Book Review: Damned by Chuck Palahniuk

8:17 PM

Original title: Damned

Author: Chuck Palahniuk

Year of Publication: 2011

Number of pages: 247 [Trade paperback]

Available in: English, Russian, German, Italian, Polish, Czech.

I read it in: English

“To my parents, death existed merely as the logical, albeit extreme, result of not adequately exfoliating your skin. […] And please, if you’re still in denial, eating low-sodium, heart-healthy skinless chicken breasts and feeling all self-righteous as you jog on a treadmill, don’t pretend you’re any more realistic than my loopy parents.”

Madison Spencer is 13 years old when she dies (allegedly) of marijuana overdose, ending up in a cell in Hell where she meets other young sinners: a cheerleader, a nerd, a punk and a jock, with whom she goes through meadows of clipped nails, blood rivers, lakes of hot saliva and seas of sperm, getting a job as a telemarketer while she tries to discover why she’s in hell, deal with being dead and confront Satan himself, whom her –alive and very rich parents always told her didn’t exist.

Throughout the book, Madison narrates her present life in Hell starting every chapter with an “Are you there, Satan? It’s me, Madison”, Judy Blume-like, describing a Hell in which even the pettiest of offences can condemn you to a life between demons that feed on you, with only two job options and all the waste of the sinners that are still walking on earth, meeting characters like Hitler, The Lizard King, Catherine de Medici and Charles Darwin; she also talks about her past life, filled with privilege, in which she was raised by a movie star and a billionaire who believed earnestly (in their own strange and selfish way) in recycling, reincarnation, organic food and adopting needy children for short periods of time.

First of all we have to consider that the book is narrated by a 13 year old teenager with self-esteem issues and a great intelligence, characteristics of her personality that are well represented in the narrations of her prowess through Hell. If we take this into consideration it won’t be hard to understand her constant need to prove herself superior to the reader and, basically, everyone. The secondary characters bring a variety of personalities to the table, as decadent as Hell itself, but quite realistic, even if their only purpose is to help Madison to finally meet Satan and… whatever she thinks of in between. Palahniuk’s narrative includes critics to materialism, celebrity culture and other social problems alike, but it never ceases to be just a book for when you want to read something fast, fun and ingenious, and you have the availability to read bizarre passages written from the perspective of a sarcastic and cynical pre-teen. This is my first Palahniuk and even though I enjoyed reading him, I would much rather read other of his titles like Fight Club, than the sequel of this book, Doomed, that was published in 2013.