Library Reads: Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club

So I'm a little shocked that Fight Club isn't on the list of 1001 books to read. It's one of Palahniuk's more popular novels oddly inspired by his coworkers lack of curiosity about his private after he arrived at work obviously having been in an altercation while on vacation.  Fight Club has such crazy characters that at times it can be difficult to involve myself in, but by the end the twist and turns are worth the pay off of reading.

Summary: The unnamed character who leads the story is attending therapy sessions to be in the company of other ill people though he is lying to them all about his own illness, cancer. Instead he suffers from insomnia. When he meets Tyler though his world changes, and he becomes apart of a Fight Club, which then grows into a bigger organization Project Mayhem. Tyler is a character who loves to cause chaos, and has even began sleeping with the girl he originally began falling for in therapy, Marla. Tyler wreaks havoc at his work places and also in his life, so when he decides to try to shut it down the world as he knew it also begins to crash.


Story: The story is one that would sound like it is intriguing, but I think the characters lacked some development. Plus, the narration wasn't necessarily confusing, but one that did leave room for some confusion. Since the short story doesn't allow for a connection to grow with the characters, or for me to understand their individual dialogue prominently there were scenes that left me not knowing who is who especially considering the twist's content. The setting of the Fight Club, and what they do does cause intrigue though, and I can see how something liked this spurred imitators.

Characters: I think the characters are so out there that they aren't really likable, but I didn't hate them either. In some ways they put me in mind of Stephen King characters. The lead character's thoughts seem very short and frantic. Tyler I think is intriguing to most people because he basically has established his own drum to march to and he does what he wants. He isn't concerned with what will happen to him, and throws caution to the wind involving everything to his jobs, relationships, and even violence. He has no fears, and I see why this would make him an appealing persona to be.

Writing: The writing is good, and I think by the end it captures the intensity of what is happening. It brief enough to keep the scenes moving. The one thing I notice though is that Marla never seems like a woman to me. She just doesn't read as one. I think by the end that the complexity of the main character is captured well, but there is just still this connection to me that is lost. It has great twist that are woven in well, and it's well thought out though.

Fight Club is violent, suspenseful, and at times intense. It hasn't necessarily inspired me to and pick up another novel from Palahniuk though. By the end I was enjoying the book, but for the first half I was looking for that pick up, but felt more so that I had been sucked into a bizarre world created by bizarre characters. I can see why the movie is so big though.

Rating 7 of 10.