Fight Club

By Chuck Palahniuk
I did a bit of research on Wiki after I finished this book, because I wondered if it had ever been banned anywhere – it does read like a bit of a primer for civil disobedience, after all, and that usually gets the book-banners’ blood boiling. Waiters spitting (and worse) into restaurant food, selling soap made from liposuction fat to the ladies who had the liposuction (at outrageous prices), bare knuckle fist-fight clubs, blowing things up…this book had it all. I can also easily imagine the society depicted in Fight Club appealing greatly to the disenfranchised, angry, despairing, bored and/or lonely – the type of person who can often end up in a cult. As Hercule Poirot would say, the psychology of the book was right.

Well Wikipedia didn’t mention any attempts to ban the book (or the subsequent film), although Fight Club has attracted some criticism for its violent nature, suggestions of misogyny etc. (Incidentally, my own inbuilt misogyny detector was not activated while reading this book). The Wiki entry on Fight Club did indicate, however, that it has generated rather a lot of deep and meaningful essays and critiques. (Arrrgh). To quote Wiki, “[Fight Club] is now widely considered to be a defining work and an uncompromising critique of humanity's loss of identity through mass consumerism.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fight_club). Oo-er.

Interestingly, the fight club society that evolves in the book is made up entirely of men. I’m not sure if this makes me prey to gender stereotypes, but I don’t think I would have found it believable if there were lots of women joining up to bash each other’s faces in and obey ridiculous rules unquestioningly. Tell me if I’m falling prey to gender stereotypes, won’t you? I'd hate to fall prey to gender stereotypes...

Fight Club is a curious book – definitely worth reading – it feels like it’s being written by someone with ADD (or possibly extreme sleep deprivation, which is what our unnamed hero suffers from), but as you get towards the end and it all comes together…geez! I mean, I didn’t see that coming! I think Chuck Palahniuk is a bit clever.

Also Fight Club has the rare commendation of being a book that invites comment by total strangers on public transport. I was only on about page 5 when a bloke on the train started telling me what an awesome book it was; I can only recall two other books inviting comment from strangers, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5 and one of Dorothy Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey novels.

I think I’m going to give this book a 10, even though I didn’t quite like it as much as my other favourites, but it was just so well done. A dangerous book!!

Rating: 10 out of 10

One Fat Englishman (2004)

By Kingsley Amis
The fat Pom of the title is possibly the most convincingly odious and repugnant character ever written. It is not even possible to enjoy disliking him, as with so many other nasty literary characters. He’s fat, he sweats a lot, he lusts after married women a lot, he has an anger management issue, he likes to play at emotional blackmail, he has a British superiority complex, he doesn’t seem to even really like women, except for a bit of recreational activity - he’s just generally foul.

This book is all about his attempts to get it on with Helene, the wife of an associate of his. Roger Micheldene (the said fat Pom) is a publisher, and in America on business. While he tries to pressure Helene into having sex with him (eww), he tries it on with a couple of other women he meets for good measure, while having arguments with a young American author called Macher, despising everyone around him (especially Helene’s son, Arthur) and generally behaving like a total asshole.

While the quality of the writing was undoubtedly good, I found it hard to keep reading. I wondered who it was meant to appeal to – other fat Englishmen? It seemed to me that the author also despised Mr Micheldene quite thoroughly, and wondered what made him want to write about such a person. Was he writing about himself in some way, thus purging himself? (Kingsley was a Pom, and I think a bit on the fat side; OK tenuous link I admit). Perhaps he was trying to cure the world of the notion that all fat Englishmen are jolly old fellows. If so, he succeeded. This book is clever, but I found it impossible to enjoy.

Rating: 3 out of 10