Chuck Palahniuk: Haunted

Chuck Palahniuk first rose to prominence when Seven director David Fincher made a film of the Oregon author's explosive second novel Fight Club, which, despite initially bombing at the box office, has gone on to become one of the biggest cult movies of the past decade.

Curiously, none of Palahniuk's five other novels to date have been adapted for the big screen even though Lullaby, Survivor and Choke are equally as good as Fight Club and possess similar cinematic qualities.

Unfortunately, the perhaps too-prolific Palahniuk has trodden creative water of late and some of his more recent output, such as his last novel Diary, has not been nearly as impressive as his earlier efforts. However, Haunted is not only something of a departure for Palahniuk but also at least a partial return to form.

Subtitled A Novel of Stories, Haunted centres around a group of aspiring authors who embark upon a seemingly idyllic three-month creative writing retreat, which soon turns to hell when one of them is murdered. They then discover their insane patron, who believes such a horrific ordeal will inspire great art, has cut them off from the outside world.

Palahniuk draws some clever parallels with a similar gathering at Byron's Geneva villa in 1816, which led to the writing of several seminal literary works including Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

Haunted is divided into three separate narratives. The main story, poems about the various members of the group and short stories, sheds light on the background of the different characters, who adopt aliases such as Lady Baglady, Agent Tattletale and Saint Gut-Free, pseudonyms that are "based on our faults and crimes. The opposite of superhero names".

At first, the constant switching between narratives creates a disjointed effect and the 23 short stories are also of varying quality, with Foot Work by Mother Nature, which delves into the dark side of aromatherapy, and The Earl of Slander's Swan Song, which details a cynical journalist's bloody encounter with a former child star, ranking among the best.

However, Guts by Saint Gut-Free is likely to turn most people's stomachs and Miss America's insubstantial Green Room, which opens with the lines: "It's nothing personal when bombs explode," seems more unfortunate than timely after recent events in London.

The true strength of Haunted lies in its main story arc but as the characters' plight worsens and they descend into self-mutilation and cannibalism, the constant seguing away to the poems and short stories may prompt impatient readers to skip ahead.

Johnathan Cape
$36.95

* Stephen Jewell is an Auckland freelance writer.