Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk

Fight club is literally my favourite movie of all time, and I had been meaning to read the book in which it was about for a long time but had never gotten around to it until recently. I was never into films and television when I was younger, but Fight Club stirred something up within me and planted a seed that has blossomed and ingrained in me until this day. A vision of what lies behind and below, and expressed in such a clear and exciting way. Fight club was more than a movie, it was an alternative of living, an alternative you almost come to wish upon yourself. It gives you an excuse to do the things to yourself that arm you and halt progress in your life, because after all self destruction is the answer.

I was surprised how short the book was initially, but after reading a number of chapters and understanding the style of writing that was being used, I became to realise why. The story is written almost hastily, moving from one moment to another in quick succession, giving the atmosphere of the book a feeling of anticipation and excitement. It is half diary, half analysis of some unfortunate souls life, which has steadily fallen until he eventually hits rock bottom after finding out too late that the person he has been spending all his time with and listening to isn't actually real, and that he has been on some crazed trip around the states starting up fight clubs that he doesn't remember because he was asleep, and cannot ask about because the first rule of fight club is. . . there is no fight club.

The protagonist (played by Edward Norton in the movie) eventually figures all this out, albeit too late, and tries to stop Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt in the movie) from destroying almost everything. He soon finds out that fight club, turned into Project Mayhem, was now much larger than he had known and his followers soon began to stop him, under his orders, while he was asleep, being Tyler Durden.

The book contains a number of chapters that don't occur in the movie version. Most notably, the first fat that they used to make the soap was not from the liposuction clinic, but from the fat send from Marla's mother to Marla herself, with the belief that she could use it if she was to ever need it in getting implants into her lips. The next is that Tyler Durden had actually gotten Marla pregnant and whilst Tyler on the phone asks Marla what's his name, and have they slept together before, she replies saying that she had his abortion.

The book is well written, but does not flow as well as many other novels, it gets away with it due to the style of the storyline itself and the message it holds within. It can also come across as a story of escapism, and becomes clear that much admiration is shown towards Tyler Durden (everyone knows the name). Other than that, the story itself is set out a lot different to the movie, and would work well together if the movie was 'based upon' the 'diary' which is 'fight club'.

The Stand - Stephen King

The Stand - Stephen King

Finally got round to purchasing Stephen Kings novel 'The Stand'. A novel that for some reason seemed impossible to find in Malta.

The Stand has been a story I have wanted to read for a long, long time, due to the fact that I have the mini-series which I also want to watch but am unable to until I read the book itself and also due to its connections with The Genesis Project through its theme of a post apocalyptic world, and after reading a few hundred pages it was very clear how well written it is (of course when it comes to Stephen King novels I'm always generally a bit bias).

The character development early on is evident as it digs into the lives of a multiple of characters including Stu Redman, Frannie, Larry Underwood and Nick the deaf mute (not called 'Nick the deaf mute in the book, but I forgot his surname for the moment). That's the thing I love about Stephen King novels, the character development, something I find very interesting and important, more important than the actual story plot itself most the time. Which is good because even though I love Stephen Kings work, I sometimes find that a lot of his novels end abruptly and often not convincingly.

Take 'Duma Key' for example, one of the best character novels ever, it literally has hundreds of pages of developing the protagonist for us with only one or two other slightly minor characters before the actual event of the storyline takes place, and ends soon after. Incredible.

Anyway back to the Stand, where the world has been lifted upside down and some savage stuff is happening which portrays the nature of humanity in today's society. A nature which is subdued on a day to day basis and would only surface if events similar to these would take place. It is in our nature to be animals, it is what we are, and it is only because of the laws and society we have built that holds us back from committing these acts, and if those two no longer hold any weight it is all go.

The stand itself is a large book, full from edge to edge of every page with the story. Like a lot of Stephen Kings books 'The Stand'  focuses a lot on the characters of the story and builds up an in depth preview into their personalities throughout the majority of the book while they battle their own beliefs and understanding of good versus evil, of heaven versus hell as 'The Stand' is full of religious references and when it comes down to it, it is  a story full of metaphors for God versus satan.

The Stand spends most of it's time building up the characters in the story on an individual basis, one by one, we learn the story of each protagonist before the final conclusion and all those characters are basically wiped out, except a small number. Basically every main character dies, except Fran, Stu and Tom cullen, which in itself is good because otherwise the story would feel morbid and without hope even though many other survivors survived. those other survivors we only know on a name basis, so therefore do not feel connected or even care about what happens to them.

The book itself could have been much longer if Stephen King had decided to go deeper into each characters story, but because there are so many protagonists, this would become one hell of a task that could have turned The Stand into a strenuous read and a possible bore after the 1300 page mark is reached and you must continue, however the extended version I read was just enough and didn't evoke the sense of disinterest.

It’s a hard job creating a story around so many interloping characters but I feel that it has been done well  at most times here, and it doesn’t feel as though anyone has gotten lost in the mix and simply dropped off too hastily for no purpose. Everyone dies for a reason (albeit sometimes a small reason) and in some way influence the general direction of the story.

I was very pleased to be able to read this story after wanting to get round to it for many years, and am happy to not be displeased, for now I'm going to be taking a break from the world of Stephen King and read 'Fight Club' by Chuck Palahniuk and possibly revisit my all time most influential and favourite novel 'Call of the Wild' by Jack London, before returning to Stephen King with the next instalment of the Dark Tower series 'Wolves of Calla'.