by Chuck Palahniuk
197 pages, Doubleday
2008

No one is perfect. Authors can’t be expected to write fantastic books every time out. Sometimes they need to be given a pat on the head and told, “It’s okay, you gave it a shot. You’ll do better next time.” But, in the case of the new novel, “Snuff,” the story of a porn star trying to break the world record for serial fornication, author Chuck Palahniuk really needs to be called out for trying to pass off one long gross-out gimmick as a groundbreaking work. He cannot possibly expect us to swallow this.

“Snuff” tells the story of porn queen Cassie Wright and her attempt to break the record for most male partners on camera. For the challenge, 600 willing men gather in a room in their underwear, waiting for their big onscreen moment.

by Jann S. Wenner & Corey Seymour
Little, Brown and Company, 2007, 467 pages

“Hunter was born different—very different,” begins “Gonzo,” the new oral biography of famed author and journalist Hunter S. Thompson.

The comment comes from his former wife, Sandy Thompson, who provides one of the most consistent voices in the book. The text that follows her opening statement colorfully and vividly illustrates the fact that not only was Thompson born different, but he lived and died different. Throughout his bizarre and incendiary career, Thompson invented new ways of writing, reporting and behaving that have made him an icon—albeit a mad and savage icon—for generations of authors and journalists. All the glory, energy, hypocrisy and general weirdness that characterizes America was contained within Thompson’s drug-fueled ambling figure, and it was reflected to the world in his writing.

J. M. Coetzee, winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize for literature, has written a fascinating new novel, “Diary of a Bad Year.” When I first saw the form of the book, I groaned. The page is divided into two (later three) parts, each separated by a horizontal line. The top portion consists of a series of connected brief essays by the novel’s narrator, a fictional famous writer. The essays, readers learn, are to be released by a German publisher in a book titled “Strong Opinions,” which will include contributions from five well-known authors.