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    Rant: An Oral History of Buster Casey
    Rant: An Oral History of Buster Casey
    Rant: An Oral History of Buster Casey
    Audiobook10 hours

    Rant: An Oral History of Buster Casey

    Written by Chuck Palahniuk

    Narrated by Stina Nielsen, Angela Rogers, Andrea Gallo and

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Buster "Rant" Casey just may be the most efficient serial killer of our time. A high school rebel, Rant Casey escapes from his small town home for the big city where he becomes the leader of an urban demolition derby called Party Crashing. Rant Casey will die a spectacular highway death, after which his friends gather the testimony needed to build an oral history of his short, violent life. With hilarity, horror, and blazing insight, Rant is a mind-bending vision of the future, as only Chuck Palahniuk could ever imagine.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateMay 18, 2007
    ISBN9781436101271
    Rant: An Oral History of Buster Casey
    Author

    Chuck Palahniuk

    Chuck Palahniuk’s fourteen novels include the bestselling Snuff; Rant; Haunted; Lullaby; Fight Club, which was made into a film by director David Fincher; Diary; Survivor; Invisible Monsters; and Choke, which was made into a film by director Clark Gregg. He is also the author of the nonfiction profile of Portland, Fugitives and Refugees, and the nonfiction collection Stranger Than Fiction. His story collection Make Something Up was a widely banned bestseller. His graphic novel Fight Club II hit #1 on the New York Times list. He’s also the author of Fight Club III and the coloring books Bait and Legacy, as well as the writing guide Consider This. He lives in the Pacific Northwest.

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    Reviews for Rant

    3.5/5

    1,367 ratings49 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Amazing cast and a interesting story starts off smoothe and then takes a hard left before you know you don't know where you are but you like it

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      if you don't mind being dragged by your thumbs down a very long, and loud, and dark-as-a-black-hole hallway, for roughly 35 hours, then snatched by an even bigger, more ruthless even more shrouded in light-and-reason-dissolving-blackness, and surprisingly stronger repellent-of-the-substance-which-has-ability-to-hold-my-interest for at least another 10+ hours.... oh yeah and most of the characters have a southern draw and dumb, written purely to be dumb and to further the obviousness that inbreeding (even if it's yourself that you're inbreeding with to keep the bloodline pure and simple, but more simple than pure)
      I actually don't care how it ends, i'm pissed i can't have those hours of my life back.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      I've read almost everything to come from the scattered and twisted mind of Chuck and in the beginning this book seemed to hold the freak flag as high as the rest. The banner slid down the flagpole as the book moved along, but still the icon of brutality and the smile of shame could still be seen. The book seems to run in three seperate parts, one when the main character, Rant, is a child and the depraved and deadly things he gets into. The next part is when Rant moves to the city and begins his life in the world of Party Crashing (not to be misconstrued with showing up at stranger's house, oh no, that would not be weird enough for Chuck to write about, this is a sub-culture of people who drive around at night looking to hit each other with their cars). Lastly, spawning from the metallic mayhem of Party Crashing, comes the third section dealing with time travel and the inevitability of fate and destiny. Personally i felt the beginning was the strongest section and definitely the most shocking in terms of what we are used to from Chuck, after that the book is still interesting, but kind of peters out by the time the last empty white page is turned. I would still recommend reading it, but don't expect to be moved (or visibly shaken) as many were by his last book, Haunted.
    • 4/5
      "Rant" is definitely a complicated book that sort of unfolds through the whole length, from the beginning to the end.Early on he uses terms (e.g. "historian", "daytime", "nighttimer", "party crasher", etc.) without explanation. While mildly puzzling, or a little deceiving, especially "historian", the story goes on without trouble. Then much later there's an explanation of the terms and suddenly things make more sense.This is definitely a book that'll reveal a lot more with subsequent readings.It's not told as a regular narrative, but short intertwined excerpts about the main character as told or recorded by someone talking to many people who knew him in life. Never from his perspective, however.It tells the story of Buster "Rant" Casey, a kid from somewhere in the midwest, who's a bit weird to say the least. Growing up he likes to get bitten by animals and insects, likes the erections he gets from black widow spider bites, whether to use them with the girls in his school or as an excuse to get out of class (he points out girls can use the "female problem" excuse and no one verifies, so boys need an equivalent).To make money offers to pick up old paint cans from his neighbors barns and garages, in which he often finds stashes of money, seemingly an awful lot, including rare, collectable coins. Then he manipulates the local tooth fairy "market" to increase the value of all the cash.Once he moves to the big city, though, things get even weirder. His father knows an awful lot about his life, for instance, including the coins and his friends.And the story gets more bizarre and more bizarre as it goes. From a story about a kid in his home town to sort of a sci-fi story.Overall, it was enthralling, but it'll take further readings to understand it better.
    • 4/5
      At first, this novel looked pretty straight-forward. The subtitle of the book lays it all up. Buster Casey's life is opened wide by people who knew him and even by some who knew of him. So, what's special? I can't really write much without giving the plot up, which would lend itself to quite some internal stirring.

