chuck palahniuk's lullaby

I heard November as the date.

Dunno what it is about though, a search might be in order, I think Moriarty at AICN reviewed it.

From the official Chuck Palahniuk website:

Author: Chuck Palahniuk

Publisher: Randomhouse Doubleday

Release Date: September, 2002 (tentative) - October 28th (announced on bookstore computers)

What it's About: A newspaper reporter is investigating sudden infant death syndrome for a soft-news feature. After responding to several calls with paramedics, he notices that all the dead children were read the same poem from the same library book the night before they died. It's a "culling song -- an ancient African spell for euthanizing sick people or old people. Researching it, he meets a woman who killed her own child with it accidentally. He himself killed his own wife and child with the same poem, accidentally, twenty years earlier. Together, the man an the woman must find and destroy all copies of this book, and try not to kill every rude sonofabitch that gets in their way. It's a comedy/drama/tragedy. In that order."

Movie Prospects: Lullaby is currently in a small development stage in Hollywood. UTA sent out the manuscript to certain companies yet no rights have yet been optioned. It was rumored that David Fincher had signed on to direct the feature. Yet this is not true. Fincher acquired the book through Trent Reznor, who sent him a copy that Chuck had mailed to him. But as of now, nobody is attached to the project.

Chuck's Thoughts: "The story is me metaphorically hashing over the idea of the death penalty. As part of victim's rights in Idaho, I have to talk to a judge and help determine the sentence for the man who killed my father. All my life, I've favored capital punishment, but now that it's a real possibility, I don't know."

Dennis' Quick Thoughts: Do I have any comments on this? Yes... the first thing I will say about Lullaby is this: I like it a lot. At first reading, I didn't like it all that much and viewed it as my least favorite of his books. On second reading... it jumped up greatly and now sits quite high on my list. How high? I won't say. Let's just say that Lullaby DEMANDS multiple readings. More so than any other Palahniuk novel. Why? Because, like Survivor, there are many hidden sub-stories going on in Lullaby that Chuck still wants to flesh out. Realize that, the copy that's going around Hollywood right now is only a second draft. Chuck emailed me, explaining how he wants to make many changes to it in the form of a third draft, which will greatly improve the narrative. But like I said... I like it anyway. So it'd be a shame if Fincher opted not to even bother reading the book, based solely on how his development exec felt.

More: September 2002 may be a long way to wait for Lullaby's release... but Chuck is already more than halfway through his next book, which he hopes to release much sooner.

Chuck also told us that his editor thought he should tone down the horror of Lullaby, since it was "too scary." Chuck reminded him that it was he that wanted all the lipo-soap scenes cut from Fight Club. You'll be happy to hear that Chuck has since over-ruled his editor's proposal and Lullaby will remain a total scare-fest.

Chuck's agent, Edward Hibbert told The Cult, that Lullaby "is like Rosemary's Baby moving into Stephen King territory."

News Threads:
(most recent at top)

- 3.16.02: Chuck revealed to me on the phone last week that the cover for Lullaby will show a dead bird, witchcraft style. Sorry, no dead infants, fellas

Here's the link:

<a href="http://www.chuckpalahniuk.net/lullaby.htm" target="_blank">http://www.chuckpalahniuk.net/lullaby.htm</a>

My God he comes up with some crazy stories.

Sounds cool.

Chuck is my Lord and Savior.

Chuck Palaniuk--&gt;Trent Reznor--&gt;David Fincher.

It's like the holy trinity in one post.

This sound like 'Ring' to anybody else?

Hmmm, kinda, now that you bring it out.

\m/ Rock on!

I live for him. Bring it already!

I read more about it today on his website. And I can't stress this enough, I can't wait to see him do straight horror.