FIGHT CLUB by Chuck Palahniuk

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

My introduction to Tyler Durden was back in 1999 when we went to the movies to watch Fight Club but had to leave because the fire alarm went off halfway through and had to go back to watch it from scratch. 😳

Anyway, I've always wanted to read the book, and decided to check it out this week.

We all know the deal. The first rule of fight club is: you don't talk about fight club. It's a place where men who want to prove something to themselves, through violence, go to hang out with other men. But at the root of this little shindig is a lot more. An insomniac who wants to find meaning in his life soon starts a pathway to anarchy...

Well. Okay. I expected it to be dark and feature an unstable narrator, but... there are a lot of things about this story that bug me.

Let's start with the cool stuff. I actually really enjoyed the repetitive writing style, and how the story moves forward and back, only to return to the present. It established a sense of disorientation throughout, and fits the voice of someone who is slowly radicalising himself into anarchy via missed sleep.

I found the first half of the book quite interesting because watching a disillusioned man begin a personal quest to get some sleep soon morphs into an anti-capitalist agenda via underground violent—and let's be honest, juvenile—fights. It seemed like he was just trying to fill a void and found it in other men, which is fine.

But then, Project Mayhem enters the story and takes over everything. Now we've got a bunch of bruised and brazen guys who want to destroy civilization and co-ordinate acts of vandalism all over the place just because they're not fulfilled in their own lives, while still fighting like idiots. *yawn*

I read somewhere that this is an allegory for homosexuality. Well, I don't agree. I think it's an allegory about toxic masculinity and how mediocre white men always think they're owed shit and when they don't get it, cause mayhem. It's pretty much the equivalent of a toddler tantrum, which we see in society all the time.

And don't even get me started on the fact that in a book packed full of dudes, there was only space for one woman. And she happens to be a flaky cardboard cutout who's also a liar. Or that being raised by single mothers is apparently bad and makes men miss the father/man who left them and they spend their whole lives chasing a father figure. 🙄

Anyway, like I said, the first half was cool but the story got progressively worse as it neared the end. So much that when the twist reveal happened I didn't even care. And it wasn't because I already knew from the movie.

I don't know. Maybe it's because I'm older. Or maybe it's because white male tears don't impress me. It could even be that in a world where men are already so ridiculously violent, we don't need a story crying about how hard it is for them to find their way in the world.


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