I finished Chuck Palahniuk’s novel Fight Club over the weekend. (I haven’t gotten to the movie version yet.) It’s a gritty, funny, saddening, interesting piece of work that makes very vivid the nihilistic angst that characterizes so many of my generation. But instead of despairing or abandoning themselves to hedonism, the characters instead reach for an existentialist validation of their own existence and worth in hand-to-hand fights. The writing is excellent, and the book a worthwhile read. I’ll be anxious to see how the film version stacks up.