~ FIGHT CLUB ~
Chuck Palahniuk

Review by: ShadowOmega

Back Cover:

'An underground classic since its first publication in 1996, Fight Club is now recognized as one of the most original and provocative novels published in this decade. Chuck Palahniuk's darkly funny first novel tells the story of a godforsaken young man who discovers that his rage at living in a world filled with failure and lies cannot be pacified by an empty consumer culture. Relief for him and his disenfranchised peers comes in the form of secret after-hours bozing matches held in the basements of bars. Fight Club is the brainchild of Tyler Durden, who thinks he has found a way for himself and his friends to live beyond their confining and stultifying lives. But in Tyler's world there are no rules, no limits, no brakes.'

List of Characters:
Narrator (Jack): Disgruntled pencil-pusher, a pascifist at heart. Works for a major car company. Whore to the Ikia catalog culture. When insomnia begins to ravage his consciousness, he seeks escape in the nightly peer support groups around town. Eventually creates a manifestation of his darker impulses and names it.

Tyler Durden: Who is guilty of the following offenses and then some: splicing single frames of pornography into family films as a projectionist, peeing in the soup as a waiter at the Pressman hotel, encouraging men to beat the living crap out of each other as the leader of Fight Club, ceaselessly doing the horizontal bop as the lover of Marla Singer, creating an army of conformist 'space monkeys' as the coordinator of Project Mayhem, and essentially destroying the narrator's life as the projection of everything he was afraid to admit he was.

Marla Singer: Suicidal, but not in an intensely depressing way. "Marla doesn't need a lover, she needs a case worker." The cruel reality of the situation which the narrator must face by the end of the book is that he wants Marla and can't let Tyler have her. Everything happens because of Marla, the pessimistic chain smoker who first shows up as a tourist at the narrator's support groups.

Bob: Victim of testicular cancer. First to die as a member of Project Mayhem.

Favorite Character:
What can I say? Would it be weird for me to say Tyler Durden is a great character and not also be talking about the narrator at the same time? Huh? Where am I? They're both great. But at the same time, aren't they one in the same? Ugh, my head hurts.

Least Favorite Character:
Idaknow. Everybody's pretty neutral in my opinion. There's no real antagonist. The little blonde jerk from the movie isn't even in the book, and I hated him. But no target in the book. Weird.

Favorite Quote:
Really has nothing to do with the book, but:

I say, did we hit bottom, tonight?
Tyler lies back and asks, "If Marilyn Monroe was alive right now, what would she be doing?"
I say, goodnight.
The headliner hangs down in shreds from the ceiling, and Tyler says, "Clawing at the lid of her coffin."

Favorite Part of the Book:
The last chapter. When the book ceases to have any similarity to the movie. When you read the following:

"One minute.
Marla likes Tyler.
"No, I like you," Marla shouts, "I know the difference."
And nothing.
Nothing explodes.
The barrel of the gun tucked in my surviving cheek, I say, Tyler, you mixed the nitro with paraffin, didn't you.
Paraffin never works.
I have to do this.
The police helicopters.
And I pull the trigger."

And he really does die!!! The epilogue is SOOOO creepy!

Comments:
Okay. If you haven't seen the movie, I couldn't imagine how f'd up this book must sound. Complete stream of consciousness writing, in broken sequencing told with a flashback for every chapter, weird interjections about irrelevant things, but altogether an interesting effect. My basic conclusion: they ruined the logistics in the movie. The book's logistics work out DANDY. And the ending is a complete kick in the head. I really hate the movie's ending after reading the books. It's such a short read, too.

Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

ISBN: 0805062971
Edition: Paperback