Synopsis

The critically acclaimed Fight Club author, Chuck Palahniuk, brings us Rant, an oral biography of Buster “Rant” Casey — a feared outcast. The story picks up after the fantastical highway death of Rant and details his impact on people he met along the way to communal destruction.

From a young age, Rant had watched the world from behind a pane of glass. Bored of his small town, Rant searches out his own fun. One unusual activity he participated in was sticking his arms down into animal holes and swamps, hoping to get bitten by rabid animals, discovering at a young age that it provided him a high like no other. For fun, he soon became known as the “rabies kid,” plaguing his community with the highly contagious disease. Because of his strange obsession, Rant repelled nearly everyone in his town.

Using his peculiarity to his advantage, Rant would eventually plan a scam that excused him from completing high school, as the administration paid him to stay away. However, Rant never slows down the tale of an anti-social kid turned successful entrepreneur and urban legend.

My opinion:
A comment on modern society, Rant is centered around social constructs. The novel toys with the idea of reality and imagination, referencing the classic literary theme of madness. Rant is regarded as highly imaginative, and as noted by his death, he lived in his own world — a strange one. Author Palahniuk takes the confusion further by inviting the audience to explore the thin line between reality and madness. The reader is left to piece together the shattered timeline of Rant’s supposed “oral history,” which, as the book continues, starts to feel more and more like a lie. The idea of truth and falsity is timeless and can make you crazy.

One of the constructs addressed in Rant is happiness — or lack thereof. Rather than being portrayed as something that can be achieved, Palahniuk leads the reader to believe that happiness is a subjective feeling that comes and goes. It’s an interesting read because the characters are very odd, which makes relating to any of the characters hard to confess without fearing being judged for it. I will admit I found pieces of myself within each character, but mostly Rant. He wanted to feel things, to live, and it was hard for him because what was fun to everyone else wasn’t for him. I cannot count how often I have done things out of pure hope of feeling again.

The world is scary, and everyone seems to have already found their place in it; everyone seems happy. I’ve always felt like everyone’s last resort, and for a while, I thought that was the end, that there’s no point in living a miserable life. Over time, though, just like Rant, I have discovered my own means of feeling alive. I have found that happiness comes and goes and isn’t picture-perfect and that some people have to try harder than others to find it. I learned that happiness doesn’t mean you don’t feel miserable sometimes.

“You see, life only turns out good or bad for only a little bit. And then it turns out some other way.” Through this snippet of life, Palahniuk illustrates that life is more than just happy or miserable, that tragedy and happiness alike are nothing but moments in time. I think what Palahniuk meant is that nothing is permanent and doesn’t have to be to matter. There’s something to be said about the small things, like romanticizing the sunrise and crying over losing your favorite sweater.

My Rating
10/10

One thing that makes Rant stand out is its wild creativity. I have yet to witness another author write with more cleverness and attention to detail as Palahniuk does in Rant. This book seems unorganized initially, but everything slowly falls into place without you realizing it. The plot structure is seemingly nonexistent yet interesting and somehow purposeful. I plan to read more of Palahniuk’s novels. His use of imagery alone is reason enough to pick this story up. In short — this book is magic.