Denny is later fired from the museum, and begins collecting stones from around the city to build his 'dream home'. The two met at a sex addiction support group and later applied together to the same job. He spends most of his time on the job guarding Denny (who is constantly being caught with 'contraband' items that do not correspond with the time period of the museum) in the stocks. Victor works at a re-enactment museum set in colonial times, where most of the employees are drug addicts or, in Denny's case, a fellow recovering sex addict. He keeps a detailed list of everyone who saves him and sends them frequent letters about fictional bills he is unable to pay, causing them to send him money out of sympathy. Victor goes to various restaurants and purposely causes himself to choke midway through his meal, luring a ' good Samaritan' into saving his life. In order to pay for elder care for his mother, he resorts to being a con artist. In the present-day setting of the book, Victor has left medical school to support his feeble mother, who is now in a nursing home. Several times throughout his childhood, his mother would kidnap him from his various foster parents, though every time they would eventually be caught, and he would again be remanded over to the child welfare agency. Victor had grown up moving from one foster home to another, as his mother was found to be unfit to raise him. Plot summary Ĭhoke follows Victor Mancini and his friend Denny through a few months of their lives with frequent flashbacks to the days when Victor was a child. The novel was later adapted for film by Clark Gregg. He also works at a colonial reenactment museum. The story focuses on Victor, a sex addict and con man. Choke is a 2001 novel by American author Chuck Palahniuk.

Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk