Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

The Gist:

The narrator expresses his detachment from the world. as a insomniac and having an obsession with objects around him in order to make his life feel complete. When his Doctor advises him to get more sleep and how insomnia isn’t really considered a dangerous ‘disease’, the main character finds himself attending different self help groups posing as a terminally ill. He longs to be the light surrounded by people who are concerned for him.
Along the way he meets Marla Singer, a strange women with the same attributes and longs to be loved, just like him.

And Tyler Durden, a young man enigmatic the narrator longs to become, gradually they both create and undergo a secret fighting club in a basement bar and slowly bring in more men in their same position.

The Review:

Fight Club is indeed the biggest 90s cult classic novel brought to the screens by David Fincher stars Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter. I must admit, although a few alterations, the film did a splendid job displaying some of the major themes such as chaos, society breakdown and violence that live and grow in the novel.

When you ask a lot of people “So, what’s Fight Club about?” and 99% of the time the response is “Well, the first rule is I can’t talk about it.” But Fight Club is more than that, it’ll fuck with your head, it’ll show a great deal of simplicity of writing in a complex topic, it’ll delight you and make you sick.

Imagine waking up with a gun in-between your teeth, held by your once best friend, telling you all about guns, explosives and destruction. Then thinking, ‘how did I get here exactly?’, it’s time for a flashback! *Cue wavy lines and hypnotic sounds*

The story kicks off with the narrator, who is very vague and unreliable however, that is key to his characteristic because he is indeed, suffering from insomnia. He hates his job as a product recall car specialist, he hates his life and above all hates consumers, but in this modern day and age he expresses his hate by buying useless furniture for his home in order to keep him stable.

I’m getting angry just thinking about it! I hate shopping at Ikea! Rawr!

The novel works well in absorbing all the violence a man would want to lash out for, beating down your boss, the people that have spat down at you, this novel revolutionises the way a human could work, imagine taking away the conscience and just having a one track brain, with the idea of punching someone you don’t know seems thrilling.

So, when he meets Tyler Durden on a nude beach, all the dreams come true and the duo commences into the world. By pissing and masturbating in food at expensive restaurants to piecing pornographic images in family friendly films. Tyler is everything a man would aim to be, with an fascination with chaos and handy tips on making soap.

Marla Singer is quite the spice of the whole story, she above all hates much of herself, when introduced to the narrator, we can feel the friction and desperation of the two wanting to become one. It’s almost a way to say that only one of them can be the shining star in this novel, and there would be no way in hell the narrator will let her become the victim. Throughout the novel, we watch her pleas to the narrator only to be answered by Tyler, her place in this masculine novel is threatening towards the characters.

I guess its true a women’s love is by far the most powerful and strong bond. Then again, it is Marla’s character that both destroys and builds the narrator. She is wistful and like the narrator she is so isolated the idea of death doesn’t shake her as much. But storing fat for silicon injections would be her main priority.
I didn’t mistake this novel for a hate against women and such and such, its more of a transgression that entices the reader. It’s a chaotic world with too much going on in the narrators head, let alone any means for sympathy, if you’re looking for that don’t look here!

This is what Fight Club has been all about, a masculine world where people are frightened and feared into their workplace, “we are the all singing all dancing crap of the world”.
Whether men in today’s society have a true voice, or is it a voice of another. The generations of men have been reduced to bee workers, watching others take the success. Although there are rules, that keep order, but those rules don’t stay in the basement, they stay with the men every day of their lives, which makes them invincible.

The Verdict:

If you haven’t seen the film, the novel justifies the tensions between characters perfectly, and what’s not to love about the idea of the modern man becoming torn apart by trying to find his zen-mode in society. It’s also very exquisite the way Palahniuk writes directly inside the narrators mind, I feel he’s picking apart the brain like Hannibal, and giving us a sensitive insight to this character. And hey, soon you can be telling people how much you have been deeply radicalised by Fight Club, or not.

Chuck Palahniuk writes in a way that backs you into a corner, like a lion, not sure what to look for on the next page.

Preferably find a copy with an chapter ‘Afterward’ were Palahniuk unravels his departure from the novel and success. Perhaps paving the way for the graphic novel sequel, I for one am ecstatic!