Mostly regarding being tricked - Edit 1
Before modification by Camilla at 08/06/2010 08:51:30 AM
I think the thing that annoys me most about Fight Club and about this book is that, as a relatively intelligent person with somewhat of an ego about at least that thing, I'm not particularly fond of being made to feel stupid. I'm not really particularly perceptive or anything in terms of interpersonal relationships, so if I fail to grasp the subtle hints in someone's behaviour that make some secret clear as day to some others, it doesn't bother me much. But stuff like this is pretty much that, only put into a book, which bugs me because a book ought to be a level playing field - it's all in the text and we all read the same words.
My reaction to being tricked was the complete opposite, and I always thought everyone loved that. I mean, that is pretty much the foundation for my phD. Shit.
Dickens actually told Collins, when the latter was writing The Moonstone, I think, that the public doesn't like to be tricked. I always thought Dickens had profoundly misunderstood something. Perhaps he hadn't. I am intrigued.
This is really turning more into an auto-psycho-analysis than a discussion of the merits of the book, isn't it? Okay, moving on now... 
As a thrilling adventure ride, the book was lots of fun, only spoiled in the latter half by my stubborn refusal to accept the plot twist - as a result, I dare say I cared less about the actual dénouement than I should have done, because I kept hoping for a different kind of dénouement that never came. Still, a number of enjoyable action scenes, and I liked the lesser plot twists, although the way the protagonist defeats the bad guy at the end struck me as rather exaggerated.
The humour was good, often made me smile, occasionally laugh out loud.
The political-social messages of the book, hm, mixed bag there. As a war satire, it worked, and in a rather convoluted sort of way, perhaps too as a war warning. But the heavy-handed way of attacking the World Bank or similar organizations, and corporations in general... that became too preachy for me. Particularly the part where Addeh Katir gets a loan they never asked for, doesn't spend it and then has to pay back more than they have - I'm not sure why he didn't go for an at least marginally realistic situation, exaggerated for comic/satiric/critical effect, to be sure, but at least not completely nonsensical.
I don't know, I suspect that would have made the book too dark. It needed a thoroughly absurd place for Zaher Bey and their group to be able to exist at all. Horror needs contrast (certainly in this type of book, if it has a type), and fully fledged tragedy would have made the whole middle part unbearable, I think. And I am not just saying that in order to defend the book at any price.