Chuck Palahniuk is an American writer with Ukrainian roots, who has attracted genuine interest from critics and the public with his works for many years. His novels are criticized and loved, banned and nominated for awards. And he remains true to himself and his writing style.
Biography
Chuck Palahniuk was born in Pascoe, Washington State (USA) on February 21, 1962. But with his parents and three older brothers he lived in the city of Burbank in a small carriage. He witnessed the constant quarrels of adults and was not surprised when they decided to divorce. At that time he was 14 years old. Since that time, he and his brothers have become frequent guests on the ranch with their grandparents, and it is here that his love for literature arises. At the age of 20, he enters the University of Oregon to study journalism, takes a part-time job at National Public Radio (NPR) as an intern. Thanks to his extensive experience at NPR, after graduating from university in 1986, he easily got a job as a staff journalist for a Portland newspaper.
In parallel with this, he begins to look for himself as a writer of fiction and in 1988 decides to leave the post of journalist.
Realizing that he lacks life experience to write books, he starts volunteering. First in a homeless shelter, and later in a hospice. There, his duties included transporting people doomed to death to meetings with a support group. And he leaves the hospice after the death of the patient to whom he was attached. This period of his life was emotionally difficult for him, but the experience that he received, he remembered and later reflected in the novel "Fight Club".
After the hospice, he falls into a group that consisted mainly of drunks and brawlers. That in the future will also be reflected in his books.
To get out of an emotionally unstable state, Chuck Palahniuk begins attending Tom Spawnbauer's writing courses and at the age of 35 he starts writing books.
Career
Until the age of 35, Chuck Palahniuk was looking for himself, looking for his own path to success. His first manuscripts for that period - "Insomnia: If you lived here, you were already at home" and "Invisibles" - the publishing houses refused to accept for publication. But "Fight Club", which was written with aggression, received a great response from publishers and the public. But he was unable to sign a contract with any literary agent. And only in 1999, recognition and fame came to him after the release on the big screen of a picture based on the book of the same name "Fight Club". In the same year, he re-submitted to the publishing house the edited manuscript of "Invisible", which was subsequently literally swept off the shelves of bookstores.
In 2002 the book "Lullaby" was published. This work was written by Chuck Palahniuk under the impression of the events that happened to him. So, in 1999, after success came to him, he learns about the death of his father, who was killed and burned along with his beloved Donna Fontaine. The perpetrator turned out to be Donna's former roommate, who went to jail according to her testimony in court for rape.
In 2003, the controversial novels "Diary" and "More Fantastic than Fiction" were published. And in the same year, the shops received an autobiography novel and at the same time a guide to Portland - the city where the writer lived and worked for a long time - "Runaways and Tramps".
In 2008, the novel Suffocation was published and directed by Clark Gregg. In Russia, the picture was released on January 15, 2009.
In 2010, the novel Who Will Tell Everything was published, and it is recognized as the brightest novel about Hollywood stars of the 50s. The work was translated into Russian in 2012.
Personal life
Chuck Palahniuk does not flaunt his private life. And for a long time it was believed that he was married, until they published an interview with Karen Welby, where she denied this fact. Today, the writer does not deny that he is gay and lives with a partner in the suburbs of Vancouver.
Chuck Palahniuk is a kind of writer of our time. Not everyone can understand his works, but those who could fell in love. And although many works cause, as Palahniuk himself says, slight nausea, the number of admirers of his work does not diminish.
