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Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

I’m usually a book-is-better-than-the-movie kinda guy. When I’ve already read the book and go and see a movie I’m usually thinking through in my brain which parts they’re leaving out (e.g. Hitchhiker’s) which kinda ruins it.

When it came to Fight Club, like most people, I’d seen the film first. Yes, I’m going to assume that you’ve seen it too. If you haven’t you need to see it. Now.

When I compare books to movies there’s usually two things I think about: what stuff they invariably have to leave out when going to a 2-3 hour film and the different ways the author/director is able to convey the story.

The first of these comparisons is fairly easy. Thinking back I don’t really remember anything in the film that wasn’t in the book. Certainly the key themes and scenes are there. There might be a scene or two here or there but nothing major.

The second of these comparisons is what you get from being in a film versus being in a book. The emotional distance that Tyler is kept from the narrator is more pronounced in the film because you actually see two separate characters. In the book this is harder and Tyler’s thoughts do get mixed in which I think would have someone who doesn’t know ‘the twist’ to both get it earlier and for the shock/surpise/etc. to be far less pronounced.

For these reasons I don’t really see a reason to recommend this book even though, as an isolated work, it is a good book. Its downside is that there is a great film about it that you can watch and get pretty much everything you would get from the book. In the afterword Palahniuk actually laments that the book is overlooked in respect to the film (with most people not even knowing that this book exists).

I just hope he had a good revenue-sharing agreement…

Not many white guys that can rap without looking like try-hards. This guy pulls it off.

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