Hey, guys! Yes. Fight Club was a book before it was a movie. I was just as surprised as you are. A long time ago (before I probably should have), I watched the Fight Club movie. I enjoyed it, and when I noticed there was a book, I bought it. Fast-forward about eight years (after I forgot almost all of the movie). I decided that after The Da Vinci Code, I needed a short book. At 200 pages, Fight Club definitely flew by.
The Cover:
The Cover:
It shows a fist was bloody knuckles coming to hit you in the face. Short and not-so sweet. This image almost perfectly sums up this book, too. A+ cover.
Rating:
R (for basically everything: violence, language, gore, sex, etc.)
Official Description:
Every weekend, in basements and parking lots across the country, young men with good white-collar jobs and absent fathers take off their shoes and shirts and fight each other barehanded for as long as they have to. Then they go back to those jobs with blackened eyes and loosened teeth and the sense that they can handle anything. Fight Club is the invention of Tyler Durden, projectionist, waiter and dark, anarchic genius. And it's only the beginning of his plans for revenge on a world where cancer support groups have the corner on human warmth.
Alternate Description:
Chuck Palahniuk's darkly funny first novel tells the story of a god-forsaken 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 boxing matches held in the basements of bars. Fight Club is the brain-child 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.
My Review:
I'm incredibly torn about this book. It is both a five-star book and a three-star book. The good parts are fantastic and the rest is just decidedly average. I decided to split the difference for a four-star review. My difficulty in rating this book is possibly because of how different this book is.
This book is very "in your face". The manliness of the characters, the plot twists, and the gross (seriously gross) descriptions are meant to hit you in the face. The embodiment of this book would be someone invading your personal space and yelling "Do you want to fight?" in your ear. This leads to an aggressive writing style that isn't very eloquent or "good". Yet, the unpolished, abrasive writing fits the book perfectly. Do you see what I mean? Fight Club is a polished attempt to be unpolished.
Fight Club is told in a scattered sort of way. It is a collection of a bunch of snapshots of memories and current events. Each thought is a few pages long, and then will switch focus to another snapshot. It is an interesting sort of approach (similar to Slaughterhouse-Five) that keeps you hooked but leaves you feeling as if you are not quite up to speed.
The characters in Fight Club are fairly one-dimensional. The unnamed narrator has a bit of personality, but like the narrator of The Great Gatsby, he seems to be more of an observer of this work he writes about than anything. The other characters have distinctive characteristics for sure. They are unique and memorable, but not very complex. This might be due to the narrator not caring about actually knowing the people in his life, in fact, it's a plot point in Fight Club.
Overall, Fight Club... I'm not sure what to think about this book. Am I glad I read it? Yes. Would I read it again? No. Would I recommend it? Definitely not to anyone I know in the real world. This book is just gross. It will make your skin crawl (again, the point). It's very interesting though, so if you aren't squeamish, give it a shot. You might love it. You might hate it. Either way, you'll know by the first few pages how you'll feel throughout the rest of the book.
Phrase:
You wake up in O'Hare.
If You Liked This Book, You May Also Like:
Slaughterhouse Five
If you're looking for a good book, check out my Suggestions Page!
Happy Reading!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BookshelfSecret
The Cover:
It shows a fist was bloody knuckles coming to hit you in the face. Short and not-so sweet. This image almost perfectly sums up this book, too. A+ cover.
Rating:
R (for basically everything: violence, language, gore, sex, etc.)
Official Description:
Every weekend, in basements and parking lots across the country, young men with good white-collar jobs and absent fathers take off their shoes and shirts and fight each other barehanded for as long as they have to. Then they go back to those jobs with blackened eyes and loosened teeth and the sense that they can handle anything. Fight Club is the invention of Tyler Durden, projectionist, waiter and dark, anarchic genius. And it's only the beginning of his plans for revenge on a world where cancer support groups have the corner on human warmth.
Alternate Description:
Chuck Palahniuk's darkly funny first novel tells the story of a god-forsaken 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 boxing matches held in the basements of bars. Fight Club is the brain-child 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.
My Review:
I'm incredibly torn about this book. It is both a five-star book and a three-star book. The good parts are fantastic and the rest is just decidedly average. I decided to split the difference for a four-star review. My difficulty in rating this book is possibly because of how different this book is.
This book is very "in your face". The manliness of the characters, the plot twists, and the gross (seriously gross) descriptions are meant to hit you in the face. The embodiment of this book would be someone invading your personal space and yelling "Do you want to fight?" in your ear. This leads to an aggressive writing style that isn't very eloquent or "good". Yet, the unpolished, abrasive writing fits the book perfectly. Do you see what I mean? Fight Club is a polished attempt to be unpolished.
Fight Club is told in a scattered sort of way. It is a collection of a bunch of snapshots of memories and current events. Each thought is a few pages long, and then will switch focus to another snapshot. It is an interesting sort of approach (similar to Slaughterhouse-Five) that keeps you hooked but leaves you feeling as if you are not quite up to speed.
The characters in Fight Club are fairly one-dimensional. The unnamed narrator has a bit of personality, but like the narrator of The Great Gatsby, he seems to be more of an observer of this work he writes about than anything. The other characters have distinctive characteristics for sure. They are unique and memorable, but not very complex. This might be due to the narrator not caring about actually knowing the people in his life, in fact, it's a plot point in Fight Club.
Overall, Fight Club... I'm not sure what to think about this book. Am I glad I read it? Yes. Would I read it again? No. Would I recommend it? Definitely not to anyone I know in the real world. This book is just gross. It will make your skin crawl (again, the point). It's very interesting though, so if you aren't squeamish, give it a shot. You might love it. You might hate it. Either way, you'll know by the first few pages how you'll feel throughout the rest of the book.
Phrase:
You wake up in O'Hare.
If You Liked This Book, You May Also Like:
Slaughterhouse Five
If you're looking for a good book, check out my Suggestions Page!
Happy Reading!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BookshelfSecret
No comments:
Post a Comment