Books: Choke

Chuck Palahniuk's Choke ** - Victor Mancini lives in a sick and twisted place: the real world.  A troubled childhood relationship with his mother, he finds himself in a situation of dropping out of medical school, taking a job set in the past, and choking to death regularly to fund her private care.  Dementia, delirium, addiction, obsessions, religion, past, and future come into play.  Just the writing - words and sentences alone; there are some memorable, classic, and brilliant sentences he puts on the written page.  A unique and wonderful writing style.  This is a difficult read though.  It's a page-turner in the weirdest way, because I couldn't figure out why it was a page-turner.  It's an odd feeling rooting for the protagonist who is essentially a bastard who happens to be likeable.  Very harsh thoughts and coarse descriptions; I hope it's the character I hated at times and not the author.  I put the book down and felt uneasy.  But I should have expected that.  The first line of the book reads as follows: "If you're going to read this, don't bother."