Chuck Palahniuk on death, grief, and telemarketing

Photo © Shawn Grant

"As I wrote the book I was caring for my mother who was dying of lung cancer. My father was dead. And I needed a story that would express my overwhelming grief. No one wants to read a "requiem novel" where a middle-aged adult mourns dead parents—and that didn't strike me as very fun to write—so I inverted the situation and wrote about a dead child who could still mourn and miss her parents."

Chuck Palahniuk talks about his new novel, Damned, in a new interview with Thomas Batten, live now on our site. (You'll have to click through to find out what this all has to do with telemarketing.)