Chuck Palahniuk, "Lullaby": reader reviews, critic reviews, plot and characters

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Reviews of Chuck Palahniuk's "Lullaby" should be of interest to all admirers of this author's talent. This novel was first published in 2002 and has since become one of his most famous works. This article will describe the summary of the book, characters, reviews of critics and readers' reviews.

Storyline

Reviews of "Lullaby" by Chuck Palahniuk are very different. As a rule, fans of this author's work are delighted with the book. At the same time, he also has enough opponents who do not miss the opportunity to criticize her.

Summary of "Lullaby" by Chuck Palahniuk will allow you to quickly recall the main details of this work. The story begins with an introduction to the main character. This is journalist Carl Streitor. His focus is Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, which he begins to investigate. Interestingly, this is a real-life medical problem whensudden death in all signs of a he althy newborn from respiratory arrest. This occurs before the age of one year. However, the autopsy does not allow to determine the exact cause of death. Sometimes even doctors call this syndrome "death in the cradle", since no symptoms precede it, and death often overtakes a person in a dream.

There are cases when parents of their children were given out for the syndrome of sudden infant death, when this happened intentionally or unintentionally. Criminals passed off this event as death of unknown causes, and doctors misdiagnosed SIDS. In America, there were high-profile cases when up to five murders of their own children were passed off as this syndrome. A second SIDS death in the same family is now suspect, with a third improbable.

The Mystery of Infant Death

Streitor in Chuck Palahniuk's novel "Lullaby" is interested in the sudden death of children in their own beds or even in the arms of their parents for no apparent reason. The reporter manages to find out that they all die after they are read an old African lullaby from a collection called "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, they were also said over the wounded soldiers and the hopelessly ill, so that they would die quickly and without torment. It turns out that the song is still effective. They die from itordinary passers-by who prevent the reporter from walking down the street, his editor, a neighbor upstairs, who constantly made noise.

Cunning Re altor

The second protagonist of Palahniuk's "Lullaby" is real estate agent Helen Hoover Boyle, who is also aware of the existence of this spell and has already used it several times, pursuing her own goals and motives.

When you get to know a woman more closely, she reveals a large number of amazing oddities. In this, she resembles almost all the practical and at the same time monstrous heroes of Palahniuk. For example, Boyle specializes in selling homes that are haunted or haunted. It even acquires the exclusive right to deal with them. It turns out that this is an extremely profitable venture, as the owners of such buildings change every few months.

In addition, Boyle constantly visits shops that sell antique furniture, unscrewing any metal and shiny parts from them, such as handles. With them, she enthusiastically scratches varnished surfaces. As a result, she manages to purchase furniture at a much lower price, regardless of its age and value. She then recreates it by combining it with the missing pieces.

Police doctor

Telling the summary of "Lullaby" by Chuck Palahniuk, it is necessary to mention the police doctor Nash. He is an 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 perverse intimacy withattractive fashion models. All the heroes of Palahniuk's "Lullaby" are distinguished by the fact that they use this powerful and ancient text for their own mercenary purposes, in contrast to how it was used by the African tribes. Those read it only in exceptional cases, when it was really necessary to alleviate the fate of a person.

If you have ever read "Lullaby" by Chuck Palahniuk, a brief summary will help you quickly recall the denouement of this unique work of the author. Boyle, along with Streitor, Helen Mona's secretary 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 "Rhymes".

The ultimate goal for them is to enter the main book, from where the lullaby was originally written off. It's called Grimoire. And everyone in the book "Lullaby" by Chuck Palahniuk has its own goal. Streitor plans to destroy it, Boyle with her help is going to doom omnipotence and resurrect his son, who was once killed by this very lullaby. Oyster and Mona planned to turn into a new Adam and Eve, who will settle on the modern sinful earth.

In the finale of Chuck Palahniuk's "Lullaby", by using a spell to control another's body, which was discovered in the "Grimoire", Oyster manages to take possession of Helen, whom he inflicts injuries incompatible with life. Streator reads over her that same lullaby to put her out of her misery. When she dies, her mind moves topolice officer, Irish by nationality, using a special spell.

It is noteworthy that in parallel with the main plot, another line develops, which describes the events that take place after the end of the main story. In it, Straitor, along with an Irish policeman, who is called Sergeant, lead the pursuit of Oyster and Mona, who use magic for their own purposes.

Critic Reviews

In general, critics positively assessed Palahniuk's next novel "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 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 Carl thought about himself, they would be a step towards an epic work.

He considered mysticism through the prism of the aesthetics of death, which was transformed in the context of real life. This formed a cult of obscurity and uncertainty, omissions and errors. When such phenomena arise, a transformation of reality occurs. At the same time, the author himself clearly indicates the ongoing deformation. This is indicated by a quote from "Lullaby" by Chuck Palahniuk.

Magic is the conversion of the necessary energy to achieve natural shifts.

