final post (in a separate post woohoo)

Comment on the perspective from which the book is told and how the
author’s choice affects your relationship with the book’s content.


The narration and re-telling of the strange and disgusting events that take place in Palahniuk's book, Haunted, are told in a form that allows the reader to get inside the brains of the characters and of Palahniuk. Palahniuk plays the role of a nonexistent single character that knows everything that all of the other characters know, but nothing more. He narrates using "we" rather than "I," giving the reader a sense that the book is the recollection of events compiled by all the information on the writer's retreat that the writers can recall. "We eat turkey Tetrazzini while Lady Baglady toys with her diamond ring"(40).
Along with Palahniuk playing the role of all of the characters, each chapter consists of the following: a section from the "we" point of view that contains the plotline and actual story of what is happening at the writer's convention, a poem that is about a single character "Miss America onstage, her blond hair coils and spirals, /billows and looms,/to make her face look as small as possible"(46), and then a short story about (and by) that single character. This style gives insight into each character's history and is where the majority of characterization takes place, which is very useful, seeing as there are many different characters with different nicknames.
Palahniuk also has very interesting descriptions and his phrasing is so interesting and suspenseful, I have trouble putting down the book. His comments are hilariously disgusting and disturbing "She wiggles what's left of her hands, and says, 'I don't have the fingers I need.' Her fingers are just stubs and knuckles. Only her index fingers are left for dialing telephones after she's famous"(172).
I thoroughly enjoy the style of writing that Palahniuk has decided to engage in this book, because it gives the reader a sense of knowing exactly what the characters know, and it makes the book ten times more interesting.