Er leidet so stark unter den Zuständen und der Sinnlosigkeit seines Lebens, daß er -- und darin besteht der wesentliche Kunstgriff des Buches -- eine gespaltene Persönlichkeit ausbildet. Sein anderes Ich, dem er den Namen Tyler Durden gibt, lebt so, wie er es sich wünscht: ohne Rücksichtnahme, den eigenen Prinzipien gehorchend -- ein Guerilla-Kämpfer gegen die Zivilisation. Im Fight Club finden er und immer mehr Gleichgesinnte zu den elementaren Dingen zurück: dem archaischen Kampf Mann gegen Mann.
Palahniuks Figur steht für einen weit verbreiteten Typus Mann am Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts: ohne Ziel, ohne Sinn, in Mittelmäßigkeit versunken. Die Symptome, die der Autor zeigt, sind gut beobachtet; die Diagnose, die er stellt, ist höchst fragwürdig: Schuld trägt die Gesellschaft. Doch bei seinem Kulturpessmimus -- ein Phänomen, das am Ende eines Jahrhunderts regelmäßig wiederkehrt -- verkennt er zweierlei: erstens, es ist die Welt, die wir uns freiwillig gemacht haben und zweitens, wer will schon in einer mittelalterlichen Welt leben, so wie es sich sein Held erträumt? Das muß auch Palahniuk geahnt haben, als er seine Figur letztlich erkennen läßt, daß ein anarchistisches Zurückbomben zur Natur keine Lösung ist.
Der Wert des Buches besteht darin, daß er genau einen Zustand benennt und beschreibt. Palahniuk ist gewiß nicht in der Lage, eine Lösung anzubieten -- das muß er aber auch nicht. --Alexander Simon
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But while the ingredients are the same, Ballard and Palahniuk bake at completely different temperatures. Unlike his British counterpart, who tends to cast his American protagonists in a chilly light, holding them close enough to dissect but far enough away to eliminate any possibility of kinship, Palahniuk isn't happy unless he's first-person front and center, completely entangled in the whole sordid mess. An intensely psychological novel that never runs the risk of becoming clinical, Fight Club is about both the dangers of loyalty and the dreaded weight of leadership, the desire to band together and the compulsion to head for the hills. In short, it's about the pride and horror of being an American, rendered in lethally swift prose. Fight Club's protagonist might occasionally become foggy about who he truly is (you'll see what I mean), but one thing is for certain: you're not likely to forget the book's author. Never mind Ballardesque. Palahniukian here we come! --Bob Michaels
But while the ingredients are the same, Ballard and Palahniuk bake at completely different temperatures. Unlike his British counterpart, who tends to cast his American protagonists in a chilly light, holding them close enough to dissect but far enough away to eliminate any possibility of kinship, Palahniuk isn't happy unless he's first-person front and center, completely entangled in the whole sordid mess. An intensely psychological novel that never runs the risk of becoming clinical, Fight Club is about both the dangers of loyalty and the dreaded weight of leadership, the desire to band together and the compulsion to head for the hills. In short, it's about the pride and horror of being an American, rendered in lethally swift prose. Fight Club's protagonist might occasionally become foggy about who he truly is (you'll see what I mean), but one thing is for certain: you're not likely to forget the book's author. Never mind Ballardesque. Palahniukian here we come! --Bob Michaels
But while the ingredients are the same, Ballard and Palahniuk bake at completely different temperatures. Unlike his British counterpart, who tends to cast his American protagonists in a chilly light, holding them close enough to dissect but far enough away to eliminate any possibility of kinship, Palahniuk isn't happy unless he's first-person front and center, completely entangled in the whole sordid mess. An intensely psychological novel that never runs the risk of becoming clinical, Fight Club is about both the dangers of loyalty and the dreaded weight of leadership, the desire to band together and the compulsion to head for the hills. In short, it's about the pride and horror of being an American, rendered in lethally swift prose. Fight Club's protagonist might occasionally become foggy about who he truly is (you'll see what I mean), but one thing is for certain: you're not likely to forget the book's author. Never mind Ballardesque. Palahniukian here we come! --Bob Michaels
But while the ingredients are the same, Ballard and Palahniuk bake at completely different temperatures. Unlike his British counterpart, who tends to cast his American protagonists in a chilly light, holding them close enough to dissect but far enough away to eliminate any possibility of kinship, Palahniuk isn't happy unless he's first-person front and center, completely entangled in the whole sordid mess. An intensely psychological novel that never runs the risk of becoming clinical, Fight Club is about both the dangers of loyalty and the dreaded weight of leadership, the desire to band together and the compulsion to head for the hills. In short, it's about the pride and horror of being an American, rendered in lethally swift prose. Fight Club's protagonist might occasionally become foggy about who he truly is (you'll see what I mean), but one thing is for certain: you're not likely to forget the book's author. Never mind Ballardesque. Palahniukian here we come! --Bob Michaels