At the same time, certain ideals and values make Palahniukwonder why people are being killed, if not to save lives. The same goes for the books that were burned because of the lullaby.

Professional critics have noted that a frequent and popular technique that the author constantly uses in the novel is self-quoting. Due to this, a multi-level composition of the text of the work is created with the help of plot and stylistic repetitions, phrases that constantly sound like a refrain, a kind of "roll call". Literally in each chapter, the author provides the reader with various newspaper advertisements that are formulated in surprisingly the same way. Here is one of them:

If your dog, bought from this farm, is found to have rabies, call and join with others who are similarly affected 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 meaning for key characters. The multi-level text is also manifested in the fact that even in the full version of "Lullaby" by Chuck Palahniuk, the scene or the direct process of the murder is never described. The main character only says that the lure song sounds in his head, and then hears complete silence in the receiver.

Reviews

In reviews of "Lullaby" by Chuck Palahniuk, readers leave mostly conflicting opinions. Of course, the books of this author often amaze the imagination,causing many to simply 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 admit that this is a very difficult novel, in which at first such a large number of deaths frightens, especially when innocent babies become victims. Particularly striking is the ease with which the heroes begin to decide who will live and who will die, when this deadly weapon is in their hands in the form of a lullaby that is only 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 ladies' novel. The narration itself is less violent, but at the same time more elegant, ironic and original. The impeccable performance and the original plot clearly demonstrate the imperfection of the world around us, as well as humanity, which is busy destroying itself.

Negative

At the same time, it is possible to meet quite a lot of negative reviews about "Lullaby" by Chuck Palahniuk. Readers complain that the novel is perceived very hard, it turns out to be very difficult to wade through the ornate author's style. I even have to force myself to finish reading, despite the fact that the work captivates.

It has become frankly unpleasant for some to look at the world through the eyes of Palahniuk, since 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", for many this is extremelyhard to comprehend.

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 his grandparents at their ranch, where they raised cattle.

In 1986, Palahniuk graduated from the journalism department of the University of Oregon. Soon after, he moved to Portland, where he began reporting for a local paper. He then briefly worked as a diesel mechanic for America's largest truck and tractor company, Freightliner. In parallel, he wrote training manuals in which he told how to repair trucks, continued to engage in journalism. In 1988, he unexpectedly left this profession after attending a seminar for a company that offered personal development programs.

It is noteworthy that the future writer constantly strived to ensure that his life became something more than just a job. To achieve this goal, he volunteered at a hospice and homeless shelter, bringing terminally ill patients to support group meetings where they met people with similar problems. This work of his is reflected in the most famous novel "Fight Club", where the main characters attend such meetings to get emotional release.

Unique style

In the literary world, Palahniuk is valued for his uniqueauthor's style. Common features and style of criticism were noted in all his works that preceded the "Lullaby". In them, the main characters became characters who, for one reason or another, society rejected and did not accept. As a result, this often ended in a manifestation of strong aggression aimed at self-destruction.

Palahniuk himself called this style "transgressive prose". In addition, in all the works the author touches on issues that are important for contemporary society. He changed his attitude to this approach after the events in the United States on September 11, 2001, when a lot of controversy and discussion began to appear around this topic. After that, Palahniuk began to approach the topics that he dared to raise more subtly.

Starting from the novel "Lullaby", its style changes radically. Since then, his works have become similar to satirical horror stories. Often in Palahniuk's books, 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 conventional narrative that is intertwined with a story that begins at the chronological end.

At the very end of his novels, there are often significant deviations from the main plot, which in one way or another are connected with the chronological finale.

Criticism

Many actively criticize Palahniuk, calling himshock 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 due to the way the characters behave.

Many professional literary critics often have reasonable doubts about the appropriateness of the so-called journalistic stakes in his works. Palahniuk himself claims that he considers such a form to be as convenient as possible for the reader to perceive, moreover, she intends to present a fictional story in such a form as if it happened in reality. Finally, all this allows you to experiment with the structure of the work itself, significantly reducing it, placing things side by side that are completely incompatible at first glance.

Palanic is often accused of being nihilistic, although he himself claims to be an ineradicable romantic. Finally, reviewers feel that the imaginary worlds he creates bear little resemblance to those in which the vast majority of his readers live. The world of Palahniuk is as dark, sophisticated and shocking as possible.

In his unhe althy interest in pathologies, many see the usual misunderstanding of the norm. In addition, it is much easier to write about pathologies, it is unimaginably more difficult to describe an interesting layman with all his daily mechanisms.

Summing up a peculiar result, most critics assure that Palahniuk's novels are designed, first of all, for a new generation. These works can terrify parents, people with weak nerves are generally not recommended to read them. They are also badinfluence those who perceive too close to the heart the events that occur with the heroes of the work, since these incidents are too harsh and caustic, and often simply outrageous. Observers are also surprised by the seriousness with which Palahniuk describes things that are unimaginably difficult to imagine in modern society. Lullaby is no exception in this regard.