could not finish. I don't know if it's just because the politics are too close to what is actually happening in the world, or if
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it's because I'm female and this story was mostly about the (seeming) emasculation of men (although I've never had that problem with a Palahniuk book before). For now, it's a DNF. Maybe I'll try to come back to it in the future... Show Less
LibraryThing member BenKline
Good god, this absolutely took me FOREVER to finish. Just dreadfully boring, repetitive, pointless, dull, unentertaining, unengaging, utterly pointless, trivial, and derivative. Palahniuk even tries to be self referencing in an attempt at humor and parody of himself, in a Vonnegut sort of way, and
There's so little humor to be found in this 'satire'. There isn't a single interesting character. It all follows typical Palahniuk; develop gimmick, exploit gimmick to the point of exhaustion by end of book; write grotesque scenes for the sake of it - ones that couldn't really happen in real life; try to satire a singular theme (in this case - identity and identity politics) and beat the horse til its dead and rotten... and then beat it some more with said theme.
The theme of the identity politics is just so dumb in this. Not even plausible, even on a satire level. And I (think / hope / let's just say) - think - thats the point. That he is being absurdist for the sake of it. But it actually, comes off as weaker for it. You want absurdism that actually is relevant and written well and interesting and makes sense? Read Camus. Want satire that is well done, humorous, interesting, and intelligent? Read Orwell or Vonnegut.
Want a bad knock off of these things? Want a few scenes written to make you "squirm"? Want lame writing? Boring characters? Want a weak attempt to use the complexity that he once achieved with Fight Club by making a national Project Mayhem? Read Palahniuk.
Much of his 'philosophy' comes off as an angst ridden teenager, in 10th or 11th grade, learning who Nietzsche is. Reading his aphorisms from Beyond Good and Evil, thinking he has an understanding of how F'd up the world is and wants to let every adult know it. "Its not fair I might have to die!" "Why should younger generations be used by older generations?!" "Why should I be defined by my race or if I like men or women?" Yadda yadda yadda yadda.
This is just so long, boring, vapid, and utterly pointless. 316 pages, with no chapter breaks, very little spacing, bouncing narrative, a slew of characters that are so pointless you can barely even tell anything about them outside what "new nation" they live in, so then you know bare minimum their skin color and if they are gay or not, poor theme, poor writing, over use of this, over use of that, etc, its just so completely drawn out and boring, it nearly took me two years to read this. Save for a global pandemic where I was locked into my house basically, I don't think I'd manage to get through this. And thank god I got it from the library so I didn't drop a dime on this.
Ugh. Just ugh. I want to go to 1 star, but I feel like people would just pass over this and push off that its just an angry reviewer; rather than a review of substance. I think, though, ultimately the biggest reason its a disappointment, is because of how much promise Palahniuk once had, and how he kind of bounced back with Rant, but there's been just so many more misses than hits now. Its like watching Season 30 of Simpsons and remembering what Season 4 of Simpsons was like. Just sad.
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it just comes off as feebly pathetic and annoying.There's so little humor to be found in this 'satire'. There isn't a single interesting character. It all follows typical Palahniuk; develop gimmick, exploit gimmick to the point of exhaustion by end of book; write grotesque scenes for the sake of it - ones that couldn't really happen in real life; try to satire a singular theme (in this case - identity and identity politics) and beat the horse til its dead and rotten... and then beat it some more with said theme.
The theme of the identity politics is just so dumb in this. Not even plausible, even on a satire level. And I (think / hope / let's just say) - think - thats the point. That he is being absurdist for the sake of it. But it actually, comes off as weaker for it. You want absurdism that actually is relevant and written well and interesting and makes sense? Read Camus. Want satire that is well done, humorous, interesting, and intelligent? Read Orwell or Vonnegut.
Want a bad knock off of these things? Want a few scenes written to make you "squirm"? Want lame writing? Boring characters? Want a weak attempt to use the complexity that he once achieved with Fight Club by making a national Project Mayhem? Read Palahniuk.
