What if Tyler Durden was born so long ago he joined the war and when he was shot at ran off with someone, then just kinda messed around for a while, aiming vitriol at pretty much every social construct and type of human relationship. It’s very good at inciting emotion and has decent prose work, so it’s not a one star book, but it’s reads very juvenile and like they prayed to a moral relativism text all day before writing, or something.

I can see why it resonated with some people, especially the catch-22 crowd, a book I thought similarly was geared towards budding, lost boys growing into men that feel like everything’s a joke and they’re so hard done by. Essentially, it’s satire that’s ironic because it doesn’t know, or care, how solipsistic it is. Great for confirming motivated thinking of the same, and getting the blood up, but truly well and vapid when actually dissected. Holden Caulfield in an old man but meant to be liked and even revered, apparently, if reviews are to be believed.

It’s not self aware enough to realize the real joke is on this actual work as a whole. Most people grow up and are aware of privilege and occupy the same world, but not this one. As with many satires I’m finding the authors tend to show their whole ass and think they’re very, very clever while doing so. All I see is an ass. Sorry.