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Damned

Life Is Short, Death Is Forever
Community comment are the opinions of contributing users. These comment do not represent the opinions of Pima County Public Library.
Jul 18, 2013the17pointscale rated this title 0.5 out of 5 stars
DAMNED has some dreadfully funny passages, the occasional bit of insight, enough nastiness to fulfill a lifetime quota, theological irony, plenty of narrative gaps, and a story line that seems silly and unrewarding. Palahniuk can write fine, but it doesn't take long here for his jokes to get stale, and in the absence of endearing characters or a clever plot, I felt less and less inclined to finish the book. DAMNED is certainly funnier than the Divine Comedy, but Palahniuk lacks the poetry, heart, and sophistication of a Dante Alighieri. And so I suggest this book to you if you're the kind of person who laughs at the grotesque and the paradoxical, especially if you keep laughing at some semblance of the same (funny) joke over and over again; if you have a hankering for literature that feels only partially spun, as if the writer cared more about being clever than snaring you with a good story; or if you're weighing your options, trying to decide whether to be naughty or nice, and want to gather some literary evidence about the afterlife, because clearly Palahniuk is a paragon of metaphysical insight.