Much of his 'philosophy' comes off as an angst ridden teenager, in 10th or 11th grade, learning who Nietzsche is. Reading his aphorisms from Beyond Good and Evil, thinking he has an understanding of how F'd up the world is and wants to let every adult know it. "Its not fair I might have to die!" "Why should younger generations be used by older generations?!" "Why should I be defined by my race or if I like men or women?" Yadda yadda yadda yadda.
This is just so long, boring, vapid, and utterly pointless. 316 pages, with no chapter breaks, very little spacing, bouncing narrative, a slew of characters that are so pointless you can barely even tell anything about them outside what "new nation" they live in, so then you know bare minimum their skin color and if they are gay or not, poor theme, poor writing, over use of this, over use of that, etc, its just so completely drawn out and boring, it nearly took me two years to read this. Save for a global pandemic where I was locked into my house basically, I don't think I'd manage to get through this. And thank god I got it from the library so I didn't drop a dime on this.
Ugh. Just ugh. I want to go to 1 star, but I feel like people would just pass over this and push off that its just an angry reviewer; rather than a review of substance. I think, though, ultimately the biggest reason its a disappointment, is because of how much promise Palahniuk once had, and how he kind of bounced back with Rant, but there's been just so many more misses than hits now. Its like watching Season 30 of Simpsons and remembering what Season 4 of Simpsons was like. Just sad.
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LibraryThing member jphamilton
Reading a novel by Palahniuk at this especially dark time in our history, cuts very close to an extremely bleak reality. But I pretty much knew where he was going to take me when I picked the book up. He’s an intelligent and close observer our times, one who then proceeds to stuff so much of the
While the plot is over-the-top, it sadly doesn’t seem inconceivable whatsoever. Separatists’ fantasies, conspiracies, and ancient political leaders using divisions between race, culture, sexual orientation, and class to change the structure of the nation are the baseline of this story.
Though it was tough to continually pick this book up, his writing always rewarded me with its inventiveness and humor, as he at the same time, heaped his bleak world all over me. Thankfully our current president will never read this novel (or most likely, ANY novel), as I never want him to consider some of the policies that were changing the fictious country contained within it.
I’m off to read a short story collection of a very different flavor, just to help myself to feel a little better.
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disconcerting aspects of our society into his books. Remember today’s bleak headlines, for in some future book of his, he could very well use that as a jumping off point for his fertile imagination. While the plot is over-the-top, it sadly doesn’t seem inconceivable whatsoever. Separatists’ fantasies, conspiracies, and ancient political leaders using divisions between race, culture, sexual orientation, and class to change the structure of the nation are the baseline of this story.
Though it was tough to continually pick this book up, his writing always rewarded me with its inventiveness and humor, as he at the same time, heaped his bleak world all over me. Thankfully our current president will never read this novel (or most likely, ANY novel), as I never want him to consider some of the policies that were changing the fictious country contained within it.
I’m off to read a short story collection of a very different flavor, just to help myself to feel a little better.
Show Less
LibraryThing member tduvally
I almost put this down a couple times because I couldn't figure out if it was satire or manifesto. Glad I stuck with it.
LibraryThing member tduvally
I almost put this down a couple times because I couldn't figure out if it was satire or manifesto. Glad I stuck with it.
LibraryThing member Paul_S
Starts like a dream and turns into a nightmare. It's equal opportunity satire. If flying pyramids don't make you laugh maybe you should take that stick out of your rectum.
