After I read "Fight Club" and was even more amazed than the movie, which is one of my favorites, I was expecting a lot. Great Expectations. And that's a sure way to get disappointed which is exactly what happened here. "Choke" starts very bombastic, with all these urban legends about sexual exploits of sex addicts, however that doesn't last long, only a couple of chapters. Even the jailbird women that Victor has sex with become repetitive by the middle of the book. His trademark choking in restaurants also becomes tired and doesn't appear much after the first third of the book, until the end when the heroes come for revenge.
The main story is about Victor and his mother who's losing her mind in a private hospital. It turns out that she is not his mother, not even in the Jesus Christ version with foreskin, but just plain stole the baby from a stroller in a mall. Also Dr. Paige is a patient, not a doctor, and is definitely not from the future, so crazy. The reveals are definitely not as great as in "Fight Club", but then again M. Night Shamlayan could never repeat the success of "Sixth Sense" no matter how many chances he got (and wasted).
It is an easy read since Palahniuk's style is very conversational and flowing, with short sentences and not much description, but it is definitely not as satisfying as "Fight Club." I have a couple of more Palahniuk's books, and if those two don't work out either, I will give up on him.
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