Really a collection of stories, ranging from a sort of greatness (the surrealist vigilantism of "Civil Twilight", or the fact that multiple Palahniuk fans, who presumably knew what they were getting themselves into, fainted during readings of "Guts") to utter inanity. And most inane of all, the useless framing "novel" that attempts to gather up the individual stories but actually just scatters them all over while destroying any empathy their individual characters might otherwise command. Just read all the stories first, then go back and read the frame if you really must.