Lullaby (Palahniuk novel)
First edition cover
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| Author | Chuck Palahniuk |
|---|---|
| Cover artist |
Rodrigo Corral Judy Manfredi |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Horror, satire |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
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Publication date
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September 17, 2002 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 272 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 48871773 |
| 813/.54 21 | |
| LC Class | PS3566.A4554 L86 2002 |
Lullaby is a horror-satire novel by American author Chuck Palahniuk, published in 2002. It won the 2003 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award, and was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel in 2002.
In 1999 Chuck's father, Fred Palahniuk, began dating an Idaho woman named Donna Fontaine. Fontaine had recently put her ex-husband Dale Shackleford in prison for sexual abuse. Shackleford had vowed to kill Fontaine as soon as he was released. After his release, Shackleford followed Fred Palahniuk and Fontaine home from a date to her apartment in Kendrick, Idaho. After shooting Fred Palahniuk in the abdomen and Fontaine in the back of the neck, Shackleford left them to die, though he allegedly returned to the scene multiple times to attempt to start a fire large enough to destroy the evidence.
After Shackleford's arrest Chuck Palahniuk was asked to be part of the decision as to whether Shackleford would receive the death sentence. Palahniuk had worked in a hospital and as a crime reporter and struggled with his stance on capital punishment. Over the next few months he began working on Lullaby. According to him it was a way to cope with the decision he had to make regarding Shackleford's death. In the spring of 2001 Shackleford was found guilty for two counts of murder in the first degree. A month after Palahniuk finished Lullaby Shackleford was sentenced to death.
Lullaby uses a framing device, alternating between the normal, linear narrative and the temporal end after every few chapters. Palahniuk often uses this format alongside a major plot twist near the end of the book which relates in some way to this temporal end (what Palahniuk refers to as "the hidden gun").
Lullaby starts with Mr. Streator talking to the reader, narrating where he is today and why he is going to tell us the backstory that will give us perspective on his current situation. "Still, this isn't a story about here and now. Me, the Sarge, the Flying Virgin. Helen Hoover Boyle. What I'm writing is the story of how we met. How we got here" [pg. 9].
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