LibraryThing member write-review
Yes, This Novel Is Insane
To some, this current populist revolt fueled by its underpinnings of anger, fear, and racism seems pretty chaotic, but it could be much worse; it could be like the aftermath of Adjustment Day, Chuck Palahniuk’s latest novel. Palahniuk is the kind of writer who seems to
The United States of America has reached an inflection point characterized by discontentment among the young, especially young men whom the government plans to send off to war as the tried and true historical way to maintain stability and reduce violence (youth bulge theory argued by German sociologist and economist Gunnar Heinsohn). But one old supposed rich man, Talbott Reynolds, has other thoughts, which he dictates to Walter Baines. Walter is a young man on the make looking for an easy, surefire way to sweep the love of his life Shasta off her feet and into his bed. He kidnaps Talbott, straps him to a chair, tortures him as a way to coerce the secrets of getting rich quick out of him. What Walter gets, transcribes, prints, and distributes is “Adjustment Day.” Also, Talbott has Walter start a website where people are encouraged to list people they believe should be killed. People at first regard it as a joke, but the list grows with certain people accumulating votes in the hundreds of thousands.
Once distributed, the book attracts a following of unhappy young men in three communities: white, black, and homosexual. The book acts to inspire, inflame, and inform these men on the way to get what they want, to overthrow the current regime and replace it with one based on daring do, brute strength, and the willingness to kill for what you want. Thus is born a brutal revolution in which these men kill the country’s leaders (in graphic detail). After, they establish a country according to the principles spelled out by Reynolds and dreamed of many Neo-Nazis nationwide.
Three states form: Caucasia, Blacktopia, and Gaysia. There follows a major shift in population, with each state going its own way. In Caucasia, the goal becomes producing lots of white babies while forsaking the gonad draining pursuit of technology. Blacktopia allows blacks to finally reveal their nearly mystical hidden talents that make a mockery of white technology (yes, it does sound like a Wakanda). Gaysia finally gives gays and lesbians the chance to live freely. Interestingly, Caucasia women serve both as serfs and baby makers. In Gaysia, they suffer the same fate via forced insemination in order to produce babies to trade for gays and lesbians held in Caucasia.
In the end, the primary characters, who are among the leaders, become disillusioned, wander into the hinterland, and met up in a commiserative party. In other words, the novel peters out. But until then it really is like a basement dweller hallucinating, amusing and offensive simultaneously.
Palahniuk dispenses with traditional chapters. The novel runs on from start to finish alternating among the main characters and states. It can at times be a bit hard to follow, but generally Palahniuk entertains with plenty of inane and often disturbing moments. Now, you might say, after reading the novel, the whole darn thing is inane, but then you’ll pause for a second and remember what all is going on around you at the moment, and you might think differently about it. On the order of other dystopian novels, like It Can’t Happen Here, but not nearly as logical and probable.
To some, this current populist revolt fueled by its underpinnings of anger, fear, and racism seems pretty chaotic, but it could be much worse; it could be like the aftermath of Adjustment Day, Chuck Palahniuk’s latest novel. Palahniuk is the kind of writer who seems to
Show More
enjoy splashing words on a page, and here he goes to the extreme of that by splattering words on the page, and in the first third of the book that means literally, down to describing in detail the putrefaction of a victim on the Adjustment Day overthrow. Ideal candidates for this novel are men under thirty who have wet dreams about blasting themselves to the pinnacle of power. It’s they who seize the reins of power by brutal force in these pages.The United States of America has reached an inflection point characterized by discontentment among the young, especially young men whom the government plans to send off to war as the tried and true historical way to maintain stability and reduce violence (youth bulge theory argued by German sociologist and economist Gunnar Heinsohn). But one old supposed rich man, Talbott Reynolds, has other thoughts, which he dictates to Walter Baines. Walter is a young man on the make looking for an easy, surefire way to sweep the love of his life Shasta off her feet and into his bed. He kidnaps Talbott, straps him to a chair, tortures him as a way to coerce the secrets of getting rich quick out of him. What Walter gets, transcribes, prints, and distributes is “Adjustment Day.” Also, Talbott has Walter start a website where people are encouraged to list people they believe should be killed. People at first regard it as a joke, but the list grows with certain people accumulating votes in the hundreds of thousands.
