My blog title today is the title of a book by Chuck Palahniuk wherein he writes about the strange people, jobs and information he's come across in his research for his novels. I love Palahniuk's novels because I think he nails the internal dialogue of human beings. Yes, a lot of what he writes comes across as over the top. However, if we admit it just to ourselves, he puts on paper what has likely at least crossed our own minds in various situations.
I love writers who can do this. Right now, I'm reading Mr. Peanut by Adam Ross. I absolutely love it! While I'm in a marriage so happy it would make you sick to hear anything more about it, there are still those days. There are still times when I'm so mad at my husband, so utterly aghast and baffled by something he's done or said, that I feel like I do not know him. Moreover, at those times, I don't want to know him! (Lest you think I pick on him, he's freely admitted to murderous rage directed toward me at some point over all our years together.) Ross writes as if he's been married for many years, yet the book dedication belies this and makes it sound as if he's relatively newly wed. It is his understanding, and putting on paper, the workings of the human mind, with all its twists, turns, and dark corners, that compels me to keep reading. I anticipate the conclusion of the book and never want it to end. We do not necessarily "know" the characters and yet we feel akin to them. We can find a little of ourselves in them and them in us.
Realistic writing that gives us enough detail that we truly suspend disbelief is a joy to read. Another author capable of this is Stephen King. He may never win the Pulitzer, even while he's won many awards for fiction in the horror genre, yet he remains one of my favorite authors. Yes, there was a period when he dealt with drug addiction and the writing then was not so good. However, prior to and since that time, King reigns supreme at his handling of human beings. In his latest, Under the Dome, we can't help but want to know what happens to each of the characters he's introduced. We're taken aback when certain characters die, and fervently wish others would meet their demise in a way only King could render. Not once while reading Under the Dome did it ever occur to me that I was reading something supernatural in nature. I was completely able and willing to believe everything was happening just as described: that there was a dome over an entire town.
Books by authors such as Ross's, Palahniuk's and King's are like dramatized psychology and sociology texts. We don't just read the diagnostic terms, we see the madman created by meth. We see the aftermath of a power-complex gone awry. We wend our way toward the awful discovery of multiple personality disorder, and we glimpse the possible results of our own murderous thoughts at a safe distance. Before the end of the weekend Mr. Peanut will come to an end for me. I look forward to reading over what is predicted to be a rainy weekend. Today, on the train, I felt my face contort to horror, felt my head nod in agreement and felt a smile widen and raise my cheeks at the various scenarios Ross presented in the first half of the book.
I love these authors for their ability to take us on a tour of the haunted mansions, the basements and sewers of the human mind. I'm thankful that they write what many of us won't even admit to ourselves that we think. If you know of an author like this or a specific book that made you feel like the author "got" you and humankind, leave a comment, post a reply or email me with a recommendation.
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