Chuck Palahniuk

This is the guy who wrote Fight Club, which of course made him an instant millionaire because it was made into a crap movie starring Brad Pitt. But don’t let a major motion picture stand between you and a delightful new author. Palahniuk is one of those hip celebrity writers who deserves the attention, if only because he manages to write serious and satiric hardcovers that are easier to read than a cereal box. Which of course doesn’t necessarily guarantee staying power. (Calling Mark Leyner? Hello? Dude, where are you?) Easy to read, sure, but also effortlessly capturing elements of the zeitgeist in which we live. Palahniuk specializes in misanthropic young men who come up with ingenious rip-off schemes and slacker strategies, eventually careening into surreal parallel realities. After Fight Club, he penned Survivor and Choke—essentially sequels with completely different characters and situations. A unified body of work or a one-trick pony? Longterm player or a passing fad? Prolific because dangerously forgettable? Decide for yourself at this local reading—that is if you can stop laughing with this expert black humorist who operates in the style of Vonnegut, Coupland, and Easton-Ellis. Ruminator Books, (651) 699-0587, ruminator.com