While we didn’t discuss the topic, I’m sure the titles of these books were a huge comfort to her in her final days. What sort of background reading did you do to prepare for a novel set in hell?Ĭhuck Palahniuk: I read dozens of books on theology and demonology, most of them in the presence of my dying mother. It doesn’t help that the anxiety I suffer while in public is witnessed, while my breakdowns when writing are completely hidden.ĭ&C: You’re known for doing quite a lot of research before you get going on a book. But being a grown-up means doing every part of the larger task. It’s agony, especially compared to the private, at-home joy of writing. The only way I could survive was by imagining a worse place of suffering: hell.ĭ&C: Is it always torture for you to do the publicity rounds?Ĭhuck Palahniuk: I dread the promotion part of my job. That meant that I had to appear in public to promote a comedy about a son trying to save his dying mother – the plot of Choke – while privately I was caring for my own dying mother. Damned is vintage Chuck – as dark as it gets, but with loads of gross-out humour, all your favourite dead celebs, and plenty of grim details of the Inferno’s unmentionable horrors, such as being forced to watch The English Patient over and over again.ĭazed & Confused: So why did you decide to write a novel set in hell?Ĭhuck Palahniuk: In 2008, while the film version of my book Choke was coming to market, my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer.
For his next trick, Palahniuk has cooked up a raucous new novel that’s narrated by a 13-year-old girl who has died and gone to hell.
He’s kept himself busy writing 11 novels, a collection of short stories and two acclaimed books of non-fiction, amassing an army of die-hard fans in the process. Since the publication of his hard-hitting, hard-kicking, hard-biting-and-scratching debut novel Fight Club in 1996, Chuck Palahniuk has steadily slogged his way into the big league of bestselling American literary novelists.
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