Not going to lie, I read the last page of the book very early on, so I knew this was all coming. However, let me the first to say knowing this in advance did not make the book any clearer.
Anyway, this book really started to remind me of Fight Club in the last segment of reading. Most obvious is the fact that all these characters were essentially made up and mere delusions of Gould's. Similarly, in Fight Club Edward Norton's character creates Tyler Durden and lives his life around this imaginary person. Both Gould and Norton become so convinced these people are real that these fake characters seriously influence their lives.
The short passages on the bottom of 372 really got me thinking about Fight Club. Gould quotes the Commendant as saying "There is only this life we know in all its wondrous dirt and filth and splendor". "There is never any more beauty than there is now". "I have lived a life of meaninglessness for this one moment of meaning"
Anyone familiar with Fight Club knows the above quotes parallel the movie. Tyler's famous quote in the film is "you are not a beautiful or unique snow flake...we are the all singing, all dancing crap of the world...we are all from the same compost heap". Those lines struck me as being very similar to "There is only this life we know in all its wondrous dirt and filth and splendor" in the Book of Fish. Moreover, Tyler is very critical of Norton's character's original lifestyle - one full of needless consumption of Swedish furniture and other consumerable goods. Tyler routinely tries to have him reach "rock bottom" so he can give up his life of meaninglessness and really feel pain; to finally have meaning.
Lastly, I feel the constant switching between first and 3rd person is also paralleled in the film. In the beginning of the film as Norton's character is going insane, images of Tyler Durden begin to flash on the screen. I missed it the first time I watched it, but it is symbolic of his devolution into insanity. I think one way to interpret the Roman numerals as Gould's own little flashes of Tyler Durden. Evidence that this whole story is not linear and sane. Hints to the reader that something is up early on. Again, I did not catch this as they just confused me, but now that I have more context I can see we were given signs from the very beginning that Gould and Sid were all crazy and messed up.
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