Julia

end of an era, wrex hangs up her skates

June 7, 2018

This past weekend I traveled to the Seattle area with my parents and much of our immediate family to see our baby sister skate her final roller derby tournament. It was a great and wild time, a memory-making bonanza to say the least, and an emotional milestone too. The end of an era.

I’ll write soon about the funny stuff. Today, I want to commemorate Gen’s career. On Sunday as we drove to a late lunch just before her final bout, she indulged me in a casual interview. The weight and beauty of her answers blew me away.

Some Basic Facts About Roller Derby

Modern women’s roller derby began as a grassroots movement in Texas in early 2000 and continued to Arizona and the Los Angeles area shortly thereafter.
The sport is not yet a viable money-making industry like it aims to be, but it is also no longer the underground “fishnet subculture” that most people remember from the seventies. (Drinking and smoking before skating is no longer allowed, for example.)
(But there are sometimes barfights, not that I have any scandalous details.)
It’s a “pay to play” team sport and not a cheap one. Gen mentioned monthly dues of $50-$100, expensive skates ($600-$700 per pair, plus wheels), several hundred dollars more in miscellaneous gear, plus travel costs to participate in bouts and tournaments. These are rarely and then only barely offset by league funds.
It’s time-consuming, too. Weekly practices add up to 4-6 hours, plus mandatory volunteering, and lots of travel throughout the year. The women who participate are dedicated and passionate.
Juniors are girls ages 7-17. Women are 18+, though when Gen started the cut-off age was 21.
Some women stay on their skates well into their forties and fifties. The average age for active skating seems to be late-twenties through mid-thirties.
It’s sexy, but it’s not about sex. (I added that part because this is my blog.)

Gen’s Story

Gen’s first exposure to roller derby was in November 2009. She was a young woman, a self-sufficient, hard-working college grad, living alone in downtown Los Angeles. In an active phase of self-discovery, she walked around talking to people, making friends and seeing the world with her own eyes. One night she met some Los Angeles Derby Dolls in a bar. They invited her to an upcoming bout, and immediately upon witnessing the live event Gen thought, “I have to do THAT!”

Having played various sports all her life, including weightlifting, volleyball, basketball, T-ball, soccer, swimming, and lots of track and field, Gen was already a well-established athlete. But this sport had a new appeal. She liked that it was “faster and rougher than sports most girls got to play.” She was drawn to it, and she pursued it.

Her first tryout for LADD was January 2010, but she had unwittingly fitted her skates with outdoor wheels. The spongier, stickier material kept her from stopping fully on the indoor track, so she did not make the team. (I remember her acute disappointment at this time, as well as her determination to get it right. Looking back now, realizing how fresh the interest was for her then, puts into perspective what an impact that first exposure must have made.)

Gen took lessons to develop her basic skating skills (Derby por Vida), practiced for a few months, and replaced her wheels. In March 2010 she tried out again and made the “Fresh Meat” team! Two other women, Julia and Marit, made that same team, and the three of them would become lifelong friends.

Fresh Meat, 8 years later, after an exhilarating win on Saturday.

“Wreckonomic Stimulus, #787 Billion”

Always clever, often a little naughty, and a key ingredient to the sport’s entertainment value, skate names are just plain cool. Sometimes they are bestowed on a skater by her peers; other times she chooses an edgy moniker herself. Either way, the new identity is sacred. In my sister’s case, she chose her own name from a brainstormed list of 30 or 40 possibilities. The final choice is exceedingly clever and could not be more perfect for her.

“Wreckonomic Stimulus” is a nod to Gen’s finance-based education and profession in accounting, together with the recent history (at that time) of the 2007 stock market crash and subsequent and much-debated government bailout. Plus, wreck, for all the derby violence, ha! Her actual jersey number is #787 billion, to denote the amount of the bailout. And yes, when the announcers call her name they also provide her number and take the time to say the word “billion,” haha! So funny!

On some of her skate shorts is emblazoned the nickname WREX, which is her full skate name abbreviated to honor our Grandpa Rex. I wish I had been there to see his face when she told him! No doubt he loved that so much and gave a good belly laugh.

Derby Wife!

Once Gen and Julia (aka “Infinite Pest,” happy nod to the mythical David Foster Wallace tome, because Julia is the coolest bibliophile you’ll ever meet!) had been friends and teammates for a while, Gen decided to propose derby marriage. In derby, having a close and dedicated ally for all the work and travel and much needed moral support, for all the ups and downs, helps tremendously. Having a partner would be indispensable, I think. These women take “buddy system” to a whole new level.