      It's obvious that this book is written by the same person who wrote "Fight Club". Palahniuk's style, never avoiding, super-sizing or contrasting what's taboo in modern western society makes for very interesting reading where sex, death and The Nuclear Family are involved.

      There are some quite substantial layers here. After 3/4 of the book everything was turned on its head. I thought I had this whole thing thought-out, but no! And then some.

      At times, the dialogue feels as contrived and ham-fisted as if it were lifted from detective pulp fiction. At its best, it sails over the past, in more than one sense of the word, freeing the reader, making the plausible possible.

      All in all, it's a very complex, finely written tale which is exciting, funny beyond time and rabid like some of its inhabitants.
    • 3/5
      Twenty pages into this book I had resolved never to recommend it to anybody. Two hundred pages in, I was still reading and occasionally laughing out loud. The last 50 pages ruined it.This is an appalling but very together, funny read. Appalling because of the candid discussions of bodily parts, functions and activity which, frankly, tainted the book for me. I didn’t know about some of the things he describes and didn’t want to either. The removal of a relatively small amount of salacious material could have made this a book I’d recommend to my teenage kids for its madness and imagination, but frankly it stands no chance as published.Black WidowThat said, this is an inventive and belly-achingly funny mocumentary about a dystopian world where people get their kicks joy-riding and knocking out each others’ cars according to a very strict code. All the characters are very weird, not the least Rant who is addicted to been bitten by poisonous creatures. Palahniuk manages to build up a picture of this world slowly and subtly in apparently disconnected snippets which gradually coalesce to produce a marvelously coherent whole. The parts are sown together from lots of separate, sometimes contradictory, testimonies so that the reader comes to feel he sees more of what is going on than the participants; the result is irony-laden. (I was disappointed that the author underestimated his readers’ intelligence and felt he needed to help them deal with the contradictions in an Author’s Note). Sadly, in the last few chapters, the story resolves into a complex and implausible time-travel story. I also had the feeling that the author rushed to finish it because the characters started to recount the story directly rather than letting it emerge from a more subtle web of not-obviously related accounts.The writing is clever but not excellent. I found that no character had a distinctive voice so that almost anything said could have been said by any of them. Eventually, as connections form, one begins to get a feel for the personalities, but the absence of voice makes for a rather flat read. This is compensated for by the shock or surprise in every chapter so that I became more involved in observing the author’s cleverness than in getting inside the story.Favourite Line:Death and me, separated at birthVerdict: I’ve enjoyed it the way one enjoys a very funny but rather coarse stand-up comedian; you feel embarrassed for laughing at such vulgarity, but it is funny. Definitely not literature.
    • 4/5
      This is a strange, strange book. I'm not exactly sure what it's about - You get time travel, Party Crashing (Demo Derby on the streets), "night" and "day" people, and Rabies - all told in a style of people being "interviewed" about the main, character, "Rant".This is one of those books that I think you will feel strongly about. The writing was spot on - but it is so difficult to figure out what was happening. Also, the dichotomy of the city vs the rural small town was difficult to figure out. Based on the first part of the book, I made the assumption that it was set in the 1960's or 70's. But, the way the city was set up - a bit of dystopian city vibe going, with the residents in the city divided into classes who can only move during night or day, to keep crowds manageable - it was very odd.The secondary story about Rabies - I really don't get it. Maybe there isn't anything to get. I just don't know. But the book is complete, all is explained, and it ends in a way that makes, sense kind of. So - Did I like it? I'm not sure. I found it intriguing - but also found it distasteful. A bit uncomfortable. I won't be reading it again - but I will keep an eye out for this author.
    • 1/5
