Many people do not realize that Fight Club, before it was a movie, it was a book. In fact, Palahniuk's first book is considered by many to be his finest.

Fight Club examines the permeation of commercialization in our lives, it's effect of taming man and detaching us from the issues that really matter.  Jack, the main character, is trapped by the daily mundane tasks that we all endure ceaselessly. Restless and suffering from insomnia, he turns to support groups for relief.  Suffering from cancer, liver disease, cleptomania-- whatever it takes, Jack attends support groups nightly to fulfill some unrealized desire in his life.  That is until he meets Tyler Durden, the pivotal character that helps Jack realize that it isn't more that he wants from life, it's less. 

Although the ideas are a little clichéd at times, they are presented a uniquely dark and psychologically intense style.  The best way to describe it would be 'dense'.  Ideas and concepts are presented in bricks which must be dissected by the reader.  There's no time for idle chit-chat here, no meandering narratives on the way characters feel, or how the wind rustles through the leaves.  Oh no my friends, let's get to the point and stay there.  Only by leveling civilization can we repair it, and this is just what `Project Mayhem' seeks to do.

I find it hard to believe that anyone hasn't either seen the movie or read the book by this time, but the confrontation between Jack and Tyler at the end is truly one of the most memorable moments in literary history, or in cinema, in my opinion.

Rating 8.5/10 stars

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