sing me something soft..

rock-a-bye baby on the tree top
where the wind blows the cradle will rock
where the bow breaks the cradle will fall
and down will go baby cradle an all...

Weird the things we sing to infants to help them fall asleep. This famous lullaby is a bit cruel once you actually read the words. This is what came to mind as I was reading the book LULLABY, written by Chuck Palahniuk. This fiction tale follows reporter Carl Streator on his mission to destroy every copy of a culling song. What is a "culling song"? It's a lullaby sung in Africa to give a painless death to the old or infirm. The song, spoken or even just thought, is strong enough to kill.

This book was right up my alley. It was a bit of horror, bit of mystery, bit of magic, and a whole lot of sarcasm. I first read Fight Club last summer and hated it and was hesitant to pick up another one of Palahniuk's works but this one caught my eye and I'm really glad I chose to read it.

Palahniuk is a fabulous writer. Lullaby has two story lines going at once. There's the main story line, the present, that is 95% of the book. But in between a few chapters, he writes in italics. It was confusing at first but the storylines connect very well, especially at the end. I also loved Palahniuk's use of opposing ideas. He plays around with quiet vs. noisey - making up words such as "sound-o-holics" and "quiet-o-phobics". I laughed everytime the main character explains the TV noise from downstairs or the people shouting above him, simply because it's SO true. We as a society can't appreciate silence, with our i-pods always glued in our ears and the TV always on for background noise.

What didn't I like about the book? The middle drags a bit, and there's a whole LOT of commentary about G-d, the government, meat-eaters, etc. that was a little much for me. I understood the point and the subject matters were certainly lightened up with Palahniuk's sarcastic writing style but I found myself getting bored and somewhat annoyed at how often it was written about.

Other than that, no complaints. The book is 260 pages long and I read it in 4 hours...didn't eat dinner because I was so engrossed in it.

If you do decide to read it, you might notice the premise is a lot like the movie The Ring where whoever watches that tape dies. Similar storyline. In fact, I almost want to say he adopted the idea from the movie to almost make fun of it but put a new horrific twist on it.

In conclusion, I give Lullaby 4.5 out of 5 stars. If you do get a chance to read it, please share your insights. I'd love to hear them.