      To be fair, I probably didn't give it much of a chance, which is weird, because I always otherwise eat up Pahlinuk like a starving man with a Saltine. Still, fifteen pages in, I heard my sister's voice in my ear..."why waste time reading something you're not enjoying when there are so many books out there that you COULD get pleasure from?" Maybe I'll come back at it again, when I've run out of books that actually hook me in the first fifteen pages. And oh, I still heart you Chuckie, just so you know.
    • 3/5
      This is a crazy book. I did not like the style at first. Ever been in a room where multiple people are having different conversations? That was what it seemed. At one point I thought about taking one character, and just flip through the book and read those sections, and then go back and repeat for everyone else.Eventually I got use to the format, and it became interesting, sort of enjoyable. I am set in my ways though, and don't like unique/creative styles. I am not clever, and wished things were spelled out a bit more for me. For example, next to each character is a symbol. It is the sun or moon - one representing a "daytimer" the other a "nighttimer." I didn't figure that out until 10 or so pages from the end! I don't think it was spelled out; you had to figure it out. When the book was over, I felt the same way I did when I finished "The Company of the Dead" by David Kowalski: the book may be better the second time reading.
    • 4/5
      This book by Chuck was one that many didn't like. I disagree with them all. He brings a new kind of storytelling that had me on the edge of my seat. He also brings more Science Fiction to this story where his other books have been more of a messed up, realistic take on life.
    • 2/5
      Not loving it right now, but I'm very early in the book. I've started and stopped several times. I really just can't get behind this.
    • 4/5
      Great book. It's confusing and kind of prickly, introduces cartloads of weird but strangely convincing ideas, changes pace and shape at every other corner and turns out to be something completely different from what it seemed to be. I really liked it. It was full of weirdness and urgency, and flashes of slightly manic humour, it pinpointed society issues and pried apart (I want to say dissected) all those nice little pretensions and duct-taped ideas people keep up to keep things tidy and sane. It wasn't a gross-out fest like haunted, nor did it annoy me like Diary; for me it's up there with Lullaby and Fight Club. Highly recommended to everyone who knows what they're getting into with Mr. Palahniuk, and to anyone else who likes reading something a little off from time to time. Also: pay attention. It'll help hugely if you don't want to end up with your brain in a knot.
    • 5/5
      This book. This book. This book. Unique would not even begin to cover how this book should be described. This book made me question life and want to be a party crasher.
    • 5/5
      I have read several of Chuck PPalahniuk's books, and found them all to be unique in their own right. "Rant," is no different. This is a story of a typical bizarre Palahniuk character, told in the form of an oral history. Palahniuk explains at the beginning that due to the nature of the fact that the story is told by a dozen or so people who either knew or knew of Buster Casey, the facts and chronology might not always align. This book took a little bit of dedication to get into but once I was into it I was hooked. Perhaps not as violent or gory as many of Palahniuk's books, it is nonetheless as captivating in its bizarreness.
    • 4/5
      Another mind-blower from Palahniuk. The narrative is structured as an on-going interview with multiple POV characters, making it feel like you're reading the account of the protagonist's life without ever meeting him.
    • 5/5
      I reveled in the interlocking interviews of those who had relationships with Buster Casey, the world that was created and the element of science fiction. I had no idea what was going on until the very end, when everything then made sense. This book made me a Palahniuk fan.
    • 5/5
      I've never read Palahniuk before, and although everyone raves about Fight Club, in particular, I wasn't really sure his famously oddball style would be 'my kind of thing'. Happily, Rant turned out to be EXACTLY my kind of thing, which is why this review has taken so long to write. It's always hardest to review the books we've loved most, isn't it?I won't say too much about the plot, partly because there isn't one per se, and partly because I think this is really one those books that needs to be read WITHOUT knowing everything about it. That way the reader can work things out for themselves and be swept along by the narrative without any preconceptions and erroneous ideas ruining the fun. On the surface this is just what the name suggests: a fictional oral biography of a strange young man called Rant Casey, who has odd abilities, bizarre habits, and dangerous vices that include 'Party Crashing' - driving around at night in a kind of giant crazy game of dodgems - and being bitten by all kinds of venomous and diseased creatures.But although Rant is at the centre of the novel, and everything ultimately returns to him, this is an incredibly reductive view of Palahniuk's vision. It is also very much about the way society works and about the people in Rant's life over the years. It is only as the book unfolds that you come to realise that Rant's America isn't the same as ours; it's a futuristic place with advanced media technology, and a society segregated into Daytimers and Nighttimers in an attempt to deal with overpopulation and road congestion. As these things are explained by the various 'contributors' to Rant's biography, the book becomes almost like a fascinating non-fiction at times, kept manageable and well-paced by the broken-up oral-biography format. This really is an incredible book. It has the energy of a Baz Lurhmann movie and the no-nonsense brutality of Quentin Tarantino's finest, all rolled into one. I don't think I've ever read a book that feels so immediate and ALIVE. It bristles with energy, like electricity sparking off the page. As I turned the pages, I felt like I was in the hands of an expert manipulator; the building clues about Rant, about the new society, were all there, but I felt like I was working things out and getting little light-bulb moments EXACTLY when Palahniuk wanted me to. Whatever he wanted me to feel - nauseated, tender, intrigued, repulsed - I did. Even when I wasn't sure what was happening or where things were going, I felt 'safe' enough to accept it and carry on. Like the Nighttimers' Party Crashing culture, I just held on tight and went along for the ride - and what a ride it was!Rant definitely isn't going to be for everyone - there are some pretty extreme and unsettling moments thrown in along the way - but if you dare to dive in and go with it, you will find a novel that is simultaneously philosophical, amusing, disgusting, exciting, thoughtful, sensual, perplexing, shocking, stimulating and utterly brilliant. Palahniuk throws out a continuous stream of ideas and observations, skewed through the different characters that make up the 'biography' and through the vaguely dystopian perspective. I'm still thinking about it now, a couple of weeks later, asking questions and trying to work it out in my mind all over again. Needless to say, I won't hesitate to read more Palahniuk now I've started.
    • 2/5
      My husband enjoyed this book but I really couldn't get into it (I read about 120 pages). I have not read many books in this "oral history" format and I think I found it too distracting to enjoy the book.
    • 4/5
      I have mixed feelings about this book. Was it funny? Yes. Was it a typical Palahniuk in terms of disturbing mental images, crazy, fucked up characters, and several "shock value" moments that just make the reader go "Wha-"? Yes. Did parts of it turn my stomach? Yes. Is it memorable? Yes. And yet, I didn't love it the same way I loved Invisible Monsters, Fight Club, and Haunted. Rant is a good book with an interesting style, but somehow, it just didn't connect with me like the other books of his I've read, and I can't really pinpoint why. I would still recommend this to anyone who's a fan of Palahniuk or likes their literature with a side of nitty gritty, stomach churning, visceral writing, but for a casual reader...maybe not. Palahniuk in general isn't for everyone, and I wouldn't say this is the best book he's written. But it's good. If you like that sort of thing.
    • 2/5
      Que? I want to like Chuck Palahniuk's work. I really do. This was just too out there for me. While I understood most of what was going on, I found my mind wandering and often times coming back to a page and having no idea what he was talking about. Even after reading, I'm still not sure I followed. I've also tried Haunted, and started Choke but couldn't finish. I dont think this genre (dark? complex? disgusting?) is for me.
    • 5/5
      Absolutely mind-blowing. I feel like I need to reread it to comprehend it. Amazing, dark, gritty, and at times hard to swallow... but incredible.
    • 1/5
      YUCK! I like Chuck Palahniuk's other novels that I have read (even though I have no idea how to pronounce his name). He is typically gross, vulgar, and out there. This was all of the above, but I didn't care about any of the characters, and it was written in a very odd format. Skip this one.
    • 2/5
