And that when you try to ignore both the possibilities and limitations of the novel as opposed to the graphic novel you begin to run into trouble. Certainly, to me, the novel–and I’m making the assumption that the PR accurately depicts Palahniuk’s influences only for purposes of this argument–showed that some types of absurdity, some types of “funny” violence only really work when depicted in animation. The ridiculous scenes would’ve had more of an edge. The indoctrination scenes could’ve still been bloody but in cartoon context had more of an element of the absurd. I think this is an accurate description of the novel, and a good indicator of one of the main problems with it: the tone veers wildly across scenes of blood-curdling indoctrination and what I can only call schoolboy-snicker “vibrator mise en scene.” As I read the novel, I was continually struck by how the material therein could’ve worked as some unholy variation on the TV cartoon Family Guy. For example, the PR for the book describes it as a cross between South Park and The Manchurian Candidate. I had a lot more to say than can fit into a 450-word review, though. Pygmy and his fellow undersize operatives hope to unleash a biochemical Operation Havoc on an unsuspecting United States. “Host father,” as Pygmy calls him, works for the Radiological Institute of Medicine and has access to biotoxins. An infiltrating agent from a nameless authoritarian country, Pygmy poses as a high school exchange student and joins the Midwestern family of Donald Cedar. Sloppy yet smart, Chuck Palahniuk’s “Pygmy” veers from sublimely ridiculous to just plain ridiculous, sometimes within a single paragraph. My review of Chuck Palahniuk’s Pygmy just appeared in the Washington Post.

Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk