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Arts & Culture

Cult Favorite Chuck Palahniuk Talks About His New Novel Pygmy

Cult Favorite Chuck Palahniuk Talks About His New Novel Pygmy
Chuck Palahniuk's tenth novel is a biting cultural satire narrated by Pygmy, a 13-year-old terrorist who has infiltrated the US disguised as a foreign exchange student. Written as a series of dispatches from Pygmy, the prose doesn't follow grammatical rules or sentence structure, but includes Palahniuk's propensity to push the boundaries.

Maureen Cavanaugh: A very angry 13-year old foreign-exchange student who is really a "whack-bang" deadly foreign operative from a totalitarian state finds himself imbedded with a Midwestern host family. There he thinks about and commits aggressively violent acts, including an unspecified terrorism plot - all while writing a diary in broken English.

Sounds a little like a Chuck Palahniuk novel. Actually, it is a Chuck Palahniuk novel. The author who developed a cult following with his first novel Fight Club is now out with his tenth book called Pygmy. It employs an experimental writing style, some deeply disturbing material and a sharp satirical edge. Writer Chuck Palahniuk is on the line with us this morning, to talk about his new book Pygmy.

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Guest:

Chuck Palahniuk is the author of 10 novels, including his latest, which is titled Pygmy. His novels Fight Club and Choke have been turned into feature films and all of his other novels have been optioned for film. His legendary readings and cult-like fan base have made Palahniuk into something of a literary icon.