I recently re-read Fight club. I first read it sometime around the end of middle school or early high school. The film was probably only a few years old at this point and it was seen as quite edgy for the time. Having seen the film prior to that and many, many times in the years since, I’m not sure I could have remembered much about the book without the movie taking precedence in my mind.

The re-read was nice. Palahniuk’s books are kind of like Stephen King’s in my mind. Simple prose that’s all the more effective because of it. Both play at times on “shock factor” a bit and that’s allowed to come through here. It’s also short and effective. It tells the story it needs to tell and gets out of there. Can be read in a day or so.

After re-reading it really is clear that the film was a pretty direct adaptation. Not much added or removed in the way of the content. I think there was some variation in the medium. The novel made the build up to the twist much more suspenseful and more rewarding to re-read (“I know this because Tyler knows this”). The film on the other hand seems to hit with a bit more of a punch during the actual reveal itself.

All in all, it was worth a re-read. Maybe I’ll re-read Choke again soon (the only other Palahniuk book that I remember having read before).