Let’s begin with a confession: I’ve never seen Fight Club, the film. Mainly because it has Brad Pitt in it and I seem to have a natural repulsion against him. So, my excuse was that I like reading the book first. I’ve read it now, so I guess I have no excuse about watching the film, so I’ll do it (good things of having the whole summer for you). Though I shouldn’t be writing about this book. We all know what the first rule of fight club is, don’t we?

One of the things I really liked about this book is how it’s narrated. It uses the first person present in a way that conveys perfectly the mental state of the narrator. I’m not going to dwell on it because everyone and their aunt already know this plot twist (but I’m putting the spoilers to be nice), but I have to say that

I loved the way in which he does it. I already knew that Tyler was the narrator’s alter ego, but the way in which he discovers it is just… chilling.

This book takes the idea of the unreliable narrator up to eleven, which also made me love it. Because I’m partial towards crazy and unreliable narrators, and I really enjoy when they are well written. I think it’s one of the hardest things you can do in Literature, and Palahniuk manages it perfectly.
Fight Club is very chilling as well. Not in the supernatural-horror kind of fear, but in the this-could-really-happen kind of scary. The narrators and the men in the Fight Club and Project Mayhem are people who are really frustrated about a system that is not answering to their needs and that doesn’t allow them to move forward in life. It’s the 99% rebelling against the 1% and is terrifying because, as I said, it could happen. I mean, we don’t know what can drive people to these extremes.

At first, the narrator uses different support groups as a way to let off some steam. And then he finds the Fight Club and begins using it to relieve himself of all that anger. Of course it was a matter of time before he found something that allows him to let even more steam go.

Tyler is obviously another way in which the narrator is channeling his frustrations. He creates an alter ego that does everything he fears to do. Again, this only adds to the chilling feeling that this book gives. The idea that your mind can do such a thing is beyond creepy.

Surprisingly enough, the book is really easy to read. Maybe because Palahniuk really knows what he’s doing and he makes the story flow. I just couldn’t stop reading, trying to get at what was going to happen in the end. And, despite the subject matter and all the creepy implications, I actually enjoyed this book. So I might give Palahniuk another chance later on, he’s a great narrator.

I’d recommend this book mostly to my guy friends. Not because women cannot appreciate it, but because it’s one of those books that’s full of testosterone. And I don’t know any girl who likes to read this kind of books, so if I ever meet one, I’ll give it to them immediately.