I had some measure of dislike for virtually all of the characters, although I did find myself sympathizing with many of them a lot more than I would've expected to had they been described to me objectively, out of the context of the novel. I did find them believable, though, within the confines of the story, and basically self-consistent in their behavior (with one notable exception, which I'll get to in a moment). Their experiences were weird and other-worldly, at times, compared to my own, although only in the extreme nature of the choices they made; the core issues with which they dealt were pretty universal -- or at the very least, certainly I could relate to them in many respects. Interestingly, the characters that I found the least believable were the ones that, arguably, conformed the most to conventional societal roles: Shannon and Shane's parents. I think I feel that way because while they started out as the most "grounded," realistic characters, they became, as the story went on, more and more of a caricature of themselves. Conversely, the other characters seemed to be moving in the opposite direction to the parents' story arc: while the parents became more weird and distorted, the "oddball" characters, who were bizarre to begin with, seemed to me to become more grounded and rational -- more fully fleshed out, their motivations more understandable -- as the plot progressed.

Because I cared about Shannon and Brandy Alexander the most, I guess I'd have to say that they were my favorite characters. (And I guess if really pressed, I'd have to say Brandy was my #1.) I was genuinely moved by their plight at times, especially at the very end of the story. Was Shannon a reliable narrator? Well, she was a winning narrator, I'll grant her that. I was eager to go pretty much wherever she wanted to lead me, because hers was such a lively, unpredictable voice. At the same time, after finishing the book, I have to wonder if she was ever real at all; if Shannon was, in fact, Shane, indulging his overactive imagination as a result of spending so many hours on his back in hospital beds from repeatedly going under the knife. Either way, I'd have to say Shannon was a reliable narrator given the wild ride of the narrative. Meanwhile, Shane/Brandy Alexander gets my vote as the character that had the greatest impact on the story. She was the center of Shannon's universe; Shannon seemed to orbit around her. Specifically, Shannon seemed to be able to define a place for herself in the world only as it related to that of her brother or his alter ego, "the Princess."

jeff | June 18, 2002 1:54 AM

"Repellant" pretty much sums up the big four - Shane, Shannon, Evie and Manus. I had a not-gorgeous-girl's trouble sympathizing with Shannon -- "Oh, you poor wee beautiful creature! Life is so hard for you, being gorgeous and adored!" Granted, there are aspects that suck, but nothing that I could imagine would suck so much as to warrant a shooting-your-face-off sort of response. (That may say more about me and my issues than it does about the book, though.)

I found Brandy/Shane (at first) and Evie more real -- i can buy rebuilding/mutilating yourself to become perfect. I can't buy putting yourself through that sort of pain and agony because, as Brandy says, it's the last thing you want to do. Maybe i'm missing something, but I don't get it.

I also found the parents' reaction close to realistic, or at least imaginable. I can see denial working on you in such a way as to warrant that sort of response. i think it was overblown, but I can see it.

Manus - I didn't really see any redeeming features to him whatsoever. Nothing could make him sympathetic in my eyes, except his pathetic quest for attractiveness when his arrest ratio started to fall. But since he didn't or couldn't acknowledge that, couldn't let himself believe that he was vulnerable or fallible or whatever, that wore off. There was too much about him that just turned my stomach. I thought Shannon's idea of revenge -- to spike his food with female hormones and take him farther and farther away from his ideal -- was pretty damn funny and appropriate.

Sarah | June 18, 2002 10:37 AM

I agree wholeheartedly with sarah. Repugnant, all of them. Shannon is the worst, the villain of the story. Poor little supermodel.wah.wah.wah. She is running around destroying lives. She does get points for creativity in spiking Manus' food...but she totally deserves the dumb-as-dirt, loser piece of shit. "Even now, I still love him" WHY?!

