Hell in Palahniuk's ‘Damned’

For an author whose fiction seethes with pain and suffering, it's somewhat surprising that Chuck Palahniuk [Fight Club, 1996; Choke, 2001] has only now set a novel in the bowels of hell. 

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In Damned—his latest novel and the first in a proposed trilogy—Madison, a temperamental young girl, finds herself living and working for Satan and his minions after she's mercilessly snuffed out of the living realm. But Palahniuk's Hell turns out to be surprisingly, disturbingly close to a John Hughes movie. We recently spoke to Palahniuk about his infernal ...

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Baker and his Book of Raunch

Nicholson Baker writes about sex the way most people wish it existed—uninhibited, thorough and immensely pleasurable. Throughout his wildly varied literary career, Baker has maintained the wry humor and detailed wit that won him acclaim for his fiction [Vox; The Fermata] and nonfiction [Double Fold] alike.

Read more reviews of books by Nicholson Baker at Kirkus.

In The House of Holes, Baker explores sex in the funhouse as sexually frustrated citizens are magically transported to the hypersexual House of Holes compound for as much sex as they can handle—or afford. Once there, they can spend time in the ...

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Life, According to Ice-T

“There’s a basic street law: talk shit, get punched in the face.” So says Ice-T in his fully armed, disarmingly honest new memoir, ICE: A Memoir of Gangster Life and Redemption—from South Central to Hollywood. Ice, as his friends call him, has been telling us how it is for decades, since his first record, Rhyme Pays, came out nearly 25 years ago and helped fire off the gangsta-rap craze.

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Since moving to South Central in the middle of a full-on gang war, Ice has remained in the game in more ...

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Chris Jericho: From Wrestler to Rock Star

First rising to fame in the rough-and-tumble Canadian amateur wrestling leagues—as winningly recounted in his first book, A Lion’s Tale (Grand Central, 2007)—Chris Jericho exploded on the international wrestling scene when he defeated, on the same night in 2001, both the Rock and Steve Austin to become the first WWF Undisputed Champion.

In his new autobiography, Undisputed, Jericho colorfully details how busy he’s remained since then. You may have seen him as a pithy contributor to various VH1 talking-head programs or as the host of Downfall, an ABC game show in which contestants answer trivia questions ...

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Kirkus Q&A: Nicholas Evans

Bestselling author Nicholas Evans (The Horse Whisperer, 1995; The Divide, 2005, etc.) found unlikely, unhealthy inspiration for his latest book, The Brave. A broad novel, it portrays generations of the Bedford family—at an English boarding school, in golden-aged Hollywood, fighting in Iraq—overwhelmed by dark family secrets and the fear of begetting a tragic life. In 2008, while writing the novel, Evans survived his own tragic lunch—Evans, his wife and brother- and sister-in-law mistakenly ingested deadly webcap mushrooms as part of a hand-picked snack in the English countryside. Renal failure soon set in, but all are lucky to ...

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