Provenance Of

The influences behind Fight Club

31 works across 28 centuries, back to The Odyssey and Book of Psalms.

Following one thread, 2 works from Fight Club to American Psycho. Back to all 31 works

1996

Fight Club

Chuck Palahniuk

Late 20th-century American. United States. Written in English.

Chuck Palahniuk's debut novel follows an unnamed insomniac office worker who, with the anarchic Tyler Durden, founds a bare-knuckle fight club that grows into a terrorist cult, before Tyler turns out to be the narrator's other self. It is written in a clipped, repetitive minimalist style learned in Tom Spanbauer's workshop.
Where it came from
Find “Fight Club” on Amazon
1991

American Psycho

Bret Easton Ellis

Late 20th-century American. United States. Written in English.

A Wall Street banker narrates brand-name consumption and serial murders that may be fantasies.

What it handed down

To Fight Club (1996)

Disputed link, conjectural.

Both novels satirize late-century consumerism through a first-person narrator whose violence may be partly delusional. Critics have paired them, but Palahniuk has not acknowledged a debt.

Where it came from

The line stops here: minor, disputed branch.

Find “American Psycho” on Amazon