Their engagement story is fun. Gen and Julia were at a bar watching a key baseball game (baseball is Julia’s favorite spectator sport). Gen chose a particularly adrenaline-soaked moment for her big ask, and Julia answered in the affirmative but with what amounted to a mildly annoyed brush-off. “Yeah, yeah… Ok, yes!”

Welcome to marriage, ladies, ha! A small deflation perhaps, but still a yes and a memory made, certainly still a tight bond.

Worth noting is that the very next day at a scrimmaging practice, Gen broke her ankle so badly it required surgery to install metal plates on her leg bones. Julia was there for her derby-wife-to-be in every conceivable way, and she has been there ever since, leading right up to this past weekend. She has become part our Dunaway family, too. We love her for loving our girl, and we love her for being herself.

At an emotional moment during the final bout on Sunday, I glanced to my right to smile at Julia and saw her crying stoically. And later I saw my parents clinging to her, too, and it made me ache with joy. (Julia are we sisters? Say yes.)

It is clear to anyone paying attention that Wrex and Pesty, though both now retired, will continue to be Derby Wives and best friends for many decades. Probably all of the decades. May we all manage to cultivate that kind of friendship.

Gen’s first bout as a new recruit would have been in October 2010, but for that injury. She would suffer another break again in April 2012, a bit higher on her ankle, requiring a second surgery. Both were traumatic and painful events, but she healed beautifully and seems to cope well with lingering pain.

After recovering from that first surgery, Gen was drafted to the LA Sirens, a home team of LA Derby Dolls. It was a cop-themed group who wore navy blue uniforms. I asked Gen about her favorite outfits through the years. She mentioned liking writing on her shorts but not so much wearing tights. “They hurt your knees when you kneel down.”

All Star!

Then in October 2014, Wrex was drafted to an All-Star team, the Los Angeles Ri-Ettes! (Ask me sometime how I realized the correct way to pronounce the team name.) This is a huge accomplishment, and I remember clearly hearing the news back then. Everyone here was freaking out with pride and excitement for her. The Ri-Ettes are a standout group of athletes, and she had come so far in so few years.

In 2017, Gen was named MVP of Battle on the Bank, the national championship tournament. Amazing, really, especially now to have seen firsthand what it is like on the banked track. Brutal, high energy, relentless isometric strength, precision control, and speed on top of it all.

This past weekend in Seattle, the Ri-Ettes secured their seventh consecutive win for Battle on the Bank. They were apparently so confident in their continued winning streak that they left the traveling trophy at home. That, I have to say, is badass.

During awards and announcements, when it was clear the trophy had been left back in LA, a man standing near me in the bleachers muttered not quietly, “Well that was cocky.” Ha!

Beyond the Bank

I asked Gen what derby has meant to her, knowing it’s much more than a chosen sport, but really a surrogate family. She was eager to share:

It’s awesome. On the whole, it’s an accepting group, (open to) all kinds of women. You make friends with women who you wouldn’t have met otherwise. And body positivity!”

Gen expounded on this a lot, on the inclusive nature of their female network. And you see it at the bouts: Bodies of all shapes and sizes, personalities exhibiting every possible beautiful aesthetic, everyone working and playing hard alongside each other. The women seem mostly un-self-conscious and sometimes deliciously arrogant. It’s a lot of fun to just be in that atmosphere. And Gen’s energy swelled as she shared her feelings. She described the last eight years, what she has learned and how derby has nourished her.

What is teaches you most? Be the woman YOU are. Not the one people tell you to be.

Amen, sister.

Saying Goodbye

Even the best life chapters eventually run their course. But Wrex’s decision to step away from derby seems to feel good for her. While satisfying in so many ways, the year-round time commitment had become too much. She is ready to focus more on her new job without feeling guilty, and she has some other new projects in mind, too. But she is hardly just dropping out.

In eight years she has experienced serious injuries and recovery, with everything that accompanies both. She has developed herself athletically form a young woman who bought the wrong wheels for her skates into the Most Valuable Player in the national arena, plus team co-captain and more. She is a prized and clearly well-respected player, loved by not just her own teammates but by everyone in the derby community at large. Seeing her in her element, listening to people cheer for her, and reading hundreds of comments from her friends and colleagues about the impact she has made, it all gives me chills.

Gen has cultivated friendships that already exceed the bounds of this sport where the women all first found each other.

She is going out on top of her game, with a full heart.

As our Sunday afternoon interview closed up, I asked my sister how she was feeling on the day of her last skating event. Peering through the rain-streaked windshield, she eased the rental car into the right-hand exit lane, shrugged her muscular shoulder and replied, “So far I’m just excited.” Her voice was energetic but calm. We were all on our way to eat a traditional pre-skate meal of Hawaiian BBQ.

They won that evening, by a thrilling landslide, and there was much screaming and crying. I can’t even describe it all.

Then on Wednesday, she posted a heartfelt retirement announcement on Facebook, and when she and I spoke on the phone a few hours later, I asked again how she was feeling. She was more emotional this time, understandably, with the weekend’s fanfare and adrenaline quieted. She acknowledged that derby will leave a hole in her life but quickly added that she feels lucky to still be close to so many of the women. And, thankfully, she was having no doubts about her decision, even in the midst of some sadness.

With her permission, I’m sharing a snippet of her beautifully written message:

I made several lifelong friends on this team and got to test my leadership skills. I also skated with the LA Ri-Ettes for 4 seasons, which included 4 successful trips to BOTB (Battle on the Bank, National Championships). This team pushed me to my absolute derby best and taught me what dedication looks like, what it can do, and what it can cost.

Roller derby helped me figure out who I am, what I’m capable of, what matters to me. I am so glad that I found it when I did.

What’s Next for our own Personal Wonder Woman?

She said she looking forward to more running (yay!!) and some travel with friends and family.

She might finally get some refreshing proper medical attention, too, ha! Apparently, when a skater sees a doctor for injuries or ailments, she is required to bring the doctor’s clearance before skating again, and that clearance is likely cumbersome if not actually difficult to obtain, so plenty of “little things” just get tolerated for long periods of time. They just rub some dirt on it and walk it off, you know? So let’s all send her some good, healthy vibes and hope that she sees a chiropractor and acupuncturist soon, plus maybe a masseuse. She has earned it!

Thank you, Wrex, my beautiful sister, for answering these questions and sharing your heart. Thank you for inviting us to this special weekend. You are amazing in every way, and I love you even more than the day you appeared in the back seat of the Subaru.

Friends, thanks for reading! Check in again soon for more stories from Seattle.

“You Guys She’s Jamming!!!”
~All of us screaming in the bleachers,
as she took the track
just before the last play
of her final bout.
XOXOXOXO

reading plan 2016

December 28, 2015

How many books could you read in a year, and still keep your life in balance? What alchemy of books would you choose, to both challenge and comfort your mind and nourish your spirit as well as season your own writing? These are good questions to ask at the end of December, knowing that several weeks of cold weather and indoor cuddling lie ahead.

The owner of local book store Full Circle Books is known to read at least four brand new titles each week, while still running a successful business. My friend Melissa holds down a full time job, takes care of her parents and dogs, stays active socially, and last year read 85 books. Wow! I don’t know what the average is, but that sounds high.

This coming year I will pull away from Dinner Club With a Reading Problem and instead spend time reading my own lists of titles at my pwn pace. I am looking again at my “Want to Read” shelf on Goodreads to see what has slipped my memory. Plenty, to answer that question in a word. 289 books teasing my imagination, and that list is nowhere near complete.

So how to strategize? Here is my plan for the New Year:

Twelve months, 36 books. That should be totally achievable and leave space for spontaneous finds along the way.

Four Difficult Books:
I am thinking along the lines of Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. One of these every quarter is fair, right? Maybe Don Quixote will happen after all. Not that the material of either of these is difficult; but the reading is awfully tedious. Also in the “difficult” category, though, would be The Shack by William Young. I read about 80% of it several years ago and stopped because of what was happening in my life at that time. Maybe now I can read it with wiser eyes, a stronger heart.

One Fiction Per Month: Easy-peasy. Talented authors abound. Fiction is what I want to write myself soon, so overdosing on a variety of styles is good. Plus so much fun.

One Non-Fiction Per Month: Lots of great choices out there. I love my friend Jennifer’s idea of going on a memoir safari and might diverge a bit on this theme. There are also, of course, so many great books out there on the creative process, lots of history, inspirational stuff, and on and on. Twelve non-fiction pieces should be almost automatic.

Something Translated to English: I recently listened to a Ted talk by Ann Morgan, who decided to expand her literary repertoire by spending a full year reading books from all around the globe, nothing written by British or North American authors. Totally inspirational. Check out her related blog A Year of Reading the World. With the exception of the first part of Don Quixote and a smattering of Greek mythology, I am pretty sure I have only read English literature, always. This shows great room for improvement.

Best Seller: I just want to hip and stylish, is that so wrong?

Rare Bird Lit: This is the publishing house in California where my friend Julia works. She has generously sent me a stack of books by several of her authors, and I have enjoyed every single one I have read so far, some more than others. This year I will dig into that stack again.

New to Me Classic: It’s embarrassing how many widely accepted classics are foreign to me. Need to fix this.

Classic Re-Read: I can’t stop thinking of Nathaniel Hawthorne for some reason. Maybe because our perspective changes so much over time, and my tenth grade prejudices while reading The Scarlet Letter must surely have evolved by now. Gotta find out. No promises, though; another classic encore may suddenly seem way more important.

Summertime Guilty Pleasures: Three months of deck living calls for at least three guilty pleasure reads. Not sad about this plan.

f5f books lace

Okay, this is where my literary appetite is as of late December. I love the look and feel of a fresh, clean calendar, and knowing I have a year to explore this many different kinds of books is very exciting. What are your literary goals for 2016? Are you on Goodreads? I’d love to stalk you there.

“A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.”
~Chinese proverb
XOXOXOXO

Book Review: Inside Passage

May 18, 2013

Yo, friends. Have you, like me, been reading heavy stuff for months on end? Are you nourished, edified, and inspired, from the inside out, but at the same time feeling a bit threadbare around your sweet little bibliophile eyeballs? Have you enjoyed the snuggly winter and then the tumultuous springtime, and now are you perhaps in need of a big gulp of summertime reading pleasure? I mean, it is summer now, right? Yes, yes it is. Okay, then. I have a great book for you.

Just last night I was very happy to polish off a relatively new title by Burt Weissbourd called Inside Passage. Released last year by Rare Bird Lit, ***hi there sweet Julia!*** this novel of only 282 pages is part thriller, part mystery, and all suspense, human psychology, and natural beauty. Weissbrourd has added several healthy doses of sexy in there, too, so please don’t hand this over to your teenager when you’re done. Or your Mom. Trust me.

We once took my Mom to see Superbad. In the theater. On the big screen. Not cool.

That’s a weird story. Let’s get back to the book review.

Set in the gorgeous and foreign-to-me Pacific Northwest, Inside Passage is no long winded epic, a fact I greatly appreciated after the reading that’s been going on here lately. No, Inside Passage follows a short time line of tense and dangerous interactions between characters who hook you from the first introduction. A woman, Corey Logan, is fighting both for her life and for a life lived safely with her teenage son, who is trying to make sense of it all while going through every normal teenage boy experience. Together with allies they collect along the way, this strong but desperate mother and son duo is battling a powerful and vengeful man and all of those under his influence. Monstrous people.

Another woman and her son are involved, too. This woman proves herself to be desperate like Corey, but in wildly different ways. The family dynamics and insights to human behavior had me reeling several times. It’s all juicy, fascinating stuff, and it is written with a light enough hand that the reader is drawn in but never exhausted. I really liked that. I need to learn how to write like that. How to speak like that. Think like that.

I exhaust my own self is what I’m trying to say.

Weissbourd writes efficiently, packing each paragraph with several cleanly written, informative sentences; yet his descriptions are luscious. At times I could feel the cold, salty ocean spray and smell salmon being grilled over a beach bonfire.

Somehow this part of the world keeps cropping up in things I read.

It all sounds incredibly beautiful, and I hope to visit someday.

I definitely felt invested in the characters, the “good” ones, and repulsed by the “bad” ones. In fact, these dark characters rank in my opinion with some of Koontz’s and King’s worst imaginaries. Given more stage time, they could become cult characters themselves.

I had not read anything by this author before, and ***TINY SPOILER ALERT*** apparently this is part of a series of books centered around a main character, the heroine Corey Logan. I only gave you that spoiler alert in case it would ruin any suspense for you regarding that character’s longevity. Trust me, no matter what you think you know about the outcome, and that fact doesn’t tell you much, the book is so much fun to read. Pick it up and dive in. Surrender yourself to each setting, each detail. Get inside the head of each fascinating character and work out the intricacies yourself, following the swell of action page after page. It’s quite good.