Once distributed, the book attracts a following of unhappy young men in three communities: white, black, and homosexual. The book acts to inspire, inflame, and inform these men on the way to get what they want, to overthrow the current regime and replace it with one based on daring do, brute strength, and the willingness to kill for what you want. Thus is born a brutal revolution in which these men kill the country’s leaders (in graphic detail). After, they establish a country according to the principles spelled out by Reynolds and dreamed of many Neo-Nazis nationwide.
Three states form: Caucasia, Blacktopia, and Gaysia. There follows a major shift in population, with each state going its own way. In Caucasia, the goal becomes producing lots of white babies while forsaking the gonad draining pursuit of technology. Blacktopia allows blacks to finally reveal their nearly mystical hidden talents that make a mockery of white technology (yes, it does sound like a Wakanda). Gaysia finally gives gays and lesbians the chance to live freely. Interestingly, Caucasia women serve both as serfs and baby makers. In Gaysia, they suffer the same fate via forced insemination in order to produce babies to trade for gays and lesbians held in Caucasia.
In the end, the primary characters, who are among the leaders, become disillusioned, wander into the hinterland, and met up in a commiserative party. In other words, the novel peters out. But until then it really is like a basement dweller hallucinating, amusing and offensive simultaneously.
Palahniuk dispenses with traditional chapters. The novel runs on from start to finish alternating among the main characters and states. It can at times be a bit hard to follow, but generally Palahniuk entertains with plenty of inane and often disturbing moments. Now, you might say, after reading the novel, the whole darn thing is inane, but then you’ll pause for a second and remember what all is going on around you at the moment, and you might think differently about it. On the order of other dystopian novels, like It Can’t Happen Here, but not nearly as logical and probable.
Show Less
LibraryThing member write-review
Yes, This Novel Is Insane
To some, this current populist revolt fueled by its underpinnings of anger, fear, and racism seems pretty chaotic, but it could be much worse; it could be like the aftermath of Adjustment Day, Chuck Palahniuk’s latest novel. Palahniuk is the kind of writer who seems to
The United States of America has reached an inflection point characterized by discontentment among the young, especially young men whom the government plans to send off to war as the tried and true historical way to maintain stability and reduce violence (youth bulge theory argued by German sociologist and economist Gunnar Heinsohn). But one old supposed rich man, Talbott Reynolds, has other thoughts, which he dictates to Walter Baines. Walter is a young man on the make looking for an easy, surefire way to sweep the love of his life Shasta off her feet and into his bed. He kidnaps Talbott, straps him to a chair, tortures him as a way to coerce the secrets of getting rich quick out of him. What Walter gets, transcribes, prints, and distributes is “Adjustment Day.” Also, Talbott has Walter start a website where people are encouraged to list people they believe should be killed. People at first regard it as a joke, but the list grows with certain people accumulating votes in the hundreds of thousands.
Once distributed, the book attracts a following of unhappy young men in three communities: white, black, and homosexual. The book acts to inspire, inflame, and inform these men on the way to get what they want, to overthrow the current regime and replace it with one based on daring do, brute strength, and the willingness to kill for what you want. Thus is born a brutal revolution in which these men kill the country’s leaders (in graphic detail). After, they establish a country according to the principles spelled out by Reynolds and dreamed of many Neo-Nazis nationwide.
Three states form: Caucasia, Blacktopia, and Gaysia. There follows a major shift in population, with each state going its own way. In Caucasia, the goal becomes producing lots of white babies while forsaking the gonad draining pursuit of technology. Blacktopia allows blacks to finally reveal their nearly mystical hidden talents that make a mockery of white technology (yes, it does sound like a Wakanda). Gaysia finally gives gays and lesbians the chance to live freely. Interestingly, Caucasia women serve both as serfs and baby makers. In Gaysia, they suffer the same fate via forced insemination in order to produce babies to trade for gays and lesbians held in Caucasia.
In the end, the primary characters, who are among the leaders, become disillusioned, wander into the hinterland, and met up in a commiserative party. In other words, the novel peters out. But until then it really is like a basement dweller hallucinating, amusing and offensive simultaneously.
