Summer Readin' VI

While I was gone for the two weeks I ended up reading three books, two which were amazing and one that was absolutely awful. Here they are:

In Cold Blood - Truman Capote

This is the book that defined Capote's career, and would end up being his last novel, for writing it nearly destroyed him psychologically and resulted in serious alcoholism. After reading it and realizing the painstaking amount of research that must have gone into it, its easy to see why. Its the reconstruction of the events surrounding the murder of a farming family of Kansas in 1959, with their trial and inprisonment going well into the 1960s. Capote delves deeply into the minds of the killers, the mind-set of the town after the murders, and the repercussions the case had in the area. The result is a gripping non-fiction thriller that was impossible to put down.

Animal Farm - George Orwell.

Written between 1943 and 1944 during the height of WWII, Orwell's satire of how power corrupts even the noblest of causes still holds true today. Clearly a reference to Communism and how it doesn't work, the novel takes place on a farm where the animals take it over, ousting the owner that they see as evil. At the beginning everything goes well, but as things start to develop, a small ruthless elite among the animals begin to take control of the farm, things start to deteriorate, and nothing is what it seems. A must-read.

Snuff - Chuck Palahniuk.

Where to even start with this piece of trash? The story revolves around an aging pornstar that is trying to break the world-fuck record, by banging 600 dudes on film. Its told through the perspectives of Mr. 600, Mr. 127, Mr. 72, and Sheila, the pornstars personal assistant. It weaves in and out of their perspectives, giving us an idea behind their motives of being at the gangbang. Its an extremely strange novel, and usually with me, the stranger the better. But this book seems like its being as strange as possible, just for the sake of being strange. I've come to conclude that I really don't like Palaniuks writing, after also reading Fight Club. Its a disgusting book (and I loved American Psycho), that really holds no redeeming quality. Maybe I'm taking the book too seriously, as its clearly meant to be a dark comedy about human suffering, but I just didn't enjoy one page. Don't read it.