Guerric Haché reviewed Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
Review of 'Fight Club' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
An interesting read for sure. The narrative techniques used were interesting, and the commentary on North American culture are definitely pertinent, if a little on-the-nose.
That said, I had a hard time getting into the protagonist's head. I suppose he's arguably someone with a severe mental illness, which makes relating hard, but I felt like a lot of the pain and suffering he was feeling was caricatured, a kind of inflated impression of the downsides to the culture we live in overall rather than something a real person could feel.
I suppose that's the point, isn't it? He's an exemplary product of the dissonance and internal conflict of Western culture, and he awakens an understanding of that dissonance in others, to violent effect. But I left the book feeling exhausted and irritated by the protagonist more than anything. I suppose my core takeaway here is that we need to be …
An interesting read for sure. The narrative techniques used were interesting, and the commentary on North American culture are definitely pertinent, if a little on-the-nose.
That said, I had a hard time getting into the protagonist's head. I suppose he's arguably someone with a severe mental illness, which makes relating hard, but I felt like a lot of the pain and suffering he was feeling was caricatured, a kind of inflated impression of the downsides to the culture we live in overall rather than something a real person could feel.
I suppose that's the point, isn't it? He's an exemplary product of the dissonance and internal conflict of Western culture, and he awakens an understanding of that dissonance in others, to violent effect. But I left the book feeling exhausted and irritated by the protagonist more than anything. I suppose my core takeaway here is that we need to be more upfront about discussing the problems in our society, or else somebody already curdled and broken by them will do the talking instead, with potentially disastrous results.
Oh, hello 2016. What do you mean you heard your name?
