After watching the movie "Fight Club", I would never have known that there was a novel until the day I walked upon it standing on a shelf at a local Cole’s bookstore. Instantly, I picked up it up and was amazed by the depth that was relatively unexplored by the movie in just the first few pages of reading it. I simply had to have it.

Chuck
Fight Club was Chuck Palahniuk's debut into the world of novels and literature. It is simply surprising to see how much of a chance he took by writing such as bold piece of work. It had simply started out as a small short story consisting of around seven pages which was created out of boredom. He then later showed it to his friends, who coaxed him into creating a book that started a whole phenomenon of cultural changes and brought today's societal ideas into evaluation, as well as ourselves.

I am happy to say that after reading Fight Club, I am now a fan of Chuck’s work. The subject matters that he chooses are unique and fascinating.

Short Attention Span Style of Writing
Once you've started reading through the novel, the first thing that will hit you is the type of style Chuck Palahniuk utilizes to tell the tale of a sleep deprived man. The style consists of many cuts in the sentences that are similar to watching a movie that consists of many different scenes that cut back and forth. The context of a chapter will jump back and forth with sentences that pop out of no where. Since the story is narrated by the unnamed insomniac, it really creates the effect sleeplessness has on the coherency of his narration. You will be immersed completely while reading the book; because of this, the readability of Fight Club is high and engrossing.

The Basis of Fight Club
Fight Club is about an unnamed man with a sleeping disorder. He is deprived of sleep due to his work as a Vehicle recall coordinator who travels around the country constantly to inspect numerous vehicular accidents. The changes in time zones ultimately takes a toll on his body and he finds himself begging the doctor for 200-milligram-sized little blue Amytal Sodium capsules or lipstick-red Seconals just to be able to sleep like a baby. He goes to many support groups for many different fatal diseases and is able to cure his insomnia until Marla Singer walks in. Of course, he does not suffer any of the fatal debilitating diseases but the simple sight of another faker like him sets him back spiraling into his sleepless dementia. That is, until he meets up with Tyler Durden.

Imagine a club where you can simply beat a man without regret or without reason, where you resort to satisfy your animal instinct of violence. Society is full of lies that make us work and work so we can purchase stuff that we simply don't need. Everyone is brought up with the idea that they will eventually become a rockstar, famous actress, or celebrity later on in life but the reality is… they don't. We find ourselves stuck in dead-end jobs trying to climb a ladder that never ends. Fight club is a new generation where men leave their fallacies behind and help realize true purpose of their lives.

His name was Robert Paulson...
There are two main characters that the story revolves around. There is Tyler Durden and Marla Singer. Each character has their own set of signature dialogue that is simply too irresistible to quote. Chuck does not go into detail or much exposition with the characters or their development. He creates realistic characters that interact with our narrator in a way that we simply can relate to them.

There are also many other colorful characters that the narrator will meet as Fight Club develops from its simple beginnings. One example of such a character is a ex-bodybuilder, who fell victim to testicular cancer and must receive hormone therapy. Due to the increase of testosterone, his estrogen levels shot up causing him to grow breasts, or "b**** tits" as our character describes them, because of this his wife and children left him and won't return his calls. Our unnamed character feeds off his anguish to feel alive.

There was a novel?
The story is quite phenomenal on its own, but it is more interesting comparing it to the movie. The director of the movie took some liberal freedom when approaching the plot and scripting, and was able to successfully create a movie true to the book without resorting to blatant copying. For instance, the acquaintance that our character has with Tyler Durden is much different than how the character meets Tyler in the movie. This is a good thing, as reading the book yields a much more different tale than the movie. In some cases, there were many scenes that weren't in the movie. By looking at the movie, you can see that it is simply one person's interpretation of the novel. I can assure you; by reading this book you will yield a much different impression than after you have watched the movie.

After reading the novel, I wished that I hadn’t watched the movie. The movie is great but I would rather prefer to read the book with a fresh mind than be jaded by another person’s interpretation. As a result, I felt jaded to most of the book’s scenes and characterization of characters. For those who haven't seen the movie: read the book first, formulate your own interpretation and then watch the movie.

Again, there will be similarities in general concepts, especially the amazing quotations, but the execution and plot take a much different path. Most importantly, the ending in the novel is much different than in the movie, but seeing how it is laid out it would have been difficult for it to be reenacted on the silver screen.

The Afterword
After reading Fight Club, you will be treated to a commentary from the author on how people reacted to the book. Just reading the interesting afterword is a joy in itself. Chuck tells us smugly how the world overly reacted to the story and concept he had created out of sheer boredom on a lazy afternoon. It’s simply amazing how much a cultural effect Fight Club had on youths and workers in the industries that the novel and movie addressed. Even though the story mainly deals with a character’s deranged journey through his sleep deprived life, the satirical look on today's society is so refreshing that it makes you think about your own life and your own so-called happiness.


Recommended: Yes