Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey by Chuck Palahniuk Review

Buster “Rant” Casey just may be the most efficient serial killer of our time. A high school rebel, Rant Casey escapes from his small town home for the big city where he becomes the leader of an urban demolition derby called Party Crashing. Rant Casey will die a spectacular highway death, after which his friends gather the testimony needed to build an oral history of his short, violent life. With hilarity, horror, and blazing insight, Rant is a mind-bending vision of the future, as only Chuck Palahniuk could ever imagine.

A creatively ambitious novel experienced through an unorthodox and unique presentation, reading Chuck Palahniuk’s Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey is akin to an out-of-control car ride; wild, unpredictable, but not necessarily a good time and a place you want to be. Written as a fictional memoir to the deceased and infamous Buster Casey, the book presents “Rant’s” life through extensive secondhand recollections and stories across the countless people that encountered him over the years. Doing a metaphorical tap dance on the line between cutting literary brilliance and vulgar triggering chaos, Rant… is unlike any other book I’ve read which is a purposely double-edged comment. (On Goodreads, 2.5 stars rounded down)

A literary approach most commonly used in non-fiction books, Palahniuk uses the oral history concept in a completely different manner for this fictional story. Rather than the traditional goal of presenting a variety of perspectives to give the reader a greater understanding and overview of a particular event or person, Palahniuk instead uses the approach like that of the unreliable narrator technique taken to an extreme. Incorporating the accounts of over fifty different individuals who crossed paths with Rant at various points in his life, the book presents different takes on the same person and lets the reader decide which version of Rant to believe, if any at all. Some view him fondly, some idolize his rebel streak, some think he’s trouble incarnate, etc. Some of these individuals are childhood friends, some misogynistic garbage, some are pathological liars, some are academic experts with phD’s, one is a host of a radio show based around grisly vehicular scenes of carnage. What initially starts as merely an origin story for a troubled and infamous individual shifts into something far more expansive, some accounts implying different pasts, futures, state of beings, etc.

The book is at its best for me when it focuses on its fascinating social commentary and dystopian like concepts; circumstances or activities that initially seem unhinged, only to later be revealed as possible metaphors for more complex issues depending on whose recollection you believe. Rant’s early years in the rural smalltown of Middleton show the power and sway of wealth, crazed activities like subjecting himself to venomous spider bites, and different opinions on Rant and his family, showing a great deal of thought and diverse views on what many would deem to be a troubled child. As Rant leaves Middleton and moves to the city, the oral history shifts to the rebellious and adrenaline-fueled culture of “Party Crashing”, a covert urban street demolition derby. The city features strong dystopian themes such as the segregation of government registered “nighttimers” consisting of troubled and alternative lifestyle individuals temporally separated from the organized and presentable daytime hours. As a lethal epidemic spreads, the numerous deaths of the Nighttimers are ignored, even being villainized as the root cause for every problem in society by the local city councilman. The themes presented in this book are compelling, and the crude way they are connected to the crazed events of the book are truly unique, the greatest selling point for the book.

While this book has some excellent chapters and concepts that draw strong commentary or character development in moments of chaos, for every occurrence a crass event has great thematic finesse, there’s at least two others that are straight-up vulgar and quite off-putting. Palahniuk’s books are known for having nihilistic undertones and heavily featuring taboo content, not to mention intense violence, but there are many occurrences that feel like controversial elements are thrown in simply for shock value rather than literary purpose. I’ve read and consumed my fair share of unhinged and dark narrative works, but this book often feels like Palahniuk is purposely trying to pull out uncomfortable and upsetting ideas just to be weird and eccentric rather than contributing to the story or character development.  Times and societal views have also changed substantially over the nearly twenty years since this book was published, this book is full of triggering content that would likely get it cancelled on booktok by contemporary readers if it came out today. I’m talking elements like incestual insemination, underage rape, animal beating, teacher age gap sex, graphic mauling, I could go on and on. Even that aside, the book includes many derogatory words and insults that while are used to show how certain characters are misogynistic, homophobic, xenophobic, etc., are topics and highly offensive language you just don’t see often in mass-marketed big 5 published books. Again, I do not mind the use of these elements if they’re done right for literary or narrative purpose, but their salacious and often careless use wasn’t to my taste; just look at the numerous 1-star reviews on Goodread that found this book distasteful.

Questionable content aside, what was far more problematic for me personally was the disconnected and haphazard progression of the book. To be clear, I’m not talking about the oral history element that I quite enjoyed, each chapter featuring a set theme and different accounts connected to the given concept. The issue was with the overall structure and direction of the book. The first few opening chapters are like a confusing whirlwind that open the book with strong, off-putting language (likely intentionally insulting to get the reader’s attention) that doesn’t contribute much to the narrative until the story settles in while recapping Rant’s rural childhood. Just as the book feels like it’s hitting its stride with its character development and fascinating conflicting views on the Buster family, childhood friend Bodie Carlyle being a particular favorite and interesting narrator, the story abruptly shifts to the city and drops most of the recurring commentary on wealth, outside judgement, and neglect in favor of the Party Crashing demolition derby culture and dystopian themes. This section focuses on the lethal zombie-like epidemic, segregation of day and nighttime citizens, systemic socio-economic neglect, and political corruption. Finally in its closing arc, the book throws in elements and views on time-travel, reality manipulation, and temporal immortality conducted via taboo means. While each are conceptually interesting, as presented they don’t feel connected or cohesive despite narrative elements leading into each other on paper. While some could call the book a genre defier and crossover read, I felt like it was a vague and non-committal attempt at simply stringing together crude ideas without building towards something substantial, big on colorful flavor but low on substance. While I liked that the ending was open-ended by design, I was left with a cold and unimpressed impression given its messy handling. Perhaps I have higher than usual standards as speculative fiction is one of my favorite genres, particularly time-travel narratives, but I felt like the third act of the book was the most spastic part of the book; it’s mechanics coming off as very random and plot reveals feeling coincidentally fitting rather than being surprisingly developed.

Featuring ambitious ideas paired with an incredibly unique presentation, my experience reading Rant… was one of baffled confusion. While I understand the context, themes, and the different intended versions of the character’s life as the narrative takeaway, I found myself frequently questioning just why the book was written the way it was. More time than not, I felt like Palahniuk’s style and literary flavor actively impeded the flow and cohesion of an already deliberately fragmented story and the read, while interesting from a literary standpoint, was not particularly enjoyable nor rewarding. Additionally, the genre tags for this book are a bit deceptive in that they do have elements of speculative fiction, science fiction and dystopia in concept, but the bulk of the story and style is almost all literary fiction. I can definitely see this book appealing to a specific group of readers, but for everyone else, I strongly recommend checking the triggers and content warnings prior to picking this book as it’s not for the faint of heart and for me, was an unfortunate disappointment.

Note: This was one of two books gifted to me by BlueJaySong as part of a fun thrift bookstore blind swap challenge we did while on vacation this past summer, her other pick being Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. I picked The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin and The Sentence by Louise Erdrich (plus the goof pick of The Bromance Club), let’s see who was the better book curator!