Quirky Jobs

I just finished reading Chuck Palahniuk's novel, Lullaby (in two days' time, which is the fastest I've read a book in a while).

I'm not a huge fan of the Palahniuk I'd read prior to this book -- which was mainly short stories and pieces of Haunted and Fight Club -- but Lullaby was very interesting. If there's one thing the author does well, it's finding the weirdest and most obscure vocations possible for his protagonists. In this novel, one of the main characters, Helen, sells and re-sells haunted houses. She essentially makes a double commission once the original buyers realize they have to get the hell out of the house soon after their purchase. Another character does nothing but place newspaper ads that say things like "Patrons of the Fancy Schmancy Steak House ... have you developed an anus-deteriorating fungus after eating a rib-eye steak at this establishment? If so, please call the number below to be part of a class-action lawsuit." The accusations in these ads are generally not true, but the high-profile businesses are usually willing to pay him off to drop the ad and make the bad publicity go away.

I always like characters that have unusual jobs, particularly in Palahniuk's books. The author's extensive research shines through and gives the reader a real idea of what these people do and how they do it, and the circumstances they live in usually spur along some strange events in the plot. You get a really great feel for the underbelly of humanity.

On a more general note, I really enjoyed Lullaby. As with most of Palahniuk's work, the characters and events were off the beaten path, but there was also a nice bit of sadness and human emotion running through the story, in seeing how people cope with the loss of a child. Also, the usual socio-political commentary was in place, and Palahniuk had a lot of smart things to say about the free flow of information we live with in today's culture and how it may not be such a great thing.

These info-aholics. These learn-ophobics.