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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780385722193
ISBN number: 0385722192
Label: Anchor
Manufacturer: Anchor
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 272
Printing Date: July 29, 2002
Publishing house: Anchor
Release Date: July 29, 2003
Sale Popularity Level: 6764
Studio: Anchor
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Product Description:
Ever heard of a culling song? It’s a lullaby sung in Africa to give a painless death to the old or infirm. The lyrics of a culling song kill, whether spoken or even just thought. You can find one on page 27 of Poems and Rhymes from Around the World, an anthology that is sitting on the shelves of libraries across the country, waiting to be picked up by unsuspecting readers.
Reporter Carl Streator discovers the song’s lethal nature while researching Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, and before he knows it, he’s reciting the poem to anyone who bothers him. As the body count rises, Streator glimpses the potential catastrophe if someone truly malicious finds out about the song. The only answer is to find and destroy every copy of the book in the country. Accompanied by a shady real-estate agent, her Wiccan assistant, and the assistant’s truly annoying ecoterrorist boyfriend, Streator begins a desperate cross-country quest to put the culling song to rest.
Written with a style and imagination that could only come from Chuck Palahniuk, Lullaby is the latest outrage from one of our most exciting writers at work today.
Amazon.com:
The consequences of media saturation are the basis for an urban nightmare in Lullaby, Chuck Palahniuk's darkly comic and often dazzling thriller. Assigned to write a series of feature articles investigating SIDS, troubled newspaper reporter Carl Streator begins to notice a pattern among the cases he encounters: each child was read the same poem prior to his or her death. His research and a tip from a necrophilic paramedic lead him to Helen Hoover Boyle, a real estate agent who sells 'distressed' (demonized) homes, assured of their instant turnover. Boyle and Streator have both lost children to 'crib death,' and she confirms Streator's suspicions: the poem is an ancient lullaby or 'culling song' that is lethal if spoken--or even thought--in a victim's direction. The misanthropic Streator, now armed with a deadly and uncontrollably catchy tune, goes on a minor killing spree until he recognizes his crimes and the song's devastating potential. Lullaby then turns into something of a road trip narrative, with Streator, Boyle, her empty-headed Wiccan secretary Mona, and Mona's vigilante boyfriend Oyster setting out across the U.S. to track down and destroy all copies of the poem.
In his previous works, including the cult favorite Fight Club, Palahniuk has demonstrated a fondness for making statements about the condition of humanity, and he uses Lullaby like a blunt object to repeatedly overstate his generally dim view. Such dogmatic venom undermines the persuasiveness of his thesis about mass communication and free will, but thankfully, Palahniuk offers some respite here by allowing for sympathy and love, as well as through his razor-sharp humor, such as his mock listings for Helen's possessed properties: 'six bedrooms, four baths, pine-paneled entryway, and blood running down the kitchen walls....' At such moments, Lullaby casts a powerful spell. --Ross Doll
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers -
This my very first time reading Palahniuk. To say that he's unique is an understatement. "Lullaby" starts with normal characters but quickly unfolds into the strangest world imaginable. The pages turn quickly to build a unique place with strange events. Dark humour seeps unexpectedly from aberrant places. The reality presented becomes distorted and twisted, molded into a strange, mystical actuality. At times, as other reviewers mentioned, I felt that I was not be getting the full dramatic effect out of my reading, as if I couldn't grasp what was occurring. Although, by completion, the novel spoke to me with a depth and intensity I have not experienced before. For those who have read the Amazon review, I agree that Chuck Palahniuk expresses potent themes on human control and nature through "Lullaby". I recommend this novel to those seeking impact and an ending you will reflect on.
Thank you for reading,
C.K.
Rated by buyers 
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This is the second "Chuck book" I've read, the very first of course being "Fight Club". I was interested in seeing what else he could do with his writing. In this book he draws you in and almost forces you to relate to the characters in some way, whether it's the main character/narrator guy, the woman or the kids. They are all there for something different. I will recommend it to anyone who would like a quick read just for the sake of forming your own opinion. Be warned this guy is twisted in the worst way.
Rated by buyers 
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This book is so relevant!
I've read some of his other work, and this by and far is the best. He hits on so many things that relate to the world today.
Yes, it has dark dark humour in it, but that is what really opens your eyes to the other comments in his book. The shock factor is what makes you vulnerable into listening! This was a great book and I recommend it to anyone who wants to open their eyes!
Rated by buyers -
While I do feel like this book was well written, it left me feeling a bit cheated. I wanted to be a little more scared, a little more surprised and shocked by plot twists. It may have been that I expected to much out of my very first Palahniuk novel, but frankly, I was disappointed.
I felt that Lullabye lacked in plot and focused too much on social and political commentary. It was a quick and fairly easy read, keeping me entertained enough to finish in 2 days but I kept waiting for something more to happen...and then the book ended.
I enjoyed his style and will most likely try another one of his novels, but if your new to Palahniuk, don't read this first.
Rated by buyers -
When I very first heard the premise behind "Lullaby", I thought it sounded rather flimsy: there exists a lullaby that causes anyone who hears it to drop dead as soon as they fall asleep, and it is, thus, the cause of all SIDS deaths. I could work out how a book with such a concept could begin, but I couldn't figure out anything beyond that. This is why Chuck Palahniuk is such a great author. He did, and he came up with such a convincing and exciting story that it kept me wondering what was going to happen subsequent right to the end.
Here is a more detailed synopsis of the plot, for those with the same doubts as I had: after being assigned to write a series of human interest articles on SIDS deaths, journalist Carl Streator discovers that the one linking factor behind all of these deaths is a particular lullaby in a book of children's poetry. Then, along with a real estate agent who specializes in selling haunted houses, the real estate agent's Wiccan secretary, and the secretary's Wiccan boyfriend, Streator embarks on a road trip across America to locate every copy of the poetry book, and the original magic book from which they believe the lullaby came from, and destroy every one of them.
Yes, the premise of this novel is far fetched (and that's just the parts of the book that I've told you - wait until you get read the end) and yet, every character within the novel's reality behaves in a thoroughly believable way. This is one of the most original books that I have read, and as a result, it is virtually impossible to guess the subsequent twist of the plot.
This if Palahniuk's fourth novel, and the very first of his trilogy of "horror" novels, along with "Diary" and "Haunted". I have now read all of Palahniuk's novels, with the exception of his latest book, "Snuff", and I would consider "Lullaby" to be among his best. I used to be able to rank all of the Palahniuk novels, but the more of his books I read, the more I realize that he has written so many good books, that I find it impossible to pick just one favourite, and even a bad Palahniuk novel is better than most of the novels that are being published at the moment.
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