Breaking the First Rule of Fight Club

Fight Club
Chuck Palahniuk
New York : W.W. Norton, 2005, c1996.
218 p. ; 21 cm.

"The first rule of fight club is you do not talk about Fight Club."

A student recently asked me if we had any other books by Chuck Palahniuk besides Fight Club, and I said, "No, we don't. Do you like his books?" We got into a short discussion and when I explained that Fight Club was on my "to read" list, the student told me I absolutely had to read Fight Club as soon as I could. So this weekend, I put aside Crime and Punishment (our Book Club choice for October and November) and read Fight Club.

Wow! It is an amazing first novel. It opens strong, has taut, crisp writing and dialogue, and develops its opening premises through to the very end. Additionally, there is a lot to think about in this novel - ideas of masculinity, violence, alienation, reality v. delusion, leadership, and individual v. group identity predominate, but are by no means the only subjects. This would be a great book for a book group.

The novel has mature/graphic subject matter and so it wouldn't work as a high school classroom text, but is suitable for a library collection. The novel's most graphic material are the descriptions of the fights, the violence positive attitude of its main character, and some sexual situations.

Part of Fight Club's widespread popularity is due to its being made into a movie starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter. The movie is an excellent adaptation of the novel, but - as I told my son - I wish I had read the book first because it was impossible for me to get the movie characters out of my head as I read the novel.

Given the strength of Fight Club, I'll definitely have to see about adding a few more titles by Palahniuk to our library's collection.