I want you to read me as hard as you can (The Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk)

Member Name: ed.carter

Product:	The Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
Date:	12/09/01 (312 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: well written, thought provoking

Disadvantages: slight anti climax

//* THE FIRST RULE OF FIGHT CLUB IS YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB

So first of all let's clear something up. Chuck Palahniuk's name is up for debate. I puzzled for some time over how to pronounce his name. According to the official site it is pronounced pa-laa-nik. So there you go.

//* THE SECOND RULE OF FIGHT CLUB IS YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB

I'd already seen Fight Club at the cinema twice and on video a million times. It is to me undoubtedly my favourit film of all time.

Out of sheer curiosity I read the the book just to see what it was like. Now you should know that I don't read books. I didn't even read the books required by my GCSE English Literature exam (which I got a B in by the way!).

From the moment I picked up the book I was hooked. I wanted to know the key differences, and most importantly, how it ended. I knew the ending was different but remained well disciplined and resisted temptation to read the final chapter without already reading the others.

//* THIRD RULE OF FIGHT CLUB, IF SOMEONE YELLS STOP, GOES LIMP, OR TAPS OUT, THE FIGHT IS OVER

The first thing you will notice about Fight Club is the way it is written in first person, and we never find out the narrators name - much like in the film except in the film everyone thinks his name is 'Jack' - common mistake.

This is refreshing for me. As I said I am not widely read so this may not be anything new to any of you, but it's more like you experience the story rather than someone telling you it.

It's also written in a clever way, much like the film is clever. Often there are several things going on, and they are written in the same paragraph using every other line. This is hard to explain but the film uses something similar as an example:

(When the narrator - let's call him Jack for convenience - gets something from the fridge, talking about the imperfec
tions in a bowl)
VOICE OVER: Proof that the bowl was in fact made by the hardworking, indigenous people of ...
OPERATOR ON PHONE: Please hold
VOICE OVER: ... wherever
JACK: I was holding

Do you see what I mean? It's a technique that grabs your attention.

//* FOURTH RULE, ONLY TWO GUYS TO A FIGHT

The author uses repetition throughout, emphasising the clues that give away the ending that seems so obvious on your second read. I found myself truly absorbed in this book, unable to put it down.

Despite the fact that I had seen the film, the book conjoured up different images in my mind than the film itself.

//* FIFTH RULE, ONE FIGHT AT A TIME FELLAS

The story, for those of you unfamiliar (where have you been), it's about a guy who is unhappy with his life, and meets Tyler Durden.

Tyler makes soap, and the narrator and Tyler become friends. Tyler has some 'interesting' views on life, and they set up fight club. Fight club is a place to go where average people go to let out the frustrations of everyday life. A cathartic exercise.

Pretty soon Tyler realises he'll have to take fight club up a notch or shut it down, and things get out of hand ...

I really want to tell you more because it goes so much deeper than that but I can't - it'll spoil it.

//* SIXTH RULE, NO SHIRTS, NO SHOES

One criticism I read in one other review is the length of the book. You shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, and in my opinion, it's length.

I have seen films that last three hours that have failed to impress me, but once I saw an award winning short on channel 4 called the time machine. It was ten minutes long but it amazed me. It was incredibly clever, and much thought had been sunk into it. It had no big budget, no special effects - it just told a good story.

//* SEVENTH RULE, FIGHTS WILL GO ON AS LONG AS THEY HAVE T
O

Fight Club goes on as long as it has to - which is 208 pages. This is just as well as I couldn't put it down, which really annoyed my girlfriend as I payed no attention to her that night.

Content is explicit, and it should not be read by those who offend easily. It carries with it a message, alon with the black humour. This message has clearly been misread by many critics. It is not mindless violence, and it raises issues about society.

The ending is different to the film and is possibly a bit of an anti climax compared to the film, but it is probably a little more believable. It also shows the brilliance of the writing, which once again I can't go into without revealing the end. Let's just say that the author writes in such a way that gives a good indication of the narrators state of mind ...

//* THE EIGHTH AND FINAL RULE, IF THIS IS YOUR FIRST NIGHT, YOU HAVE TO FIGHT

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