Chuck Palahnhiuk Appears at Vroman’s in Pasadena

The Chuck Palahnhiuk reading was pretty intense. I went two hours early, and the large courtyard at Vroman’s was already pretty much full. Hundreds and hundreds of people eventually showed up. It was a young crowd — I’d guess 80% of the attendees were 16-24 — and tattoos and piercings were much in evidence. There were also a lot of people, including a lot of guys, wearing wedding dresses. Palahnhiuk cycled between reading short fiction, telling stomach-turning anecdotes, answering questions, reading notable fan letters, and asking trivia questions about his books. (Answering one of these questions correctly would win you a giant inflatable moose head.) Each time Palahnhiuk offered to answer a question, the teenage girl sitting in front of me would whimper, squirm ecstatically, throw up her arms, and cry out, “Mr. Chuck! Mr. Chuck!” But he never called on her. I really enjoyed his short story “Cold Calling,” about a teenage guy who works in telemarketing and is constantly being harangued by the ignorant folks he calls because they all assume he’s from India. At the end of the event, Palahniuk tossed dozens of inflatable hamburgers and severed limbs into the crowd.