‘Fight Club’ author

will join ‘Readin’ in the Rain’
University alumnus Chuck Palahnuik will speak on Ken Kesey’s life and art at 7 p.m. today in the University Bookstore.
The discussion will be a part of “Readin’ in the Rain,” a new city-wide reading program that currently features reading and discussions of Kesey’s novel “Sometimes a Great Notion.”
Palahnuik, a 1986 journalism graduate, hit the literary scene in 1996 with the release of the comically perverse, male-bonding drama “Fight Club.” 20th Century Fox subsequently made the book into a hit movie starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton. Palahnuik is also the author of three other books, including his most recent “Choke.” His fifth novel, “Lullaby” will be published in the fall.
Don’t expect Palahnuik to read from his own work, said Tom Gerald, author events coordinator at the Bookstore. Rather, Palahnuik would like to lead a discussion on Kesey.
“Chuck is an artist who has great respect for what Kesey did,” Gerald said. “And he very specifically wants this discussion to be about Ken Kesey.”
Gerald said he approached Palahnuik to participate in “Reading in the Rain” because he sees a strong similarities between the two Oregon novelists. Gerald called Kesey books such as “One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest” and “Sometimes a Great Notion” allegories that tapped straight into the zeitgeist of a generation. He said Palahnuik also connects in a similar vein with a younger generation. “Just observing younger people, Chuck really has plugged into something that rings true to their generation.”

— John Liebhardt