The Manchurian Candidate meets South Park—Chuck Palahniuk’s
finest novel since the generation-defining Fight Club.
“Begins here first account of operative me, agent number 67
on arrival Midwestern American airport greater _____ area.
Flight _____. Date _____. Priority mission top success to
complete. Code name: Operation Havoc.”
Thus speaks Pygmy, one of a handful of young adults from a
totalitarian state sent to the United States, disguised as
exchange students, to live with typical American families
and blend in, all the while planning an unspecified act of
massive terrorism. Palahniuk depicts Midwestern life
through the eyes of this thoroughly indoctrinated little
killer, who hates us with a passion, in this cunning double-
edged satire of an American xenophobia that might, in fact,
be completely justified. For Pygmy and his fellow
operatives are cooking up something big, something truly
awful, that will bring this big dumb country and its fat
dumb inhabitants to their knees.
It’s a comedy. And a romance.