Posted by: Jessica Scott - Digital Marketing Assistant

Being new to Random House I have already been dazzled by the scope of books we produce and the quality of our authors, plus the people I work with have been awesome so I really didn’t think it could get any better. That is until they offered me movie passes. What? Seriously? The only thing I like at vaguely the same level as books is movies, so I eagerly said yes.

Last week I attended a sneak preview of the newest book into movie for Chuck Palahniuk. Choke, originally published in 2002, tells the story of Victor Mancini, a medical-school dropout, is an antihero for our deranged times. Needing to pay elder care for his mother, Victor has devised an ingenious scam: he pretends to choke on pieces of food while dining in upscale restaurants. He then allows himself to be “saved” by fellow patrons who, feeling responsible for Victor’s life, go on to send cheques to support him. When he’s not pulling this stunt, Victor cruises sexual addiction recovery workshops for action, visits his addled mom, and spends his days working at a colonial theme park.

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It was a fantastic movie and to be honest, like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I thought for sure I would hate Victor but Sam Rockwell did an amazing job at really making me feel sorry for him as well as try and understand the nature of sexual addiction. By far the most touching and dynamic performance was Anjelica Huston. She was superb as both the present day aging mother with dementia and in the flashbacks as a slightly-off, fugitive mother. There was a tangible conflict between Victor and his mother, a first class, love/hate relationship. The supporting cast rounded out the story line quite well and I feel like a number of them although for now are small name actors will have pretty impressive careers ahead of them. Fight Club already has a cult following and after seeing Choke I’m sure it will become another fan favourite. In fact it’s already got me thinking about what they would do for a film version of Chuck’s upcoming book, Pygmy. Hmmmm….