Fight Club

The book was great! There are some differences to the movie but you have to keep in mind that the book was made before the movie.It only took 2 days to get here so not to bad.And the book and story overall was just fantastic!

The one thing that bothered me about reading this book was that I just kept hearing the words coming out of Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter. If you haven't watched the film already I recommend reading the book first.'Fight Club' is really something special - even from the first few lines you can sense the originality in Palahnuik's work. When I first begun reading the book I felt slightly put off by the repetition of short sentences but after persevering on through the following chapters I became used to the speaker's tone and begun to realise how well the book is written.As well as originality, the book has a lot of power. 'Fight Club' really makes you question modern day life and the comforts we all seem to crave - like IKEA furniture, and that all of us consumers are being brainwashed into buying things we don't need. As well as making you want to smash up all your flat-pack goods, the book also questions masculinity in the present day, and that no men in the new generation know how to fight or have ever been in a fight. In a way 'Fight Club' sort of brain-washes you. It changes the way you think about everyday life. It makes you wonder if you are just going to be forgotten after you die if you don't break away from the repetition of everyday life, and rise up to establishment. And, on a lighter note, makes you see the potential in a bar of soap, if its made of human fat that is.I'm not saying that the book has made me beat up men in basements, blow up buildings with soap or kill my boss. It just makes you think about the lives we live. Some parts are also hilarious.HIghly recommend this book to anyone, unless you are likely to take the ideas of the book literally of course.

In common with numerous early reviewers, the essential question here is "Can I enjoy this book even though (a) I saw the film first and (b) I thought the film was one of the best I have ever seen"?The answer is "yes". However, you will hear the voices of Norton, Pitt and Bonham-Carter so clearly, because clearly Fincher took the book, expanded on it in very visual and inventive ways, but kept to the narrative (and indeed the spoken lines, extremely faithfully.Having said that the book does add to the story by adding depth in the way only books can i.e. by stimulating our imagination.I would highly recommend this to anyone who enjoyed the film - it's a quick read anyway, only around 200 pages. I wonder how fertile Fincher's imagination is to have created so densely imaginative a film.Even the afterword, which describes how the book was conceived, initially as a short story, is well worth a read - consider it a DVD extra. It shows how an initial unenthusiam grew to a global obsession and ends with the following very perceptive line, which I will paraphrase as I don't have the book in front of me: "Sometimes you don't have to be rich - sometimes being tired is enough."

Some people in their reviews have been talking about how the book is inferior to the film, that the book is rough round the edges, how it lacks charm.I think you're missing the point.This book isn't about charm. It isn't about neatly structured plot, or nice little anecdotes. It's about rage, and passion, and fear. I think the problem is that the film is a) very popular, so people tend to see it before they read the book (as I did) and b) the book is MUCH nastier than the film (and the film was nasty).The real brilliance of Fight Club is the sheer insanity of it, and yet it is an insanity that we see every day. Surely not one of us has not at some point been disgusted with the comercial nature of the society we live, and ultimately, ourselves? If we looked at this as just a book, then we miss the point. Just as 1984 pointed out the constraints of our society, Fight Club shows us the way to escape. When you finish this book, you won't feel contentment, or joy, you'll feel hatred, anger, you'll hunger for destruction.And it is this emotional response that makes it worthwhile reading! If there was no passion in the writing, then I'd probably be slating it like other people.Oh yes, and it's almost certainly a blokes' book. The whole nature of male bravado and rage, a "generation of men raised by women" is so true to life that we can have sympathy with the characters. I doubt women will feel the same way.But regardless of gender, make sure you read this book, simply to see the degredation of our society from a new angle.

This was an absolute whirlwind of emotions from start to finish. So well written. Really enjoyed it. Better than the film!