Hello, I was hoping for someone to please suggest me a book that is similar to “Fight Club” which is not written by Chuck Palahniuk. Nothing against him, I think that he’s great, but I just read “Rant” (which I also enjoyed), so I would like to read something that is not written by him to mix things up. Thank you!
by Downtown-Expression
3 Comments
It depends on what you mean by similar to Fight Club. If you mean unreliable narrator, think Brett Easton Ellis’ American Psycho. If you mean the nihilistic world view, Less than Zero also by Ellis. For me, though, the closest vibe would be Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh. Filth by Welsh is also on the same wavelength.
How about **The Contortionist** *Craig Clevenger*?
This does depend on what you liked about *Fight Club* or Palahniuk in general.
*Post Office* by Charles Bukowski is magnificent in describing people stuck in dead-end jobs with unthinking bosses. Pitch black humour. Highly recommended.
For the bizarre characters who make weird seem like an everyday phenomenon, you might try JG Ballard. *Crash* is about car-crash fetishists because of course it is. A few others will also probably work for you too. The writing style is a billion miles away.
In terms of subject matter and world view, there’s definitely something that Palahniuk has in common with Kurt Vonnegut. However, it’s quite difficult to connect this to any specific novel. Perhaps start with the short story ‘Harrison Bergeron’, with a few others from the same collection *Welcome to the Monkey House* likely to work for you. Again, the writing style is extremely different to Palahniuk’s.
Happy reading!