Chuck Palahniuk has taken his readers to many places: the warehouse headquarters of a homegrown terrorist organization; the backseat of a cross-country drug and cross-dressing scandal; the sleazy backroom studio that creates “adult” films. But until his recent novel Damned, Palahniuk chose only to write about concrete settings. He’s never ventured into speculative territory like Hell for the setting of one of his stories. It’s new territory for him and it’s great.
The story’s heroine, Madison, is only thirteen when she finds herself in Hell. As it turns out, the extreme views of Evangelicals and Southern Baptists were all true, making Madison’s pot smoking a mortal sin. At first, Madison is in a rusty cage like other prisoners of Hell, but she soon discovers a way to escape that starts her on a journey through the underworld and ends, of all things, to a transformation in Madison herself. She finds new strength and confidence in hopelessness, and uses it like a weapon to the end (which, admittedly, is “to be continued”).
Palahniuk does a great job of painting a Hell we all can find eternally grotesque and torturous. For example, the landscapes are a patchwork of naturally discarded materials from mortal mankind, things like toenail clippings and scabs and other unsavory things. Palahniuk also creates rules for Hades, and a currency from those candies nobody likes on Earth, even employment opportunities through the exciting and expanding field of telemarketing. It’s all so gleefully hideous and believable.
I gobbled this book up, but then, I love Chuck Palahniuk. His writing is clear and descriptive. It contains a definite pulse as he uses themes and certain phrases to tell his story. I feel like every word has weight and meaning. My only trouble was the continuing aspect of Damned. I’m used to Palahniuk’s novels building to a wonderful crescendo that ties everything together by the end, and the continuing element to this story cut that effect short. But that just makes the wait for the sequel all the more difficult. Check out the website for Chuck Palahniuk called “The Cult” in the links below.