Palahniuk dispenses with traditional chapters. The novel runs on from start to finish alternating among the main characters and states. It can at times be a bit hard to follow, but generally Palahniuk entertains with plenty of inane and often disturbing moments. Now, you might say, after reading the novel, the whole darn thing is inane, but then you’ll pause for a second and remember what all is going on around you at the moment, and you might think differently about it. On the order of other dystopian novels, like It Can’t Happen Here, but not nearly as logical and probable.
To some, this current populist revolt fueled by its underpinnings of anger, fear, and racism seems pretty chaotic, but it could be much worse; it could be like the aftermath of Adjustment Day, Chuck Palahniuk’s latest novel. Palahniuk is the kind of writer who seems to
Show More
enjoy splashing words on a page, and here he goes to the extreme of that by splattering words on the page, and in the first third of the book that means literally, down to describing in detail the putrefaction of a victim on the Adjustment Day overthrow. Ideal candidates for this novel are men under thirty who have wet dreams about blasting themselves to the pinnacle of power. It’s they who seize the reins of power by brutal force in these pages.The United States of America has reached an inflection point characterized by discontentment among the young, especially young men whom the government plans to send off to war as the tried and true historical way to maintain stability and reduce violence (youth bulge theory argued by German sociologist and economist Gunnar Heinsohn). But one old supposed rich man, Talbott Reynolds, has other thoughts, which he dictates to Walter Baines. Walter is a young man on the make looking for an easy, surefire way to sweep the love of his life Shasta off her feet and into his bed. He kidnaps Talbott, straps him to a chair, tortures him as a way to coerce the secrets of getting rich quick out of him. What Walter gets, transcribes, prints, and distributes is “Adjustment Day.” Also, Talbott has Walter start a website where people are encouraged to list people they believe should be killed. People at first regard it as a joke, but the list grows with certain people accumulating votes in the hundreds of thousands.
Once distributed, the book attracts a following of unhappy young men in three communities: white, black, and homosexual. The book acts to inspire, inflame, and inform these men on the way to get what they want, to overthrow the current regime and replace it with one based on daring do, brute strength, and the willingness to kill for what you want. Thus is born a brutal revolution in which these men kill the country’s leaders (in graphic detail). After, they establish a country according to the principles spelled out by Reynolds and dreamed of many Neo-Nazis nationwide.
Three states form: Caucasia, Blacktopia, and Gaysia. There follows a major shift in population, with each state going its own way. In Caucasia, the goal becomes producing lots of white babies while forsaking the gonad draining pursuit of technology. Blacktopia allows blacks to finally reveal their nearly mystical hidden talents that make a mockery of white technology (yes, it does sound like a Wakanda). Gaysia finally gives gays and lesbians the chance to live freely. Interestingly, Caucasia women serve both as serfs and baby makers. In Gaysia, they suffer the same fate via forced insemination in order to produce babies to trade for gays and lesbians held in Caucasia.
In the end, the primary characters, who are among the leaders, become disillusioned, wander into the hinterland, and met up in a commiserative party. In other words, the novel peters out. But until then it really is like a basement dweller hallucinating, amusing and offensive simultaneously.
Palahniuk dispenses with traditional chapters. The novel runs on from start to finish alternating among the main characters and states. It can at times be a bit hard to follow, but generally Palahniuk entertains with plenty of inane and often disturbing moments. Now, you might say, after reading the novel, the whole darn thing is inane, but then you’ll pause for a second and remember what all is going on around you at the moment, and you might think differently about it. On the order of other dystopian novels, like It Can’t Happen Here, but not nearly as logical and probable.
Show Less
LibraryThing member TanyaTomato
Serious slog
LibraryThing member RickGeissal
I read more than halfway and just did not see the value in continuing.
Original language
English
Original publication date
2018
Physical description
336 p.; 9.6 inches
ISBN
0393652599 / 9780393652598