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…
