Review from a Transgressive Fiction Fan
Adjustment Day feels like the book Chuck Palahniuk’s entire career has been leading up to. This novel is very much of the moment, a scathing satire of current American society, our modern climate brought to the extreme and turned on its head.
While it is filled with the types of themes that are normally found in a Palahniuk book, this one reads very different than his usual writing style. He normally skewers society through the eyes of a single character. In Adjustment Day, he uses a large ensemble, portraying the world through a series of short vignettes rather than a more traditional protagnist’s journey.
This book is brimming with the type of black comedy and social satire that Palahniuk is famous for. Adjustment Day is a dark reflection of our world, a society seemingly birthed through the twisted fever dreams of our fractured, damaged psyche.
“Insightful” Review from a Mainstream Reader
This is supposed to be satire? It seems like the narcissistic ramblings of an angry white man. I’ve never read any of Palahniuk’s other work and probably won’t. I finished the book hoping there would be some epiphany of higher understanding. That never happened. I do see the connections to current events but I’m not sure what the author was trying to accomplish other than getting thoughts out of his head.