Fight Club (Chuck Palahniuk)

The best writers, to my mind, always have something meaningful to say about the societies that spawned them. Fitzgerald chronicled the decadence of the Jazz Age, Steinbeck the grim graft of day to day survival during the Great Depression. Orwell looked at the political currents of his day and imagined how they might turn out in the future, whereas Atwood examined Feminism and Anti-Feminism alike and how these two movements truly affected women. The trick that Chuck Palahniuk pulled off with his debut novel 'Fight Club' was to illustrate in graphic, lucid fashion the crisis of late twentieth century Western masculinity. What happens, in an age of soaring divorce rates, when a generation of men are raised only by women? What happens when white and blue collar workers are disenfranchised and ignored? What happens when Capitalism sits enthroned above us, a grotesque, bloated idol we cannot escape?

This is undoubtedly a novel of big ideas and part of its genius is the simplistic, hypnotically cinematic way in which they are delivered to the reader. The novel starts in medias res, with the un-named narrator atop a fictional sky-scaper with a gun in his mouth. The man who holds the gun is named Tyler Durden, and he has taught the narrator much about anarchy. It is from this predicament that the narrator's reminiscences about Tyler Durden and the Fight Clubs unfold. Palahniuk has stated in interviews that his inspiration for 'Fight Club' was 'The Great Gatsby' and you can certainly see why: the disciple tells the story of his hero, whom he loves despite his tragic flaws. The twist here, as I'm sure everybody knows already, is that the narrator is Tyler Durden. Tyler is a personality created by the narrator who could do all of the things the narrator wanted to do and could not. Ultimately, Tyler takes control of both of their destinies in a way which is never anything but compelling. The staccato syntax and choral repetition of certain phrases give the novel a unique feel, as does the flat, emotionless, pitiless fashion in which it is narrated. This is nihilistic reportage even Camus could be proud of.

There are a number of explicit criticisms of contemporary society that the novel makes in rapier fashion. We have become obsessed by greed and personal gain. We do not question the actions of our leaders. We do not experience the pain of others, nor care about this fact. The insomnia of the narrator is a metaphor for the way in which we sleepwalk our way through our lives, allowing things to happen to us, rather than making things happen. Our narrator cannot feel any kind of emotion, so attends self-help groups, where the second hand emotion gives him enough peace to sleep. Little does he know that this will lead to the birth of Tyler, which will forever change the way he deals with the world in front of him. The explosion that tears its way through the narrator's condo, destroying all of the carefully collected Ikea furniture and "tasteful" art is a punch to Capitalism's kidneys; forced to rebuild his existence from scratch, the narrator, aided by Tyler, chooses to transgress society's boundaries: to live in a rickety, written off house in the paper packing district, to give no thought to possessions or wealth, and most importantly, to fight on Saturday nights in the dingy basement of a bar. Palahniuk tells an anecdote in the Afterword about having a black eye that nobody ever asked him about. He figured that in the modern world of work, what you did in your own time did not interest anybody. They would not want the salacious details. We live in a sanitised world where nobody wants to know the ugly truth about anything. This is where the idea for 'Fight Club' comes from. The first and second rules of Fight Club are "You do not talk about Fight Club" because when they are at Fight Club, these men are not the same worker drones they are in the week, and the work they do at Fight Club gives them the self-confidence and calm to cope with anything: "Nothing can piss you off. Your word is law, and if other people break that law or question you, even that doesn't piss you off."

This transgression strikes a chord with young, directionless men all over the country. This is the point where Tyler becomes a messianic figure and the second stage of the process begins: Project Mayhem, an anarchist backlash against the establishment which takes the form of increasingly destructive criminal acts, until the narrator becomes uncomfortable with this, which is how the narrator finally discovers that he is Tyler Durden. Even his love interest, Marla Singer, a fellow support group emotional parasite, has known him as Tyler Durden. And Tyler's works will live on after him. The narrative is, at its best, dizzying and hypnotic, with each repeated phrase, rule or homemade recipe for destruction leaping off the page, signposts of madness, or of truth.

This was another re-read, and, like 'Trainspotting', a book which has been somewhat overshadowed by an excellent film adaptation. If you've seen the film, which most people have, you'll know what happens, which is why I've indulged in more spoilers than I typically would've done in a review, but even so, when you read the book, it is still shocking, still breathtaking. I think this is due to the savage, deceptively simplistic prose and a narrative voice as distinctive as anything in literature. So if you have only seen the film version of 'Fight Club', I urge you to read the novel. It is a late twentieth century marvel, and most importantly, it speaks with great clarity concerning the times in which we live.