When Brandy Alexander met Hewlett Packard (Invisible Monsters - Chuck Palahniuk)

Member Name: MykReeve

Product:	Invisible Monsters - Chuck Palahniuk
Date:	01/03/01 (1847 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very well written story, excellent plot, powerful message

Disadvantages: Perhaps a little too short...

'Invisible Monsters' is another of Chuck Palahniuk's post-'Fight Club' novels, recently reprinted by Vintage Press. In Palahniuk's agent's words, where 'Fight Club' is "hyper macho", 'Invisible Monsters' is "hyper-camp", and this is a pretty reasonable description. Where the cast of 'Fight Club' are almost entirely male, the main characters of 'Invisible Monsters' are female, and where the former is aggressive direct prose, the latter is more indirect, reminiscent of fashion magazines. In fact, Palahniuk says that he wrote a draft of the book several years before its publication, while sitting round in laundromats reading the only magazines available – fashion rags like Vogue.

THE PLOT

The main character of 'Invisible Monsters' is not referred to by name until the very end of the book. I'm unclear as to exactly why this is, because its ultimate revelation doesn't really affect the story, however, since Palahniuk keeps it a secret, I will too. She, the narrator, was a successful model, regularly doing television infomercials, and photo-shoots for fashion magazines. Was, that is, before she lost her good looks, and her jawbone, in a drive-by shooting. The shooting not only shatters her looks, but also her life, turning her from the centre of attention into an "invisible monster".

During her time in hospital, the narrator meets Brandy Alexander, who is undergoing a series of major operations at the hospital and, like the jawless narrator, undertaking substantial speech therapy. After a depressing first trip out of the hospital, the narrator turns to Brandy for help, and Brandy assists her with some rather unconventional rehabilitation.

The narrator also has to resolve some conflicts with her best friend Evie Cottrell, a fellow model, who stole her boyfriend from her, following the shooting, and ends up hitting the road with
her kidnapped ex-boyfriend, Manus, and Brandy.

As the book begins, several months after the "accident", the narrator is at Evie Cottrell's wedding reception, and Evie's happy day has gone somewhat awry. The narrator stands at the bottom of a staircase, alongside the recently-shot body of Brandy Alexander, looking up at the smoking rifle held by Evie, as the building burns around the three of them. How on Earth did this situation come about?

THE BOOK

Palahniuk's writing is, as ever, absolutely superb. The story has been planned out meticulously, and is written in a spectacularly non-linear style. The narrator skips around in the story of how the situation at the beginning of the book came about, detailing events before the accident, as well as those after it. Although this sounds complicated and difficult to follow, Palahniuk's writing is brilliant throughout, providing just enough information to let you know where you are in the chronology of the book without sacrificing the pacing.

We learn all about the narrator's late gay brother, who died of AIDS a few years previous, after being thrown out of their home by their domineering father after contracting gonorrhoea, through the narrator's comfortless visits home. You remember how uncomfortable it was when your parents first talked to you about sex? Well, in 'Invisible Monsters', every visit home for the narrator is several times worse, as her parents remind her of her brother's death. Thanksgiving dinner is spoilt when the narrator comments that the tablecloth looks new... it was to be her brother's panel on the AIDS memorial quilt, but her parents couldn't decide which colours to use. "With gay stuff you have to be so careful since everything means something in secret code", explains the narrator's father, before launching into an awkward dinner table discussion of numerous homosexual practices. Christmas is rui
ned when the narrator receives numerous boxes of condoms from her parents, and then spends much of the afternoon "practising" on bananas.

Jump to the possibilities plastic surgery offers to the narrator after her accident, and the years of painful and painstaking operations that would be involved.

Jump to Brandy, Manus and the narrator bingeing on drugs collected from the homes of the recently deceased while visiting with estate agents.

Jump to the narrator's experiences as a model before the accident.
Give me original.
Flash.
Give me well-researched.
Flash.
Give me a supremely intelligent narrative.

Yes, Palahniuk has again produced a supremely fascinating book. There's less obvious drive to the plot of 'Invisible Monsters' than there is in either 'Survivor' or 'Fight Club', and this means that the earlier sections of the book are considerably slower paced than those of either of these books. Nonetheless, it's not long into the book, before there are hints at the first relevation, and once you reach that point in the book, there's no stopping you. You have to read on, to find out if you've jumped to the right conclusion, and it's at that point that Palahniuk hits you with another amazing twist.

The best thing about 'Invisible Monsters' as far as I was concerned, was that there were so many twists, and the characters were interconnected in such unexpected and cleverly revealed ways, that there was no way I could possibly have guessed them all. The book is also constructed in such a way that despite the confusingly non-linear way that the events are presented to the reader, Palahniuk is careful not to reveal more at any particular point in the story than he wants you to know. Not only that, but the rate of revelations accelerates as you proceed through the book, with more unexpected twists than any book I've ever read.

There
are the usual attacks on popular culture by Palahniuk. The whole book is an obvious satire on the superficiality of the fashion world, but in addition to this, there are relentless attacks on television and unrealistically proportioned children's dolls. After being so horribly mutilated by the shooting, the narrator begins to realise that her 'culturally invisible' new face gives her more power, in that people become afraid of even acknowledging her presence, rather than just automatically focusing on her the whole time. Just who is an "invisible monster" after all? The disfigured girl that society trips over itself trying to avoid, or the stunningly attractive girl that everyone notices, but no one listens to?

CONCLUSIONS

'Invisible Monsters' is another stunningly good read by Chuck Palahniuk, and every bit the equal of 'Survivor'. The plot itself is outstandingly good, and is accompanied by an extremely powerful message about the superficiality of modern culture, and our increasing obsession with physical appearance. There are some excellent moments of supremely dark humour, alongside some sobering descriptions of the gruesome practicalities of plastic surgery. Well worth a look.

Summary: