Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

While in the middle of reading 5+ other books (the + is equal to the poetry, short stories, and plays I am reading for classes), my roommate told me to read Fight Club. I put down Clash of Kings and started it immediately, as I haven’t read Palahniuk in ages.  It is only 218 pages, so I finished it in just a couple days.

Fight Club is unsurprisingly about a club that fights. However, underneath that, there is so much more. Palahniuk, in the afterword, admits that the novel began as a short story (chapter six) based around rules. It didn’t need to be a FIGHT club, just any club where men could gather socially and be open because of the ruling structure.

The rules:

1: You do not talk about FIGHT CLUB.
2: You DO NOT talk about FIGHT CLUB.
3: If someone says “stop” or goes limp, taps out the fight is over.
4: Only two guys to a fight.
5: One fight at a time.
6: No shirts, no shoes.
7: Fights will go on as long as they have to.
8: If this is your first night at FIGHT CLUB, you HAVE to fight.

I’m sure most everyone knows the plot and twists of Fight Club, but for those that don’t, it is mainly about two men, the narrator and Tyler Durden. The narrator has insomnia and goes to support group meetings for people who have terminal diseases to help him sleep. This gets interrupted by Marla Singer, who shows up to every meeting, including the testicular cancer group. The narrator ends up moving in with Tyler, who is sort of dating Marla, so he has to see her much more often than desired considering the fact that he detests her.

I did really enjoy this novel, and having seen the film before reading it, I can say that it did justice to the book. Besides a few extra stories, and a few changed details, the movie really did a great job. While reading, I swear I could hear Edward Norton narrating the novel, so I think he really brought the character to life in the film.

Though Tyler had some really good insights, at times they felt a little random and out of place. I feel this added to the narrative style Palahniuk seems to aim for, but it was a little jarring going back to reading his style from other novels. Honestly, I wasn’t a big fan of any of the characters in the story. I enjoyed reading about them, but they were all a little too self-destructive for me. The narrator was probably the best out of the main three, just because I was able to relate to his struggles and how he got so apathetic about work and being owned by material things. The plot was definitely not strictly sequential; the confusion of going back and forth in time helped give a sense of the narrator’s insomnia confusion. Overall, this book was a great quick read, and the film was an amazing adaptation. I would recommend both to anyone who likes Palahniuk’s work or who likes self-destructive characters.

Ghost World by Daniel Clowes

I was walking through the library to kill time, and started to look in the graphic novel section. I saw the Ghost World movie a year or two ago, and decided the novel might be interesting. It is only 80 pages, so it made for a quick read.

Ghost World focuses on two girls who are past high school and pre-college who do pretty much whatever they please. I would say the ‘main’ character is Enid, who hates all men and pretty much everything else, too. The second character is Rebecca, the blonde on the cover, who sort of keeps Enid’s cynicism in check. They also have a few interesting side characters, like the clerk, John Ellis, their innocent friend Josh, and the creepy astrologer, Bob Skeetes, who comes to Enid’s garage sale for two hours and only buys a ten cent egg beater.

I get a strong cynical vibe from the story… possibly because Enid and Rebecca hate most everything they experience. One of the things they really find fascinating is a couple they see in a diner (Angel’s), whom they refer to as the Satanists. The only real friend the two have is Josh, an almost pure, innocent guy. They argue often over who should have sex with him, because they figure he is a virgin. The exploration of their friendship together and with Josh felt realistic and made the story richer.

I have been doing a project for one of my classes that involves looking at female friendships, and so this book was interesting. The novel looks really closely at what I think is a pretty typical friendship between girls. They like each other, but still worry that everyone likes the other one better. They keep secrets, gossip, contemplate the future, and do everything together.

I enjoyed the novel, partially due to the relatability of Enid and Rebecca — my good friend and I were similar to them in high school. There was a lot of tension in Ghost World, and I think this makes it rise above being a simple graphic novel. However, the characters make the plot hard to enjoy if you can’t appreciate being cynical.

I had to share one quote from the book that I really enjoyed:

“I wish I could just come up with one perfect look and stick with it… Like what if I bought some entire matching 1930′s wardrobe and wore that everyday… The trouble with that is you look really stupid and pretentious if you go a mall or a Taco Bell or something… And you have to act a certain way and drive an old car and everything and it’s a real pain in the ass!” – Enid

Tagline: "Accentuate the negative"

From what I remember of the movie, the story was a lot more awkward because of the focus on the relationship between Enid and Bob Skeetes. Steve Buscemi plays a great Bob, but by playing the character well, the relationship is weird because of both the age difference and the social ineptitude of the characters. I’m a little glad the novel didn’t focus on this relationship… Bob Skeetes, although talked about a lot in the novel, was only shown a few times. This was not the case in the movie, as they created the character Seymour (I assume he takes the place of Bob) who has a major role in Enid’s life.

I will probably watch the film again to see if it kept the real spirit of the book. I think the most important thing was the female friendship, and I know the movie expanded on that at least a little.  Thora Birch (Enid) and Scarlett Johansson (Rebecca) play the parts pretty well, though the two characters’ personalities seemed more likable in the movie compared to the book. Personally, I liked the detachment in the novel compared to the sarcasm in the film. I will admit it made for a funnier story, though.

Overall, both the graphic novel and the film were a pretty interesting slice of life story that I think many people could relate to. I don’t think it hurts to be a little cynical, and this story takes advantage of (and maybe goes a bit past) that idea.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

I’ve had this on my reading list for  a while, but decided to move it up both because I enjoyed my last murder mystery so much and so I could finally watch and compare the Swedish and English versions of the film. I haven’t watched them yet, but I may do a comparison review once I do. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is a 590 page mystery novel.

I really enjoyed the way this book started out — with the mystery of receiving a pressed and framed flower every year on the receiver’s birthday. Was it a taunt? Was it a hint or secret? I couldn’t tell, and so it was a great way to get me interested in the mystery.

I felt like there were two simultaneous plots going on in this book. The first and most (?) important was that of the mystery of Harriet Vanger and Henrik Vanger’s searching for her. The Vangers live on an island and were having a reunion of sorts one day when suddenly people start noticing that Harriet has been missing all day, and no one knows where she has gone. Due to a convenient accident on the only bridge leading off the island, many are led to believe she has been murdered and the body hidden.

The second main plot is that of Mikael Blomkvist and his vendetta through the Millenium (his paper) against Erik Wennerström. In the beginning of the novel, he publishes a piece accusing Wennerström of financial misdealings, and is slapped with a libel suit and loses. So his acceptance of taking on the Harriet Vanger case rides heavily on his need to get away from the paper for a while.

After everything to do with the mystery is solved or tidied up or has at least of semblance of being so, they finally take care of Blomkvist’s Wennerström problems. The last 90 pages of the book were probably my favorite. Although the murder mystery was interesting, I did not feel like I could have solved it (though my vague guesses in the beginning weren’t too far off the mark). So the parts dealing with Wennerström, who was a frustrating character, were really satisfying.

One thing I don’t really understand is why most of the ‘strong’ female characters want to have sex with Blomkvist. I really just don’t get it. They are all really frank and open about their sexuality, which is great, but I didn’t see it as very plausible. Or maybe I just wanted one strong female character who was satisfied by someone else or by other interests. This isn’t a major issue, but I feel it’s worth mentioning.

Although I did enjoy most of the characters and felt the narrative really fit their personalities, the story moved a little slowly for my tastes. It was by no means a hassle to try to finish the book, but I was also not riveted into staying up all night to finish it.  Overall, this was a solid book, and I can definitely see why it was adapted into multiple films. It was interesting, and I will probably end up reading the rest of the trilogy at some point, but I’m not so invested in the characters that I feel I have to read them any time soon. If you’re a big fan of mysteries, I would feel comfortable recommending this to you… but then you’ve probably already read it, eh?

The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, or How Violence Develops and Where it Can Lead by Heinrich Böll

I read this novella (103 pages) for my film and literature class, and we watched the film in class. It’s about an almost prudish girl who spends the night with a supposed terrorist and gets a ton of negative media coverage for it, which is corrosive to her life.

This book was surprisingly interesting. It had really short chapters — some less than a page, most containing police-report like narrative about events going on around Katharina Blum.

There weren’t too many memorable characters in this novella, as the only two people I really remember now are Katharina and Ludwig — the guy she spends the night with. In the beginning of the story, Katharina confesses to murdering a member of the press, and the rest of the book is sort of based around trying to find out why she did that (or how violence develops and where it can lead).

The story moves quickly, and is definitely relevant to our times… The lack of secrecy and the invasive qualities of the press are something that aren’t likely to go away any time soon.

The movie was made in the 70′s and was subbed in English (from German). It was a fair representation of the book, even though they left out the announcement of her murder in the beginning. In my opinion, that changed the tone of the story, and not for the better. As usual, I go with, “The book is better than the movie.”

Either way, I would recommend this novella to everyone — it is short and easy to read, and the narrative style is fun.

The Constant Gardener by John le Carré

For my film and literature class this week, we read The Constant Gardener by John le Carré. The majority of the book happens in places surrounding a British High Commission in Nairobi, with a little bit written in Canada and Germany, as well. There are two main characters (and some minor ones) that the narrative follows at separate times. Sandy Woodrow, an older ‘gentleman’ who works at the High Commission, is the opening main character and Justin, a career diplomat similar to Sandy, is the later main character.

This book is basically a murder-mystery story. Justin’s (attractive!) wife, Tessa, has been murdered and her travelling aid partner, Arnold Bluhm, has gone missing from the scene. Though we find out relatively early on what is going on and at least have an idea why Tessa was killed, Justin must go follow her steps to find out for himself.

I felt this book was hard to get into… I did not like Sandy Woodrow, and also did not especially enjoy his narrative. However, once the narrative started focusing on Justin’s continuance of Tessa’s cause, the book really picked up. Of course, I’ve always been a sucker for documents in books — emails, interviews, notes, etc. It is fun when an author includes things of that nature.

Both main male characters dealt with two side characters — Rob and Lesley, who were interviewers. I really loved these two characters, and am glad they had a part in finding out the ‘mystery.’ They were probably the most ‘pure’ characters besides Justin, who was a bit of a bore until the second half of the novel. I don’t want to spoil the ending… so I will just say that I did not approve of it. It wasn’t how I saw the book ending, or how I saw Justin dealing with the events as his character was progressing.

Although this was not in any way a bad book, I would not have picked it up on my own, nor would I have finished it if it wasn’t required for class. I welcomed Justin’s part of the story, and was quite happy to get away from Sandy, and so I did like the second half of the book. I appreciated the controversy surrounding pharmaceuticals in Africa, but the book felt overly long. Once I had picked up what was going on, I still had to wait for Justin to catch up. Overall, it was a decent read. We will be watching the movie on Monday, so look forward to reading about it!