Rant
The Oral Biography of Buster Casey
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4.5 • 184 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Buster “Rant” Casey just may be the most efficient serial killer of our time. A high school rebel, Rant Casey escapes from his small town home for the big city where he becomes the leader of an urban demolition derby called Party Crashing. Rant Casey will die a spectacular highway death, after which his friends gather the testimony needed to build an oral history of his short, violent life. With hilarity, horror, and blazing insight, Rant is a mind-bending vision of the future, as only Chuck Palahniuk could ever imagine.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Buster Casey, destined to live fast, die young and murder as many people as he can, is the rotten seed at the core of Palahniuk's comically nasty eighth novel (after Haunted; Lullaby; Diary; etc.). Set in a future where urbanites are segregated by strict curfews into Daytimers and Nighttimers, the narrative unfolds as an oral history comprising contradictory accounts from people who knew Buster. These include childhood friends horrified by the boy's macabre behavior (getting snakes, scorpions and spiders to bite him and induce instant erections; repeatedly infecting himself with rabies), policemen and doctors who had dealings with the rabies "superspreader"; and Party Crashers, thrill-seeking Nighttimers who turn city streets into demolition derby arenas. After liberally infecting his hometown peers with rabies, Buster hits the big city and takes up with the Party Crashers. A series of deaths lead to a police investigation of Buster (long-since known as "Rant" the sound children make while vomiting) that peaks just as Buster apparently commits suicide in a blaze of car-crash glory. This dark religious parable (there's even a resurrection) from the master of grotesque excess may not attract new readers, but it will delight old ones.
Customer Reviews
End: Mind blowing
I don't even know what's real anymore...
You won't put it down
Its interesting that this world makes much more sense after reading any given Chuck P book. His literary gift is mesmerizing and prompts even the most avid reader to step-up the pace!
"Rant" pulls references from medicine to plagues, etymology to anthropology; even the book itself resembles the Bible in symbolism and style. I would be hard pressed to find another author who could match the same caliber of writing as Chuck has done in "Rant".
Nihilism at its best!
Ok people BEFORE YOU BUY Chuck Palahniuks’ books and trash them cause you “don’t get it” or whatever (PLEASE PAUSE ) then take the time to look up the definition of Nihilistic. If that doesn’t sound like your cup of tea then You Will Hate This Author!
In my humble opinion I love his narrative often sophomoric sense of humor and the fact that you really don’t know where he’s gonna take you. I just buckle up and go on the ride with him and love most of his work. Are there some books I don’t love? Yeah, a couple of them missed the mark with me but I still have them in my collection.
I guess you are either a Friend Of Chuck or you aren’t. This is one of my top 5 favorite books by Palahniuk along with Choke, Fight Club, Diary (remix) & Haunted. Keep em coming you brilliantly insane master!