Believable? Well, given my sheltered suburban existence...NOT. They are all way over the top. Funny, yes. Believable, no. Maybe you have to live in LA or something. Shouldn't Brandy be dead from a drug overdose? Ok...the nun in the hopsital was true to life. But does anyone know people like these? (Not that I wouldn't mind meeting the Rhea sisters. "Sofonda Peters" oooh, I just loved that name!) The parents were hilarious - great comic roles. (I see Holly Hunter and Ned Beatty in the movie)So I guess I liked them the best. But Shannon - She's a detestable, ice cold, self-pitying, spiteful, conniving, selfish, waste of human flesh.
As to who has the most impact...I vote Shannon since she is the driving force of the story's action. However, she is so tied into Brandy/Shane that he could also be argued as the main player. As Jeff pointed out above, Shannon's choices and behaviors ultimately revolve around Brandy/Shane. Shannon's guilt over her treatment of her brother is likely the root cause of all the self-loathing and destruction.

Jeff...about whether or not Shannon truly exists... was there something specific in the text that suggested she was a figment of Shane's imagination?

barbara | June 18, 2002 2:16 PM

No, Barbara, I wasn't thinking of anything in the text that suggested that Shannon might be a figment of Shane's imagination, apart from the similarity of their names, the fact that they'd both had the experience of being facially disfigured, and Shannon's seemingly total disappearance at the end (as if she'd never existed? thought I). Wondering that aloud was mostly just a figment of my imagination, based in large part on the fact that Shannon didn't reveal Brandy Alexander's and Seth's true identities until very late in the game. (My speculation was something along the lines of, "Hmm, Shannon's been stringing us along for several hundred pages, making us think things were other than they appeared; wouldn't it be just like someone like that to want to play another trick on us, even after the story's ostensibly over, and try to fool us into believing that the Gospel according to Shannon was how it really went down? We've seen how talented Shane, as Brandy Alexander, is at inventing alternative realities and scenarios out of whole cloth, at the drop of a hat; isn't it possible that Shannon was just another of those fictions?" Something like that.)

jeff | June 18, 2002 4:16 PM

(I was just re-reading my previous comment, and I realized that what I said -- especially my first sentence -- might've come across as rude and sarcastic, which wasn't my intent at all! I hope nobody thought that was the case, and if so, my humblest apologies. Just being Mr. Hypersensitive A Few Hours Too Late here, nothing to see, please move along now... ;)

jeff | June 18, 2002 7:08 PM

My favorite character is Brandy Alexander, the Queen Supreme. I think she's the most well-written and suspect Palahniuk spent some time researching drag queens in order to make her as grandiose as possible.

I also particularly enjoyed the Rhea sisters. Great names.

Shannon on the other hand is so not like a woman. Did anyone else notice that?

mary | June 18, 2002 10:22 PM

Jeff has an interesting theory on Shannon being a figment of Brandy's imagination. We should explore that more when we get to discussing the ending.

mary | June 18, 2002 10:26 PM

Shannon is so not like a human! (But not too many male authors can write female characters terribly well) Mary, can you expand on your observation?

barbara | June 19, 2002 10:07 AM

When women commit suicide (although I don't think Shannon's intention was suicide), they don't generally shoot themselves in the head with guns. Psychologically, it has something to do with not messing up the face. I didn't really buy the whole "I have to destroy my face because I hate myself and need to make the biggest mistake possible in life in order to change its momentum" thing.

As a woman, I experience the entire spectrum of human emotions every single day. Sometimes even in a single hour. Shannon seemed to only have two: hate and what she thinks is love.

mary | June 20, 2002 12:07 AM

The reason I said that I can relate to Shannon, as well as to at least aspects of all the characters, isn't because I, also, think I'm too beautiful and am bored with it (ha!), but because she doesn't like herself for whatever reasons, and can tend to be self-destructive because of it. (Now that I can relate to. ;) I see her shooting herself in the face as an extreme expression of that self-destructive impulse ("self-destructive" short of taking one's own life, that is), and used in the story to heighten the drama and focus attention on Shannon's existential dilemma.

Or something like that.

As for her not being too believable as a woman, well, I'm agreeing with everything everyone has to say on that subject, which means that I don't know what to think. (But then, since I suppose it could be argued that one of the sets of words I live by is, "Mystery, thy name is woman" -- and I mean that in a good way, incidentally -- I guess that's entirely appropriate.) Anyhow, I will say that it didn't occur to me to question her believability as a female character until some of you brought it up. I don't say any of this as a cop-out, even though that's probably the practical result. I'm just... well, I don't know. At least not yet.

jeff | June 20, 2002 12:30 AM