Palahniuk’s inventiveness in describing and skewering aspects of American life makes the novel enjoyable. Unrequited love for his host family’s daughter whom he calls Cat Sister (the father is Cow Father, the mother is Chicken Mother, and the brother Pig Dog Brother, which gives you idea of the novel’s tone), this unrequited love undoes him, or does him, if you’re of that mindset. Seen through his eyes, life here gets exposed for its absurdity. Chief among the group of adolescent terrorists is “agent number 67.” He relates the story of their arrival, their training, the purpose of their mission, and he in particular their take on various aspects of American life, which he approaches as a decadent society busy destroying the world. However, they come over on a mission, code name Operation Havoc. The idea, of course, is to inculcate them with American and Christian values. by an evangelical church in a Midwestern city as exchange students. When the novel begins, they have just become teenagers and have been brought to the U.S.A. Spock attitude), those who revel in over the top humor will appreciate it.Ī nameless nation that feels like North Korea and ISIS rolled into one has trained almost from birth an elite core of terrorists. While it will probably not be to everybody’s liking, especially those who dislike reading dialect (here a stylized Engrish with a distinct Mr. Palahniuk’s novel is all of these things, and maybe a bit more.

There was a time when we called an idea like Pygmy high camp, meaning a whole conglomeration of things, exaggerated, vulgar, ostentatious, and the like. Chuck Palahniuk casts a jaundiced eye on and takes a highly satirical pen to American life, and in the end American life wins out, sort of.

Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk