Damned; Life is Short. Death is Forever

New York, N.Y.: Anchor Books, 2012. First Anchor Books Edition [stated]. First printing [stated]. Trade paperback. Very good. [8], 247, [1] pages. The book contains XXXVIII chapters. Charles Michael Palahniuk (born February 21, 1962) is an American freelance journalist and novelist who describes his work as transgressional fiction. He is the author of the award-winning novel Fight Club, which also was made into a film of the same name. Palahniuk began writing fiction in his mid-30s. By his account, he started writing while attending workshops for writers that were hosted by Tom Spanbauer, which he attended to meet new friends. Spanbauer largely inspired Palahniuk's minimalistic writing style. The content of Palahniuk's works has been described as nihilistic. Palahniuk has rejected this label, stating that he is a romantic, and that his works are mistakenly seen as nihilistic because they express ideas that others do not believe in. Palahniuk's descriptions of hell are inspired, crafted with great comic flair. This is a dark, hilarious, and brilliant satire about adolescence, Hell, and the Devil. Madison is the thirteen-year-old daughter of a narcissistic film star and a billionaire. Abandoned at her Swiss boarding school for Christmas, she dies over the holiday, presumably of a marijuana overdose. The last thing she remembers is getting into a town car and falling asleep. Then she's waking up in Hell. Literally. Madison soon finds herself sharing a cell with a motley crew of young sinners: a cheerleader, a jock, a nerd, and a punk rocker, all united by their doomed fate, like a Breakfast Club of the damned. Together they form an odd coalition and march across the unspeakable landscape of Hell--full of used diapers, dandruff, WiFi blackout spots, evil historical figures, and one horrific call center--to confront the Devil himself. Derived from a Kirkus review: As the provocative novelist probably intended, reading this book is hell. Through 11 previous novels, the author has continued to mix edgy humor with sharp social commentary while flirting with taboo. Its narrator is 13-year-old Madison—who tries her best to keep secret her full name: Madison Desert Flower Rosa Parks Coyote Trickster Spencer. She has the voice of a typical teenage girl, one who is precocious and a little overweight. But she is dead. And her parents are obviously patterned on Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, whose relentless self-promotion includes a series of high-profile adoptions, and who do their best to keep their daughter stuck in time, well short of puberty. Or did, because now that Madison is dead, she is beyond their reach—in hell. Telemarketing comes from hell. So does porn. It has rivers and lakes of bodily secretions. It spawned TV and the Internet. It is remarkably easy to become consigned there, making the reader wonder what might possibly be required to gain entry into heaven. Madison is there because of a fatal marijuana overdose, or at least that's what she says at the start. Almost all lawyers, journalists and celebrities are there. Each of the 38 short chapters begins, with a nod toward Judy Blume: "Are you there, Satan? It's me, Madison." The novel sustains a consistency of narrative voice and climaxes at the end with a power play, identity transformation and O. Henry-ish twist, followed by the most frightening of all possible promises: "To be continued...".