First off, if you haven’t seen the movie, this is a very very very rare instance where the film surpasses the novel in my opinion. However, Chuck Palahniuk’s debut novel Fight Club will go down as one of my all-time favorites. It is a very sardonic black satire that pokes holes in societal norms and expectations. Fight Club is a cult classic similar to Harry Potter that has a niche place in literary and film history.
Chuck Palahniuk describes his work as transgressional fiction. The genre of transgressive fiction is about characters who stray from the expectations and norms of society in unusual or illicit ways. I think what stands out most in my mind is the distinct style of the book and the tone of the narrator. It is dark. DARK dark. My favorite line in the book is about how the female interest Marla Singer wants to have Tyler Durden’s abortion. Somehow Palahniuk is able to elevate the macabre into sarcastic humor. Its narration reminds me of A Clockwork Orange – another ATF.
What this story does well is build characters. Occasionally, I couldn’t imagine the settings of the story but that is a small infraction for the otherwise brilliant story. Each character is introduced one by one. The best part is, there are only five characters in the whole story, so they are very well flesh-out, rounded, and unique. Tyler Durden steals the show with his iconic rambling on how insignificant all of us are and how we should renounce all materialism. It almost feels like he is talking directly to the reader and trying to evoke a response. Hell, it worked!
Synopsis: (Spoiler)
Fight Club is about an unnamed narrator who experiences insomnia. In order to alleviate this, he attends support groups. He is not really dying like the people in the groups. There he meets Marla Singer, who is also faking being terminal. When he finds out that she is faking, the groups no longer help his insomnia. Suspiciously, his apartment is blown up. He asks to stay with someone he met while traveling named Tyler Durden. Together, they start fight club. Slowly, the group becomes more intense and radical, and eventually, things get out of control, revealing that Tyler Durden is the narrator’s alter ego.
Final thoughts:
I think what the film did was take what Chuck Palahniuk was trying to accomplish and make it better. Personally, I think it is very ambitious and clever for a first novel. Although it was a little in-your-face at times which was intentional, and its style was not my ultimate preference, it was very effective at getting its point across and building a world. I look forward to reading it again in my thirties during an existential crisis.
Book 85/100
Film: 95/100
Ben Bonkoske 