Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

     

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

Tiny Overview

For six months, he couldn't sleep. To cope, the Narrator starts attending support groups for various terminal illnesses and conditions. There he meets Marla Singer, who falls in love with both Tyler Durden and the Narrator. After the Narrator's flat blows up, he moves in with Tyler Durden and starts a fight club that spirals out of control.

Themes:

• Contemporary
• Consumerism 
• Crime 
• Corruption
• Dark
• Identity
• Mystery
• Thriller
• Violent

Context

Palahniuk got into a fight whilst camping and had visible wounds from it. When he returned from his trip, nobody asked any questions about it, leading him to write fight club.

He has also admitted into getting into a fight with his coworker, Jimmy, and while it was going on everyone cheered them on. After, they continued like nothing happened.

Originally, Fight Club was a short story, 7 pages long that was published in the 1995 anthology Pursuit of Happiness. After the writing of the novel, it was published a year later in 1996.

Source

In the updated afterword, published by Vintage, he states that the shenanigans of Tyler Durden and the Narrator, are based off of what him and his friends used to do when they were younger.

My Waffling

This book did not feel like 218 pages. It felt like so much more, and I am not complaining. In this review, I have to admit that I am biased as I do love the film, but as always, the book was so much better. 

As soon as I put it down, I picked up my DVD copy and read the insert about the process of how the film was made. Long story short, one person of the crew called everyone they knew and said "Oh my God, you have to read this book!". And to be honest, that is how I felt.

I know this is not a movie review, but I think that they got almost all of the story accurately. The ending was different, they changed how Tyler and the Narrator met, and they cut out the hotel scenes which I really did enjoy. 

Anyways.

I have never read a book that was laid out the way this one was. Short sentences and weird phrases that were loosely connected. My favourite bit was "Hindu cow."

I found the escalation from drunk fighting between friends to underground fighting ring, to blowing up buildings interesting. Just a bunch of guys wanting to find the next thrill to shake up their boring, consumerist lifestyles.

The reveal felt more prominent in the book than the film, but I had it spoilt all those moons ago. 

I was physically recoiling at the graphic descriptions of the fighting towards the end, where he signed himself up for 50 non-stop fights. it was the crushed teeth on the tongue that got me the most. 

4.5/5