Lullaby - Softcover

Palahniuk, Chuck

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0385722192 ISBN 13: 9780385722193

Publisher: Anchor, 2002

Synopsis

Ever heard of a culling song? It’s a lullaby sung in Africa to give a painless death to the old or infirm. The lyrics of a culling song kill, whether spoken or even just thought. You can find one on page 27 of Poems and Rhymes from Around the World, an anthology that is sitting on the shelves of libraries across the country, waiting to be picked up by unsuspecting readers.

Reporter Carl Streator discovers the song’s lethal nature while researching Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, and before he knows it, he’s reciting the poem to anyone who bothers him. As the body count rises, Streator glimpses the potential catastrophe if someone truly malicious finds out about the song. The only answer is to find and destroy every copy of the book in the country. Accompanied by a shady real-estate agent, her Wiccan assistant, and the assistant’s truly annoying ecoterrorist boyfriend, Streator begins a desperate cross-country quest to put the culling song to rest.

Written with a style and imagination that could only come from Chuck Palahniuk, Lullaby is the latest outrage from one of our most exciting writers at work today.

About this title

Review:

The consequences of media saturation are the basis for an urban nightmare in Lullaby, Chuck Palahniuk's darkly comic and often dazzling thriller. Assigned to write a series of feature articles investigating SIDS, troubled newspaper reporter Carl Streator begins to notice a pattern among the cases he encounters: each child was read the same poem prior to his or her death. His research and a tip from a necrophilic paramedic lead him to Helen Hoover Boyle, a real estate agent who sells "distressed" (demonized) homes, assured of their instant turnover. Boyle and Streator have both lost children to "crib death," and she confirms Streator's suspicions: the poem is an ancient lullaby or "culling song" that is lethal if spoken--or even thought--in a victim's direction. The misanthropic Streator, now armed with a deadly and uncontrollably catchy tune, goes on a minor killing spree until he recognizes his crimes and the song's devastating potential. Lullaby then turns into something of a road trip narrative, with Streator, Boyle, her empty-headed Wiccan secretary Mona, and Mona's vigilante boyfriend Oyster setting out across the U.S. to track down and destroy all copies of the poem.

In his previous works, including the cult favorite Fight Club, Palahniuk has demonstrated a fondness for making statements about the condition of humanity, and he uses Lullaby like a blunt object to repeatedly overstate his generally dim view. Such dogmatic venom undermines the persuasiveness of his thesis about mass communication and free will, but thankfully, Palahniuk offers some respite here by allowing for sympathy and love, as well as through his razor-sharp humor, such as his mock listings for Helen's possessed properties: "six bedrooms, four baths, pine-paneled entryway, and blood running down the kitchen walls...." At such moments, Lullaby casts a powerful spell. --Ross Doll

From the Back Cover:

“A story so eccentric and complex that you begin to understand why Palahniuk's literature is a breed all its own.” —USA Today

“Mr. Palahniuk further refines his ability to create parables that are as substantial as they are off-the-wall.” —The New York Times

“That most rambunctious of American novelists, Chuck Palahniuk, is at it again. . . . There's so much comic energy, so much manic imagination, so much satirical fire on display.” —Newsday

“Dark riffing on modernity is the reason people read Palahniuk. His books are not so much novels as jagged fables, cautionary tales about the creeping peril represented by almost everything.” —Time

“Genius-on-sixteen-different-levels . . . constantly surprising, disturbingly funny . . . Genuinely subversive.” —BookForum

“Among sick puppies, Palahniuk is the top dog. . . . A unique talent.” —People

“More twisted than a sack of pretzels and edgier than an octagon, Chuck Palahniuk has pumped out another memorable read. . . This is his best yet.” —Playboy

“Few writers this side of Kurt Vonnegut can summon up the intensity and precision to control such a blackly humorous situation. . . . Palahniuk is proving to be an accessible and ambitious writer of fables from the culture wars.” —St. Petersburg Times

“Palahniuk conjures grief, confusion, mystery and fear from the unlikeliest sources . . . [and] teases amusement form the darkest corners of our culture.” —The Sunday Oregonian

“By turns disturbing, creepy, sweet, sad, horrible and exquisite. . . . A harrowing and hilarious glimpse into the future of civilization.” —Minneapolis Star-Tribune

“[Palahniuk] knows how to spin whacked-out stories particular to our times. . . . Employs a playfully perverse wit and a good eye for repellent details.” —The Seattle Times

“Twisted and nihilistic . . . The novel packs a dark comic wallop.” —Daily News

“A darkly twisted yarn. . . Palahniuk has succeeded in crafting a story that is taut and compelling, insightful and scathing, deeply disturbing and deeply disturbed.” —CNN.com

“Deliriously rich in ideas and entertaining in its stream-of-consciousness riffing.” —Book

“Outrageous, darkly comic fun.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred)

“This is vintage Palahniuk: weird, creepy, twisted, upsetting, and ultimately a great read.”—Library Journal

About this edition

• Publisher: Anchor
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0385722192
• ISBN 13: 9780385722193
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272