| Chuck
Palahniuk began writing fiction in his mid-thirties.
By his account, he started writing while attending
writer's workshops, hosted by Tom Spanbauer, which
he attended to meet new friends. Spanbauer largely
inspired Palahniuk's minimalistic writing style.
His first book, Insomnia: If You Lived Here, You'd
Be Home Already, was never published due to his
disappointment with the story When he attempted
to publish his next novel, Invisible Monsters,
publishers rejected it for being too disturbing.
This led him to work on his most famous novel,
Fight Club, which he wrote as an attempt to disturb
the publisher even more for rejecting him. Palahniuk
wrote this story in his spare time while working
for Freightliner. After initially publishing it
as a short story in the compilation Pursuit of
Happiness, Palahniuk expanded it into a full novel,
which – contrary to his expectations –
the publisher was willing to publish. While the
original hardcover edition of the book received
positive reviews and some awards, it had a short
shelf life. Nevertheless, the book made its way
to Hollywood, where interest in adapting it to
film was growing. The film was eventually completed
in 1999 by director David Fincher. The film was
a box office disappointment and critical reaction
was mixed, but a cult following soon emerged as
the DVD of the film was popular upon release.
The novel has been rereleased three times in paperback,
in 1999, in 2004 and in 2005. |
