C.B. Murphy  .:. Writer

I consider my myself a fan of The Chuck. FIGHT CLUB is an amazing piece of writing and a great movie. I actually came across the material first some years ago it when it was published as the short story “Project Mayhem.” I thought it was amazing, put it away somewhere and eventually the book appears, then the movie.

I have to admit I’ve had trouble getting into his other novels (HAUNTED and SURVIVOR) but I’m not convinced I just wasn’t in the right mood for them. I’ll try them again. Last night I attended his live chat with Kerri Miller of Minnesota Public Radio at the Fitzgerald Theater in St Paul MN. It was a good show, though I found Ms Miller’s playful antagonism a bit grating and some of her questions could have been more thoughtful. I mean, can’t you ask anyone if they’re afraid of death? This is The Chuck; ask him something more clever.

During the long silences before he answered some questions I sensed partly a setup was coming, partly he was messing with Kerri, and partly he seemed to be connecting the question with one of the good stories that he tells at these kinds of things. His stories were excellent and I won’t try to re-tell them, but one involved a French vet hazing ritual of the candidate being sewn inside of a dead horse while unconscious. Good stuff.

I admire The Chuck’s productivity, a novel a year. Wow. Though one wonders if that might be at the cost of something else? Let’s not go there. I mostly appreciated him as a thoughtful, original, voice–more rare than one would think in this so-called “creative” age. He thinks things out for himself and comes up with theories like why all American fiction revolves around three characters: The Martyr, The Rebel and the Observer. I like how he takes his brain seriously though he can no longer qualify as an outsider, dropping how he spent a week in Spain with the other geniuses – Sedaris, Lethem, and Chabon. He earned it; he can brag. Just please, keep it brief, original and interesting. I was interested (selfishly) that his new novel DAMNED is told from the point of view of a (dead) 13 year old girl in hell. My narrator of CUTE EATS CUTE (plug acknowledged) is neither dead nor in hell but they’re near the same age. We may have even more in common when ZOMBIES IN SPACE comes out. Hint: the narrator is dead.