Cultured Travel Guide Books - Fugitives and Refugees: A Walk in Portland, Oregon (Crown Journeys) |
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List Price: $16.95
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 917.95490444
EAN: 9781400047833
ISBN: 1400047838
Label: Crown
Manufacturer: Crown
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 176
Publication Date: 2003-07-08
Publisher: Crown
Release Date: 2003-07-08
Studio: Crown |
| Spotlight Customer Reviews: |
Customer Rating:  
Summary: A different type of travel guide
Comment: This book is something different from Palahniuk, a view from his point of view about his town of Portland, Oregon. It's very different in the fact that he includes phone numbers and addresses for many of the places of interest that he speaks about, and between each "chapter" (rather categories of what to do) he includes a short peice he calls a postcard from the past, written at some point in his history in the city. All in all it's a good read, and something different but just as good from Palahniuk.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Glimpse into a Great City
Comment: If you like Chuck Palahniuk and have been to Portland, you will love this book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Drag Queens and Aborted Fetuses in Portland, OR
Comment: Okay, so it doesn't start off with a story about some kind of crazy sextravaganza out in middle America like his other nonfiction, "Stranger Than Fiction," but Chuck Palahniuk's "Fugitives and Refugees" still contains its share of interesting and absurd bedtime stories. For instance, there's the tunnel tour where woman throws a simulated aborted fetus at you, there's the elephants who bully each other, and there's even a potential suitor who left "DNA samples" on the couch during a first date. So, I guess what I'm saying is, it's still a pretty good book.
Nonetheless, it is a bit disjointed. The basic idea is you're going along on a walking tour of Portland, Oregon with one of the local residents (Palahniuk), and he's telling you all the weird, funny and gruesome stories of Portland's undocumented past. In that respect it can be a lot of fun, but like any tour, there were definitely parts that dragged and were kind of boring. For instance, while some of the museums he describes might be interesting to see in real life, it'd be difficult for even Shakespeare to describe them in any way that's remotely interesting.
Palahniuk's simplistically scant writing style shines through and keeps the pace going throughout, and there are plenty of bizarre occurrences he documents that make the tedious descriptions of things I didn't care about go by much more quickly. A showdown between a row of riot police and a row of Santas, for example, will definitely make you forget you just read 10 pages of recipes.
And that's all we can really hope for from life, isn't it? That something fascinating like a scholarship fund created by drag queens will overshadow any boring parts of "real life" that you don't need to remember. So thanks for the help with that, Chuck.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An interesting look at Portland
Comment: I was given this book as a gift and did not know what to expect. Though it was not a novel like other Palahniuk books I have read, I found that the quirky and humorous writing style made this voyeuristic romp through underground Portland highly entertaining. Though some of the highlighted attractions have closed their doors or are not open to the public, this is an interesting view into a side of the city that you will not find in the Frommer's guide.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Oregonian loving this book
Comment: I live in Eugene, OR... and LOVE this book! We take "trips" to our fave town all the time and love the people and places...Chuck does a great job of describing them like a native Oregonian (even though he technically isn't).
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| Editorial Reviews: |
Want to know where Chuck Palahniuk’s tonsils currently reside?
Been looking for a naked mannequin to hide in your kitchen cabinets?
Curious about Chuck’s debut in an MTV music video?
What goes on at the Scum Center?
How do you get to the Apocalypse Café?
In the closest thing he may ever write to an autobiography, Chuck Palahniuk provides answers to all these questions and more as he takes you through the streets, sewers, and local haunts of Portland, Oregon. According to Katherine Dunn, author of the cult classic Geek Love, Portland is the home of America’s “fugitives and refugees.” Get to know these folks, the “most cracked of the crackpots,” as Palahniuk calls them, and come along with him on an adventure through the parts of Portland you might not otherwise believe actually exist. No other travel guide will give you this kind of access to “a little history, a little legend, and a lot of friendly, sincere, fascinating people who maybe should’ve kept their mouths shut.”
Here are strange personal museums, weird annual events, and ghost stories. Tour the tunnels under downtown Portland. Visit swingers’ sex clubs, gay and straight. See Frances Gabe’s famous 1940s Self-Cleaning House. Look into strange local customs like the I-Tit-a-Rod Race and the Santa Rampage. Learn how to talk like a local in a quick vocabulary lesson. Get to know, I mean really get to know, the animals at the Portland zoo.
Oh, the list goes on and on.
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