Pygmy Review

Pygmy By Chuck Palahniuk




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Coming off of the popularity of Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey and the ever-controversial Snuff, Chuck Palahniuk’s next release in the wildly satirical storytelling is Pygmy the story of a militant youth that is a secret operative for a plan called Operation Havoc. Agent 67, known as Pygmy to his peers, must infiltrate the immoral homes of the American public and declare mass destruction from the inside. Along with several other operatives, all highly trained in killer tactics and over exceeding an intelligence superior than the working class Middle American town they attack, are a threat to the evil freedom that is American democracy, which also makes for an outrageously hysterical story.
Pygmy is told through “Operative Me” Agent 67, in little notes similar to a log or journal and tells the story of his life with the family that took him in as a foreign exchange student, made up of a “pig brother”, “cat sister”, “chicken mother”, and “cow father”. From Pygmy’s perspective, we get a great understanding of ourselves through the eyes of an foreign enemy, that has no remorse or regret for dismantling all that America stands to represent. Pygmy shows a strong socialist view that if the state does not succeed from an activity, then it is deemed worthless, as shown in the sections that express Pygmy’s opinions on school activities, such as Music class and Gym class.
The story unfolds as a blatant satire on the xenophobia of America, and the daily scare that something God awful will happen to the United States. This novel is justified by being so hysterical in some points, one has to have a bit of a little devil in them when they laugh, but it feels so good to laugh at the controversies.
During a setting that was sure-fired to be one of the most unique takes on how one views our culture the main character is seen at a church. Pygmy describes the statue of the crucifixation, and it is hilarious the little guy’s take on the whole scenario. The next best part of this entire novel is the symbolism found underneath every aspect of the novel, even some of the more grotesque details, have the most useful bit of information that foreshadows the dispatches later on in this memoir-style novel.
Like many of his works, Palahniuk uses a narrative-style in Pygmy to tell the tale, and this gives us an in-depth look at a young boy that wants nothing but to forward his native land’s agenda to finish off America, a country of which he holds responsible for the death of his family, which we the reader do not truly find out if it was fact or an inside job to mess with the psyche of their little assassin. What we do find out that Pygmy himself is a bright young boy that excels vividly in all areas of school, martial arts, and tactical espionage to keep him, and other operatives well excelled on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. The little killer is a great homage to other great characters in history and some that are monstrous as he quotes others to fulfill his internal goals by the end of every dispatch. Pygmy does decidedly make his point argued through the words of Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, D.H. Lawrence, and Mao Te Tung, along with numerous historical figures.
What we learn is that despite the satirical undertones, we see the great old story of frustrated youth that buried underneath is but a child yearning for love. The novel exposes a child that has hardships, and learning the basic fundamentals of humanity: love, deceit, humiliation, and aggressive behavior. Violent outbursts feel almost cartoon-ish in the way Palahniuk describes them, but the feelings and emotions, although told in a simple English hit harder than any sentence structure of the greatest writers to date.
Pygmy is one novel that any concerned American should read to at lest relax them a bit, and to show that the world isn’t always out to get them, while placing some of the blame of all the world’s problems on ourselves, and compensating for the benefit of the doubt that we are not all tyrant monsters in the states, and there are worst evils that are more unjustified than our nation of fast-food junkies. Do not expect any apologies from this work, but do expect a great storyteller to do his best in this novel. I personally look forward to the next work that this young, talented storyteller has to offer, and I do hope it can top Pygmy.
Pygmy being such a brilliant character to win over the hearts of his potential victims is the ultimate showmanship of Stockholm syndrome (Defined as a feeling of trust or affection a victim has towards the villain that has placed them in jeopardy.) This is one theme that has willed its way into the novel that confesses to the psyche of the Post-911 American, and feeds off the idea that perhaps the world as we know it could be worst off than it already stands.