Week 2

I have currently read to page 244 of Invisible Monsters. So Far this is what has happened:

Palahniuk tends to jump back and forth from the past to the present throughout the book. The main character whose name is unknown grew up with a mom, a dad, and an older brother - a gay brother. Her parents weren't aware of their son, Shane's, orientation until one day his strep throat test came back as gonorrhea. He was always loved more than his sister prior to the gonorrhea because of an accident that took place a few years before. It was always Shane's job to burn the trash and one day a full can a of hairspray made its way into the trash , leaving Shane's face mangled and scorched. His sister was blamed for the accident and thats when favoritism began. All of this was warped when Shane turned out to be gay. His parents kicked him out of the house and a few years later a call informed that that their son had died.
The main character grew up to me a fashion model and worked alongside Los Angeles with her broad-shouldered, less attractive friend, Evie Cotrell. One day she was driving down the highway at night when a bullet flew through her windshield making a direct connection with her jaw. The entire jaw-bone was ripped off. Our main character drove herself to the hospital (I don't know how), but no one was able to perform surgery until the next morning. When doctors went to retrieve the missing jaw, only tiny sections were left scattered throughout the floor of the front seat. Birds had flown in through the shattered windshield and eaten the ex-model's face.
She spends months in the hospital and rehab healing and learning how to talk with just a dangling tongue and the roof of her mouth. When she is released, Evie asks her to house sit because she has a photo shoot in Cancun. That night at Evie's mansion, our main character's boyfriend, Manus Kelly breaks in to kill his girlfriend - to finish the job Evie, his lover, had started. His plan fails as his girlfriend locks him up, forces this giant conspiracy out of him, burns down Evie's house, and takes Manus unwillingly to meet the lovely Brandy Alexander.
Our main character met Brandy Alexander in speech therapy class. Brandy was like a goddess. She was gorgeously perfect with the perfect clothes and perfect hair. Brandy became the jawless girl's new mentor. She wanted to know nothing of her past and gave her a new name - Daisy St. Patience. Brandy became her new role-model, she would live through Brandy, if Brandy was beautiful, being associated with her would make her beautiful again.
Brandy tells Daisy of how she is currently undergoing a cross-gender surgery process. She is at the final step - the genitals and wants to go on a life-searching journey across the U.S. before she (or he) goes through with it. Brandy and her worshiper drag their slave, Manus with then on this journey. They develop a ploy to get drugs of which Miss Queen Alexander is so dependent upon. The three of them pretend to be interested in purchasing high class real estate. One of them distracts the agent downstairs with questions wile the other two tell him that they need to tour the upstairs where they proceed to raid the medicine cabinets fulfilling all of their narcotic desires.
One day Brandy asks Daisy is she knows of her childhood. She had never spoken about her past. Brandy tells her how she (he) was kicked out the house when her (his) parents found out that he was gay. She tells Daisy of her gorgeous younger sister of whom she was insanely jealous of and how part of her soul-searching journey would be finding her long-lost sister. Quite the goose chase I'd say.

Here is a block quote from Invisible Monsters that displays Palahniuk's style:

"Jump to how life was when you were a baby and you could only eat baby food. you'd stagger over to the coffee table. You're up on your feet and you have to keep waddling along on those Vienna sausage legs or fall down. Then you get to the coffee table and bounce your big soft baby head on the sharp corner. You're down, and man, oh man, it hurts. Still isn't anything tragic until Mom and AD run over. Oh you poor brave thing. Only then do you cry." (pg. 96)

I picked this quote because is shows Palahniuk's usage of common incidents and feelings that any reader can relate to. He moves back and forth in a staccato manner from realistic situations and people, to extremely out-there, surreal occurrences and ideas. The realistic stuff keeps his readers involved, while the crazy plot twists keep them guessing.