Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
I'm disappointed that I watched the movie version first of Fight Club, as I would have loved to read this book and not know the ultimate twist. However, even knowing the twist that was coming, and being able to catch the clues earlier, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is brilliant and disturbing.
Chuck Palahniuk is not a writer for everyone. His writing is weird and dark, full of satire and at times ridiculous. For me, he is also quotable and I am mildly obsessed. (This is only my second book of his, Choke was first, so I will hold my full obsession until I read at least one more.)
Once again, Palahniuk's writing in Fight Club is perfect for the truly fucked up antihero, our unnamed narrator. Most people by now have at least seen the movie, or know the premise of this story. The first rule about Fight Club, is that you don't talk about fight club. Our narrator's apartment is blown up and he calls Tyler Durden, an enigmatic man he recently met on a beach in a very peculiar way.
“One minute was enough, Tyler said, a person had to work hard for it, but a minute of perfection was worth the effort. A moment was the most you could ever expect from perfection.”
Tyler meets him at a bar and asks him a favor, “I want you to hit me as hard as you can." This catapults into Fight Club; secret boxing matches held after-hours in the basement of bars. These aren't the type of boxing matches you'd see on TV, there are very few rules and the fighters come from all walks of life. After fighting for “as long as they have to", they go back to their desk jobs with bruises and missing teeth, and are smiling about it. Palahniuk subtly reveals throughout the novel that what is felt and experienced in Fight Club is inexpressible.
“We are not special.
We are not crap or trash, either.
We just are.
We just are, and what happens just happens.”
This book is serious but also humorous and a bit ridiculous. Our narrator finds out some unsettling truths, and all the characters deal with wanting to destroy society but also becoming an integral part of it. There's a need for purpose and connection with others and ultimately what can happen when one is deprived of those things.
Synopsis: Chuck Palahniuk showed himself to be his generation’s most visionary satirist in this, his first book. Fight Club’s estranged narrator leaves his lackluster job when he comes under the thrall of Tyler Durden, an enigmatic young man who holds secret after-hours boxing matches in the basement of bars. There, two men fight "as long as they have to." This is a gloriously original work that exposes the darkness at the core of our modern world.