Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk only quietly, reluctantly came out of the closet a few years ago in an Advocate interview, after letting a statement in 1999 that he had "a wife" go as the official word for almost a decade following his bestselling fame (he's actually had the same male partner for some nineteen years). It makes sense, we suppose, given that he's one of the only writers of literary fiction in recent decades to gain a following among disaffected straight men under the age of 30, most of whom see Fight Club as a kind of twenty-first century bible of disaffection. Right after Fight Club, Palahniuk published a novel that he'd actually written first called Invisible Monsters that wasn't quite as widely read, and is way more obviously gay and campy the main characters include a kleptomaniac pre-op transsexual and a model whose jaw was blown off in a drive-by highway shooting. Now, V.W. Norton is republishing the book in its first hardcover edition, with new material and graphic elements that weren't in the original. And to promote the book, Palahniuk is coming to San Francisco for a Commonwealth Club event at the Castro Theatre on July 16.
Palahniuk had to edit the book back in 1999 because his publisher found it too disturbing, so we imagine some of the original disturbing stuff is back, as well as these new design elements, and some sort of "memoir" that's interlaced in the book as well.
On the 16th he'll be in conversation with local novelist Tom Barbash, and the event starts at 7 p.m., with a book signing at 8 p.m.
Admission is $20 or $10 for Commonwealth Club members. Get tickets here.
