Palahniuk goes limp with sordid "Snuff"

Immersing yourself in a steamy fantasy such as "Snuff" by Chuck Palahniuk can leave you feeling high and dry by the end. Palahniuk's 2008 addition to his collection of shock-inducing, pop/avant-garde is a pieced narration of pornstar Cassie Wright, who sets out to make world history. Wright's story, while nothing out of the ordinary to the casual Palahniuk reader such as myself, does seem like a vibrant book to pick up, with its provocative cover and frequent sexual innuendos. However, even with its rebellious charm and bold writing, "Snuff" often falls flat on its face with overly simplistic appeal, poor taste and a forced sensed of humor that can make most readers who are used to Palahniuk's wit cringe in disgust.

"Snuff" was Palahniuk's attempt at a sex documentary of fictitious Cassie Wright, the porn star who wanted to break the record for serial fornication by sleeping with 600 men in one video. This story, told primarily through the points of view of three male studs seeking to seed Wright, is littered with poor innuendos that beg the question of whether Palahniuk was simply bored and wanted to create a potboiler piece of fiction. Despite Palahniuk's journalistic writing and careful research, he fails to bring the story to life in a satisfactory way.

Each character is painfully one-dimensional, and any hint of personality in these characters becomes almost as forced as the Viagra-induced erections sported by the horny male suitors. Even Cassie Wright herself, who Palahniuk venerates as the venereal-diseased martyr at the end, is left largely unexplored and underdeveloped. Unfortunately, the pieced narrative Palahniuk went for in "Snuff" fails to give each character a complex and fascinating history, as entertainment value takes priority over character development in almost every scenario.

Instead, Palahniuk shifts his focus to what seems to be the running gag of the book: his overused porn flick titles, such as "Gropes of Wrath" and "Beat Me in St. Louis." You know there's a problem with the piece when you focus more on the cheesy titles Palahniuk seems to have spent a great deal of time on rather than the actual plot.

With his next title, "Damned" forthcoming in October, one can only hope that Palahniuk reverts back to his "Invisible Monsters" and "Haunted" days. Somewhere along the way, "Snuff" loses the wit, accessible charm and satirical genius that permeates throughout earlier titles. Instead, "Snuff" ends up just being the poorly-acclaimed compilation of Palahniuk's bad sex jokes.