Head Dress Tattoo blog

On August 28, 2008, my favorite book will become a movie. Well, to call it my favorite book might not be the best word choice, since others ring in my head and heart more frequently and loudly. Chuck Palahniuk’s Choke was recommended to me in the summer of 2005 by a random acquaintance on MySpace. Up to that point, I had only heard the author’s name in reference to Fight Club, since his 1996 novel was the foundation of David Fincher’s 1999 film of the same name, starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton.

Essentially, Choke was the fifth book that I ever read for pleasure and by my own choice. The first four were the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Kerouac’s On The Road. Having just graduated from college and cowering under the threat of the real world, I turned to Choke for shelter. And holy geze, did I need shelter. Leaving MSU inspired severe reminiscences of childbirth trauma. I found myself in a state of extreme cynicism, anger, and hopelessness. Choke was my guidebook.

So to see that Palahniuk’s 2004 novel about a medical-school-drop-out-turned-swindling-sex-addict will be made into a film made me very excited. This will only be the second time that I’ve read a book before the corresponding film came out (The LOTR trilogy was the first). To read that the film will star Sam Rockwell, Angelica Huston, and Brad Henke (who was a supporting male in Me and You and Everyone We Know, one of my new favorite movies) also made me giddy, since I can easily picture those actors in their chosen roles.

But seeing a clip from the film gives me mixed feelings. Don’t worry. I’m not some sort of book snob who wishes I had the story to myself. I think it’s one of the first great stories of this post-Y2K generation, and a direct continuation of many concepts presented in Fight Club. While I enjoyed the book Fight Club, I thought the movie adaptation was almost superior in its presentation of the plot. But in Choke, Palahniuk wrote with a very cinematic style, where the chapters even resembled scenes in a movie. I’m wondering if the film will add to the story’s value (as was the case with Fight Club) or detract from it (as is the case with most book-to-film adaptations). At least the movie was made independently, for something like $4 million.

Link:
IMDB
Chuck Palahniuk

A clip from the movie, where Victor Mancini visits a sex addict workshop.