Final Exam Book Review: Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk has become a bible for some people. This book reveals human nature in the most destructive light. This story about an unsatisfied, depressed, and sleep deprived narrator illuminates the mind of readers as they throw themselves in the narrators shoes. With Palahniuk's gritty language, raw parables, and metaphors focused on our anatomy you are caught in the rabbit hole that Fight Club is. While reading this book you are forced to emerge in the beliefs and lifestyle of the narrator while still being safe at home, living your ordinary life and sitting on your ordinary couch. Which is ironic because that is exactly what our narrator hates about his life.
"You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you're satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you've got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. Then you're trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you."
Meet our narrator.
He is the cynical yet very lovable character that only Palahniuk could deliver. He is an anxious insomniac who suffers severe depression. He hates himself, his house, and his job. He hates his entire life. Don't worry though, he meets a saving grace.
Tyler Durden.
Tyler Durden is everything that our narrator wants to be. He is smart and handsome. He is bold and philosophical. He lives in a rundown house and makes soap for a living. Best of all, Tyler was also not content with his life. He teaches the narrator to just let go. This all starts by starting up fight club.
After an explosion from an unknown source blows up his apartment, our narrator calls Tyler and asks if he can stay at his place for the night. While our narrator thought this would sound crazy since he only met Tyler hours prior on a plane, Tyler quickly obliged.
Tyler took our narrator out to a drink. There he began to understand our narrator a little better. Our narrator told Tyler all about his shitty little life. About his furniture obsession. About his insomnia and how he only finds relief from it if he goes to self-help seminars for terminal illnesses. He even tells Tyler about his failing sex life and how he is too pathetic to even be concerned about it anymore. As they leave the bar, Tyler turns to our narrator and says,
"You can stay with me, but you have to do something for me"
"Okay, and what is that?"
"I want you to hit me. I want you to hit me as hard as you can."
And thus begins Fight Club. Thus begins the out of control spiral of our book. More and more people catch on and want in. More people want to gather in a basement of a bar and beat the quivering and unbearingly normal snot out of each other. This is the birth of the cult of Tyler Durden. A song and dance that is perfectly choreographed by Palahnuik with an ending that not even I, the most affluent and scholarly reader, could have expected.
Do you want to understand human nature? Do you want to have glimpse of the adulthood you may end up having if you settle into becoming one of the worker bees in the beehive our America has become? Do you want to understand how detrimental swedish furniture can be to your health? Read Fight Club. Settle into this whirlwind of a plot that take you on a rollercoaster ride through the mind of our narrator. Be engrossed in the writing style of Palahniuk. Most importantly, be amazed at the truth that is presented about you and me, within this novel.

Readicide Response

"What should a 21^st century English class reading list look like?"
A 21st century English class reading list should be packed with books that will make you ask important questions. They need to be thought-provoking, reflective, and most importantly, enjoyable. If the student isn't enjoying the book, it is a pointless read. You won't get that constant drip of excitment and knowledge as you read. For example, when reading the book, "The Catcher in the Rye" you catch yourself asking questions that you often ask yourself when you are going through certain experiences in your life. You are asking, "Why is this occuring?" and seeking out reasons for a why specific scenerio is happening. You are asking, "Why is a character behaving this way?" then you search the knowledge of the character that you have already obtained from the book. If that doesn't work, you sort through your own mind of why a person would behave or act in a certain way. You constantly ask yourself questions that you would ask yourself in real life. When you read the classic, thought-provoking books you practice answering those questions. You learn perspectives and approaches to solve problems and answer incredibly tough questions. Without these books, I feel that some people may enter the world severely unprepared.

“For these reasons, the National Book Award in fiction, more than any other American literary prize, illustrates the ever-broadening cultural gap between the literary community and the reading public. The former believes that everyone reads as much as they do and that they still have the authority to shape readers’ tastes, while the latter increasingly suspects that it’s being served the literary equivalent of spinach. Like the Newbery Medal for children’s literature, awarded by librarians, the NBA has come to indicate a book that somebody else thinks you ought to read, whether you like it or not.” - Laura Miller 

This lady is wrong. It is a cynical approach to ride the waves of new literature. I love newer literature and fiction, I read it all the time. I just think it is important to read the books where good stories all started and those are the classics. Imagine if we decided to destroy old historical buildings just because new ones were being built. We need to embrace the old and the new. But most importantly, we need to preserve the old. It's our history!

Book Trailer