The first rule about fight club is you don't talk about fight club.
Chuck Palahniuk's outrageous and startling debut novel that exploded American literature and spawned a movement. Every weekend, in the basements and parking lots of bars across the country, young men with white-collar jobs and failed lives take off their shoes and shirts and fight each other barehanded just as long as they have to. Then they go back to those jobs with blackened eyes and loosened teeth and the sense that they can handle anything. Fight club is the invention of Tyler Durden, projectionist, waiter, and dark, anarchic genius, and it's only the beginning of his plans for violent revenge on an empty consumer-culture world.- Summary take form Goodreads
First of all, I do not live under a rock so I have seen the movie based on this book countless times. It's one I quite enjoy and not just because it features a lovely shirtless Brad Pitt. Somehow, despite being a fan of the movie, I just never managed to get around to reading the book. My husband came home from work one day and told me he read the e-book online at work that night because work was slow and he was bored. He told me it had small differences but was pretty much the same. Now, my hubby is not a reader. On the few occasions that he actually picks up a book, it will almost always be a non-fiction book about physics. So, we really don't talk about books, like ever. This was enough motivation for me to get off my duff and pick up the book.
As it turns out, he was right (don't tell him!). With the exception of a handful of small changes here and there, the book is essentially the same story I've been enjoying for years. I know the book is always better but I was a little scared that they would be too different and that the book would ruin the movie for me as I'd be forever comparing the differences from here on out.
I am Jack's overwhelming sense of relief.
I have to add that that it takes real talent to make me forget that I know the big twist at the end through most of the book. I knew it was there of course, but I was able to push that knowledge aside and enjoy the book on it's own. It's an insanely quick read and a good time was had by all. Now I've got a hankering for some shirtless Brad Pitt so I think it's time to go break out the DVD again.
Posts
4 comments:
I've always been scared to pick up the book for the same reason. Thanks for the review and for erasing my fear that the book and movie would be somehow different.
I just learned that I live under a rock :D I ought to rent this movie but I'll probably read the book first. Thanks for the review.
ive tried watching the movie but couldn't do it. It just wasn't for me. I had to stop when the acid went on that blokes hand. Would love to know what the twist is though
Becky,
Funny thing, it's not usually my kind of movie either and yet I love this movie. I'll tell you the twist. *spoiler alert* (If you are the handful of people like Becky who have not seen this movie, don't continue unless your sure you want to get spoiled.)
Edward Norton and Brad Pitt are the same character. That is to say that Edward Norton IS Tyler Durden. Brad Pitt is a figment of his imagination, like a different personality that has taken over.
So, there it is. :)
Post a Comment