I'm beginning to doubt Palahniuk's versatility. After 4 books, he's really carving himself a niche portraying alienated loners protesting against the current society. That can be fun, but when it's combined with his unending fetish with "surprising" twists in the end that throw everything that's happened into a whole new light, the result is not unlike his characters: emotionally distant. Reading Palahniuk is more like solving a puzzle than reading a normal book.