Book Review: PYGMY by Chuck Palahniuk
From the author of FIGHT CLUB, so you know this is not going to be a "nice" read.
Book Review: PYGMY (2009) by Chuck Palahniuk
I recommend this satirical novel as one of Palahniuk's better ones... but with a warning.
It contains a violent r*pe scene — and although it's relevant to the plot, and though I'm not a friend of censorship, some readers will find that passage disturbing (it certainly disturbed me).
Then again, Palahniuk the writer is almost always out to make the reader uncomfortable — so it might be silly to demand that he “toned down” the more grotesque aspects of the story.
PYGMY is narrated as a series of reports (written in comically bad English) from a North Korean (?) sleeper agent, masquerading as an exchange student — during his extended visit to an ordinary American family.
The young sleeper agent, nicknamed “Pygmy” because of his short stature, has been brainwashed by the totalitarian state from which he came. His warped mindset is both terrifying and hilarious. He is completely convinced that America is evil and will do absolutely anything to obey his leaders.
Of course, Pygmy is visiting America as part of a sinister plot — which I won’t spoil.
I asked myself while reading PYGMY: How does this character compare to a real person living under a dictatorship like, say, North Korea? Surely no one is that fanatical like the protagonist in the novel.
(What I’ve heard from people with real-life experience of communist dictatorships is that most citizens become apathetic and extremely cynical — they parrot the official propaganda, but despise their leaders and hate society. The “true believer” citizens exist, but they are a minority.)
However, a real dictatorship can be just as absurd as this satirical version of it. So the novel is over-the-top in order to tell the truth.
PYGMY is satirical, disturbing, terrifying, occasionally obscene, and often hilarious. If you enjoyed FIGHT CLUB, then this is for you. (If you found FIGHT CLUB off-putting, avoid PYGMY.)