Review: Rant

It
would certainly take multiple readings to fully digest the dense and
complex ideas presented in “RANT:
AN ORAL BIOGRAPHY OF BUSTER CASEY”, Chuck
Palahniuk’s latest exploration into the depravity of
the human condition but having only read it once, I’ll say this
– it’s a helluva ride!

He
once again explores the nature of celebrity but by framing the
narrative in the form of an oral biography, he further explores the
nature of memory. We never get to meet the titular Buster” Rant”
Casey. We only hear about him through disjointed accounts of his
life from a few of his close friends, a few childhood acquaintances,
a few impartial third parties and his mother. We have to judge for
ourselves to what extent the stories and anecdotes told about him
are true and thus form our own opinion of who he was. We have to
separate the fact from fiction, as it were.

Basically,
we’re the ones who have to get to the truth. Which is essentially
what Rant’s life and seemingly the overall theme of the book is
– finding the truth: the truth of who we really are and how
others’ perception of us affects that, the truth of moments that
make life more tangible, the truth of isolated events that shape the
path our lives take and even the truth of reality itself.

In
Rant’s case, the truth starts with Rabies.

Born
into a world where prejudice exists meteorologically such that the
ruling Daytimer class live in constant fear of the seedy Nighttimer
underclass, where traditional cinematic entertainment becomes
obsolete in lieu of “boosted peaks” wherein entertainment
experiences are siphoned from others and beamed directly into
one’s mind, where traffic accidents are described in vivid,
graphic detail and where an urban demolition derby known as “Party
Crashing” is the favoured pastime of the Nighttimer underclass,
Rant Casey only ever wanted to experience something real, something
true.

Rant’s
quest to experience a tangible reality begins in his hometown of
Middleton where he relishes being covered in animal bites and where
he incites two separate movements – The Tooth Fairy Economic
Inflation Movement and The Erection Revolution. The former he does
by exchanging teeth for early American gold coins and the latter by
exposing the medical risks of insect-bite-induced priapism. Perhaps
it’s a result of surviving countless animal bites, perhaps he’s
born with it or perhaps he wills himself to it as he willed the two
movements but he becomes a carrier of a particularly vicious strain
of the Rabies virus and after causing a mini-epidemic in his
hometown, he moves to the city where his spreading of the virus, his
apparent suicide driving off a cliff in a fiery blaze and his
possibly tapping into the transcendental power of Party Crashing to
travel through time and essentially reincarnate all conflux to
establish a legacy that’s part fact, part fiction but all
exceptionally entertaining.

While
Palahniuk packs plenty of his patented morbidness into the book,
he’s pushed himself even further by layering religious themes,
themes of immortality and even a sprinkle of science fiction into an
alternative narrative form that paints as vivid (or grotesque
depending on your point of view) a picture of the life of the near
mythical Buster Casey as any traditional narrative. If you’re a
fan of Palahniuk, this shouldn’t disappoint. If you’re not a
fan, try this one on for size. You may just be a convert.

For
more on the book, check out its OFFICIAL
SITE.