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NoirNovels.com - A unique repository for all things noir
Fight Club
Reviewed By Rogue Fight Club is the critically acclaimed debut novel from Chuck Palahniuk. Probably best known because of the movie of the same name, Fight Club tells the story of the narrator (he isn't named in the book), and enigmatic soap salesman and anarchist Tyler Durden. The narrator (let's call him Jack) works for a major car manufacturer, investigating fatal car accidents and determining his company's liability to being sued. Sounds boring? Jack thinks so. His life is so depressing he is unable to sleep. His chronic insomnia leads him to attending group therapy sessions with the sick and dying. Through these sessions he is able to find some release, and hence he is able to sleep. Until he meets Marla Singer. Like Jack, Marla isn't dying. She attends the therapy sessions for the free coffee. But with Marla around, Jack can't cry; and if he can't cry, he can't sleep. After his insomnia returns, Jack meets the mysterious Tyler Durden, and is soon drawn into Tyler's world. Tyler's philosophy on life is simple: self-destruction is the way ahead, not self-improvement. Between them, Jack and Tyler create Fight Club; a bare-knuckle boxing club where dissaffected men can meet and beat the crap out of each other. Soon, Jack and Tyler realise they are not alone in their disdain of the modern world...and its time to fight back In creating Fight Club, Palahniuk drew on some of his own experiences (yes, he even got into a few fights) and tapped into an undercurrent of dissatisfaction with the world around us. The style is minimalist but Palahniuk immerses us deeply into Jack and Tyler's world. We feel Jack's frustration with the world, and himself, and Tyler's frustration with Jack. The pacing of the novel is unrelenting, probably due to the fact that Palahniuk has only 200 or so pages to tell the story. And not a single page is wasted. Cleverly, Palahniuk contrives to leave some of the story to our imagination and insight, particularly the ending. It's a book that will leave you wanting to know more, because the author leaves the gaps unfilled. It would be unfair to review Fight Club without emphasising the importance of the part played by Marla. She is absolutely integral to the plot and provides a superb counterweight to Jack and Tyler. Indeed, she balances the book superbly, bringing her own philosophy to bear on Jack, and almost single-handedly deciding his ultimate fate. A strong female character in an overtly male narrative is a stroke of genius, but could have been a distraction if she hadn't been the right type of woman. Palahniuk paints Marla as almost as screwed-up as Jack, a wastrel living off the misfortune of others, but she's smart; smarter than Jack gives her credit for. Her influence over both Jack and Tyler sets up a palpable tension in the narrative and it is this influence which makes Marla so vital to the story. Having read Fight Club, it is easy to understand how the novel was so warmly received by the critics, and how it has sparked off an almost cultish fanbase. It truly is a seminal work, the like of which I haven't read before. In turns gripping and hilarious, but never anything other than razor sharp, Fight Club is a novel that can change your perceptions of the world around us. It would be fatuous to call it life changing, but it has certainly struck a chord with its readership. Dark and gritty, Palahniuk shows us a new noir style that is not to be missed. Oh and I almost forgot, the first rule of Fight Club is you're not supposed to talk about it. |
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