Review of Adjustment Day by Chuck Palahniuk

Title: Adjustment Day

Author: Chuck Palahniuk

Editorial:

Genre: Fiction

Country of origin: United States

Pages: 316

Days to finish it: 7

Books read of the author: 12

Year of publication: 2018

Personal score: 3/5

Preview: Adjust-fucking-ment

What if a massive adjustment came to the city? Let´s be more specific what if happen in this city, in Mexico City? I guess I could know whose will be the first target, the homeless or the helpless; but why? My point is: which would be the criteria for “adjust” the people? The money? The knowledge? The influence? The gender?  The color of their skin? Everything could be considered as a criteria. Everything. Just imagine if you were selected. What would you do? What would you do if your mother is selected? The future is here. Our end is near. And definitely I should stop reading Palahniuk for a while.

How did I get it?

The blog had it birthday, it anniversary, and I was dying to read this book, or at least this author. But the circumstances don´t let me read it, until days ago.

A little bit of the author…

After 12 books my brain is getting dry of ideas about Palahniuk, this is his first novel in four years, but in my opinion not one of the best… I don’t know how many books are left of him, but I´m supposing there´ll be no more in a couple of years.

Review

We have a dystopia, everything is different (but not so different if USA keeps being in the way that they´re nowadays), the fault of everything is caused by a modern messiah, and his book: Adjustment day.

There are three different sides or cohorts: Caucasia, Blacktopia, and Gaysia. Each faction is composed by whites, blacks and queers, respectively. Each one has its own customs, traditions and laws. And we as a readers will dive in different characters and ways of thinking.   

Through the portrait of a dystopia that isn´t too far away from the reality, is presented “Adjustment Day” a reality that is much more than a book.

Opinion

Probably this book, was the fastest read in English I ever read, but I was so excited to read about it, that I read it every day and in every chance I had. The reality was that I don´t get it all the story. I could rescue the main ideas, but not all the books, I felt like I read the summary instead the whole book.

After reading 12 books of the author (3 English now) you comprehend a lot of things, like his manias, his favorite words, his favorite situations and his favorite topics. I reach to two conclusions: Palahniuk is really sick and the society is too tame. Palahniuk being Palahniuk at their finest.

As always there are a lot of words I didn´t know, but in this time that don’t mean a trouble for the comprehension. The trouble in this time was the whole quantity of unnecessary characters in the plot. Okay, the number of the character is not the issue, the issue are their fucked up relationships. I don´t fucking get.

I think I never enjoy it, not as other books of him, but have a couple of paragraphs and situations so well written that I completely loved it. The narrative was too mixed, and I was expecting much more xenophobia or darkness. It has its moments but are not the enough for making this book memorable, at least for me.

Officially this will be the last of Palahniuk in the year. More books of him are waiting in the next year... hopefully.

When will have the next Adjustment Day?

Quotes

"The faster the dead could be honored, the faster they could be forgotten."

"Sex is sex, but plus danger is great."

"Porn did to him what spinach did to Popeye or rage did to the incredible Hulk."

"Those who carried it, they were tired of being consumers. They wanted to be consumed."

"To be loved is to serve as a slave. Hate demonstrates a complete freedom from pleasing others."

"On the internet, a person could spend a lifetine ub egomaniacal self-worship."

"Love isn´t a scientific experiment that could be replicated. No man has to be a surgeon to recognize love. Where there´s no joy or cure for pain."

"We must kill those who would have us kill one another."

"Art should not be social engineering. Art that seeks to repair people must be rooted from society."

"He yearned for a love that would be completely destroy their love for him. His life was an either/or proposition. He´d someday have to choose between his own hapiness and theirs."
 
"Only whites killed the planet with global warming  so only whites could save it. Their boasting never let up."

"A man is not going to get loved by being lovable."

"If I´d said prayers half as many times as I´ve been online looking for porn, I´d be saved. No doubt about it."

"You never feel as alive when you make somebody else dead."

"Flattery is addictive. Convince others they´re  special. Assure them they have talent. Make yourslef the source of people´s self worth. Doing so binds them to you and it prempts them from developing their skills and proving their true potential."

"A good book should get you high. It read like pornography."