I would like to thank Julia for offering me this fun and succulent read. I would like to thank the author Burt Weissbourd for writing it. And I hope many of my friends give it a go. Good stuff you guys! Really tightly written and fast paced. Lots of action, lots of insight. If you need a reprieve, you’ll like this.

Over and out.

xoxoxo

You Take it From Here (Book Review)

July 30, 2012

Having just returned from six days in New Orleans, I have three and a half thousand beautiful stories to share with you guys. I really should have been writing constantly all week long to keep up with the inspiration, and in fact I was scribbling things on hotel stationery every day, but I had almost no internet and was too busy enjoying the magic of the French Quarter and my Handsome guy anyway.

Tonight, instead of Nawlins stuff, I just finished another VEEEERRRY interesting book and have a review to share. Got a few minutes?

http://pamie.com/books/you-take-it-from-here/

Another generous gift from Julia, my most recent selection has been You Take it From Here by Pamela Ribon. It’s a new release, and I actually get butterflies in my stomach to realize that as I read these 311 pages, most of it at home floating on our 97-degree pool filled with dragon flies, Ms. Ribon was touring the south talking to her fans about her newest novel.

One of these days I will finish a book in time to catch its author on tour somewhere and, while snagging an autograph, find time to discuss the original literature at length with its creator. I would really liked to meet Pamela Ribon in particular. She relays through her writing a lot of warmth and empathy that I think would be perfectly delicious in person.

Okay, the book.

I liked it a whole lot. I actually like it more and more as it sits in my Creole-stuffed belly, and I expect to want to read it again and also share it with friends and family. It seems to belong to a genre I would not normally say is among my favorite (chic lit maybe?), but that doesn’t matter one bit.

You Take it From Here is immediately engaging, infuriatingly truthful, and wildly thought provoking about big, heavy topics. It weaves together maternal abandonment, cancer, coming of age, divorce, friendship, romance, and more. Ribon effortlessly juggles the weight of so many important themes at once that I am stunned to accept this as fiction. The wanna-be writer inside me kept thinking, Only real life could be so complex and yet so accurate, it’s just crazy how she orchestrated this much at once. Pamela Ribon, you have my respect. I found it very easy to relax into your story and let it flow over me.

Reading this book’s teaser might tell you what it’s about technically, but only by devouring the actual story cover to cover can you experience all the author wants to give you. Just for fun, though, a sample:

On the heels of a divorce, all Danielle Meyers wants is her annual vacation

with sassy, life-long best friend, Smidge — complete with umbrella cocktails by an infinity pool —

but instead she’s hit with the curveball of a lifetime.

Smidge takes Danielle to the middle of nowhere to reveal a diagnosis of terminal cancer,

followed by an unusual request: “After I’m gone, I want you to finish the job.

Marry my husband. Raise my daughter. I’m gonna teach you to how to be Smidge 2.0.”

I strongly suggest that you read this book if you fall into any of these categories:

You have ever had a best girlfriend you loved more than a sister, who might even compete with your husband for space in your heart.
You are a child of divorce.
You have lost anyone to cancer, but especially a parent, and even more importantly your mother.
You have left your hometown for a new life but feel that gravitational pull to return even though you are an independent grown up. Especially if the town you left is in the south.
You have ever fallen in lust before falling in love, with the same man.
You are SICK of being bossed around by strong willed, controlling, arrogant women.
You are a strong willed, controlling, arrogant woman yourself. (I admit to hating Smidge right at her introduction, and I was actually relieved when she was soon to be no longer hurting and controlling her friends and family. I know, I am an awful person. But Ribon wrote a terribly difficult character, and I wonder is she maybe intended her readers to detest this cancer patient so we could let go more easily.)
You are raising a teen aged daughter who is closer to adulthood than you would like.
You are a woman. Mother, daughter, sister, friend, any of it.

There is something in here for all of us, ladies, and I hope you give it a few days of your life. I hope you encourage someone you love to read it, too, so you can discuss the emotional tide that will inevitably happen.

Thank you for sending the book, sweet Julia! And thanks ever so much for writing it, Pamela. I am much better than pleasantly surprised by a new genre; I feel good all over. Just warmed and challenged and inspired to appreciate my health better; to see things from other viewpoints more often; and to love my people more deeply. Reading has, once again, enriched my life. Just as it should.

Read Outside Your Zone
xoxoxo

Craving a Smart but Twisted Read? (Book Review of Survivor)

June 30, 2012

Holding my breath and sandwiched sideways between book club projects and an ever growing Goodreads list, I have rebelled and spent the last few days peeled away from the crowd. Devouring an offbeat novel all by myself, with nobody’s permission and nobody’s company. What has been at the center of my papery affair?

Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club

This feels so sneaky, except that I am neither alone nor terribly original. This book was loaned to me by our very youngest book clubber, Mysti. Also, its author Chuck Palahniuk, creator of a little thing called Fight Club, comes highly recommended by Julia.

Ignoring these facts, I have for a few days been pretending to be an independent, free thinking reader. My ego takes what it can get.

Most of you know Julia by now. She is my baby sister’s ten-four good buddy and my west coast literary mentor. Julia is the shiz-nay. You should read my two-part interview with her here and here. She is a cool chic with a fascinating job.

Survivor has been a trippy read, you guys. When Mysti handed it over to me in secret at the end of a particularly crowded book club dinner, she touted it as “a little twisted,” and now I see why. So the question is, does having thoroughly enjoyed this book make me a little twisted? Cast your vote in the comments, please.

********************

Survivor grabbed me with the first sentence and has since then confused me, made me chuckle, made me wonder about so many social and religious themes, and inspired some fastidious house cleaning in the most literal, physical sense. (The main character is a housekeeper by trade.)

I definitely recommend this book, though with a few caveats: Potential readers should know that a major theme of the story is suicide and that for the most part it is handled with unemotional casualness. Dark humor, certainly. The story’s sexuality could be perceived as perverse by some people, too. Finally, its religious commentary is, well, not flattering to most of the Christian community. That is sometimes uncomfortable for people, so head’s up gentle reader.

The author’s message is somewhere behind and betwixt all of that, though. I was able to glean from these 289 pages (listed in reverse, by the way, another strange delight) a lot of positive energy and worthwhile thinking then even laugh and pretend to be really smart for a few days.

“Still, just dawning on him is the idea

that now anything is possible.

Now he wants everything…

After moments like this,

your whole life is gravy.”

That quote is chalkboard worthy.

Honestly, telling you what this book is about is a bit tricky. The storytelling and flavor are unconventional for sure. I know I say that a lot, but today I really mean it. The speaker jumps from present tense action to internal commentary with little warning and even less dialogue punctuation, all the while telling his own life story and keeping a myriad of story lines and character developments taut and interesting. I loved it. I may have been cringing through about a third of the pages, but I still loved it. The laughing more than made up for it.

Palahniuk manages to wrangle so many controversial and agitating topics at once that for the first half of the book I was constantly guessing what he wanted me to care about most. Religious cultism, extreme materialism, media machinery and our new culture of attention addiction, psychobabble diagnosis obsessions (perhaps all cults unto themselves), and more. While he prompts plenty of self analysis, I gradually learned to stop forming opinions, mostly because nobody asked. That seemed to be a message unto itself: Mass movements are bad, you guys. Think for yourself but please keep your opinions to yourself. Live your own life.

Through one unanticipated misadventure after another, Palahniuk pokes fun at serious stuff. He makes almost sarcastic remarks on society by building his plot in ridiculous, exaggerated ways, and by inserting just enough realism to make it all believable. Then suddenly the controversial and agitating topics are so well braided together that I saw how the story would have been incomplete without any of them. And then a moment later the story has ended. Just like that. I was so frothed up by the final chapter that I had to block the remaining paragraphs with my hands, forcing myself to only read one line at a time, as slowly as possible. I was in a panic about the ending and would have been happy for the story to continue a wile longer.

The characters of the book are as offbeat as the book itself and provide gritty, sometimes uncomfortable texture to the weird story. I found myself rooting for everybody at one time or another, only barely understanding each of them. Is this guy messing with us? Did I just fall for a big literary practical joke? Don’t care. Loved it.

********************

Rumor has it that Julia just might be able to get this dorky girl (yours truly) an interview with Chuck Palahniuk. I already have a million questions, but I am pretty sure he’ll be rolling his eyes because I missed something big. This novel is so layered with implication that I wonder if even its creator gets all of it. It would make either a fascinating or a devastating springboard for friendly debate.

Read Survivor. Keep track of how often you cringe or laugh out loud. And get back with me. I need to talk about this in exhaustive detail.

Be Weird and Accidentally Brilliant,
and Keep Reading!
xoxoxoxo

Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

WOW. Proper review on my blog, The Lazy W:

http://thelazyw.blogspot.com/2012/06/…

View all my reviews

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