      I've been a huge fan of Palahniuk's for years. But, I think...of late, it seems that he's pushing boundaries of what's "normal" by throwing a lot of stuff at the reader so that he or she can have one of those knee-jerk "that's so gross" or "that's so wild" reactions. I appreciate Chuck for who he is: a great storyteller of odd, eccentric personalities mixed with a little sci-fi/sci-fact. This book lacks a real story though it's got a DIVINE literary device telling the story (the oral biography dialogue is KILLER) but there's just too much that...just is for the sake of being weird...and I wish that hadn't been the case
    • 5/5
      Tampons and condoms on barb wire fences ha! A little implausable method of time travel but suspend disbelief and enjoy this crazy tale of time traveling incest. Awesome demento.
    • 4/5
      Rant is a very clever book full of odd mental pictures. I've found most of Chucks books leave you with at least one if not more haunting images that pop out of your head a different times in your life. From rabbies to razor blades this book takes you on an unlikely adventure full of car accidents and deep dark holes. Palahniuk has a way with words and this book is no exception. It is told in an interesting style through the words and eyes of many characters. I enjoyed it greatly, as I have most of his work. If your looking for something a little out of the norm with alot of punch for a rather short book, check it out.
    • 3/5
      If you loved Fight Club and want more of the same look no further here comes more shock and shlock. I have to give kudos to Chuck for mixing a tired scifi tale with some shock and awe mystery to twist things up and telling it feels like reality show interviews. While the innovation and creativity is to applauded the tale itself is forced and tiring. Just like Fight Club there are some great one liners, but there's not enough to save it in the end.I had trouble getting into the written book, but Audible has a recording that is a veritable listening feast with the number of readers. Personally, I give the audible version a 3 but the tale itself barely makes a 2.5.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed Rant a lot. I thought it was weird and different, but it really came together so well at the end. It is a bit difficult to really explain what I loved about the book without spoiling the plot a bit so I will do my best in that aspect. The book itself had some really interesting themes that were present. The main idea, kind of brought up pretty much from the opening scene, is that everybody views people in different ways. That these views can actually cause a single person to almost have an entirely different view of the same person that it is surprising that it is actually in fact the same person. And that we can make sure to act a particular way to influence the way we interact and are viewed by others. This is really taken to many levels in the novel from looking at it from perspectives of family members, friends, and community members. The story of the novel here is in my opinion well written. It keeps the reader interested without giving up too much and really pays off towards the end when a lot of the elements in the story really start to connect and it turns into a really satisfying experience. It is especially interesting if you take a step back at the end and just try to draw a mental timeline of the characters and the relationships in the novel. It becomes fascinating at this point to think about who is actaully influencing who and the cause of many of the major events in the novel. I also like the use of some random titles that you learn mean very different things then they first seem to mean, like the distinction of "historian" in the context of the story. There was actually not very much that I disliked about this novel. I though the pacing was right throughout the book, and the characters really felt like they had purpose and direction and developed in the story.
    • 5/5
      Palahniuk's best book in recent years.The character's are interestingly bizarre, and the story is completely messed up. It's like a return to the styling of Fight Club and Survivor.Definitely a must-read for fans of his.
    • 4/5
      Anarchist-redneck hydrophobe + car crash junkies + paradox denying time travel + oral history format = most convoluted idea for a book ever. I love it when terrible ideas turn out well. This book took a good bit of time after reading to digest what had just happened. Very entertaining.
    • 5/5
      Amazing. Chuck combines the idea of time travel with an alternate reality as a comment on today's politics of keeping the disenfranchished out of power and those with the power in. It's an "Oral biography of Rant Casey" and treats it's subject like the harbinger of the plague that will bring the human race to it's knees this century and also the savior of the species.