Book Review: Not Forever but For Now, by Chuck Palahniuk

By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez

Not Forever but For Now” by Chuck Palahniuk
c.2023, Simon & Schuster  $25.99  256 pages

You always wanted the family business.

Started by your grandfather, nurtured by your parents, aunts, and uncles, you hoped to be the next generation of caretakers to help it grow, succeed, and readied for its owners in the future. You trained all your life to take the reins of the Family Empire, and in the new book “Not Forever but For Now” by Chuck Palahniuk, you’ll do it, even if it kills you.

They were probably too big to be in a nursery, but he didn’t care.

If the nannies were willing to shave him as he sat in the porcelain bathtub, Cecil was fine with things as they were. Once in awhile, his brother, Otto, had to kill a nanny or a butler, but that was life and it was good, if not a little messy.

And as long as they were in the nursery, they could make plans for other awful things they’d do to people nearby, the drunkards and yobs and loose women, and Otto could spin tales of baby kangaroos and peccaries.  As long as they were there, the family business assignments they got from Grandfather were never more than to steal expensive cars and pricey grown-up toys, wreck them, ruin them, and then get rid of them.

Otto found a wonderful lake for that, and Cecil loved to watch things go underwater. He also loved to act out the story that he and Otto grew up hearing, the story of how Grandfather had climbed up a downspout and slithered into Judy Garland’s bathroom to kill her and start a revolution in rainbow.

Grandfather said he’d done the same kind of thing with Dorothy Kilgallen and Marilyn Monroe. Mummy did the Princess Diana job and Daddy had assignments before he disappeared, though to Grandfather, Daddy was worthless. Otto was next in line but like the baby animals on their favorite nature shows, Otto could be soft.

And then Cecil got his first assignment…

If you’re a fan of author Chuck Palahniuk, then you rather know what to expect when you’ll start “Not Forever but For Now.” Never read Palahniuk? Ah, then the word “beware!” should be in screaming neon atop this cover.

For a long many pages inside this novel, very little will make sense, as if the book’s chapters have been thrown in a blender and frappéd on high speed. It’s debauched and demented, deviant to a large degree, violent, and extremely unsettling. Chaotic, there’s another word you could use. Wince-worthy. Flirting with offensiveness.

But also wonderfully, bitingly satiric, extremely clever in the details, and told in a most deliciously sarcastic, “twee” upper-crust British voice. Readers who relish mayhem and total, utter confusion will be thrilled with that, and with this whirlwind of a horror book. Yeah, it’s very good, but…

But keep in mind that neon “beware!” sign, because “Not Forever but For Now” is absolutely not a book for everyone. The right reader, the right fan will love it but it’s not at all a family read.

The Bookworm is Terri Schlichenmeyer. Terri has been reading since she was 3 years old and she never goes anywhere without a book. She lives on a hill in Wisconsin with two dogs and 13,000 books.