First published 2001
Victor Mancini is a medical school dropout supporting his Alzheimer's-afflicted mother through an elaborate scam. He fakes choking incidents at upscale restaurants, allowing himself to be "saved" by patrons who then feel compelled to send him checks. Between these stunts, Victor drifts through a world of sexual addiction recovery groups and a colonial theme park job, grappling with his troubled past and his mother's decline. Palahniuk's darkly comic vision exposes the seedy underbelly of American consumerism and the ways we seek meaning in a fragmented society.
Genres: fiction, american-fiction, addiction, contemporary, 21st-century, dark
Vibes: dark, emotional, fast-paced, thought-provoking
Tropes: dark-protagonist, unreliable-narrator
304 pages · Paperback · Vintage Books USA
Content warnings: addiction, mental-illness