Hauntingly realistic...this is a novel every man should read at least once...

books:


	• Fight Club: A Novel Chuck Palahniuk W. W. Norton, 2005 - 224 pages average customer review:based on 638 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Hauntingly realistic...this is a novel every man should read at least once...

`Fight Club' to me was one of those novels you read not expecting much more than mundane violence and tyrannical elements of surprise and suspense. If you've had the pleasure of watching the Hollywood blockbuster bearing the same name you'd know that it's so much more than that. `Fight Club', above all else, is about the conflict within us for acceptance, acceptance from our peers, from our loved ones and yes, from ourselves. It's about the struggle for complacence, the human struggle for satisfaction and that feeling of self worth. This story's protagonist is far from any of these things.

`Fight Clubs' nameless narrator suffers from abnormal depression. He hates his job, his life and himself in more ways than you can imagine. The only sliver of enjoyment he receives comes in the form of his apartment which he spends countless hours and dollars refurbishing until it looks just like the cover of a magazine. He hasn't slept in god knows how long and it's taking a toll on his very being so, in an attempt to find some sort of inner peace, he relishes in the misfortunes of others by attending a series of support-group meetings. Here he has a chance to release his inner emotions, crying between the breasts of a man with testicular cancer. Doing this makes his feel whole, feel complete, and thus he receives his best night sleep in years.

That is all before he meets Marla Singer. Marla, like our narrator, is a faker, a self-group junkie who just so happens to show up and ruin a good thing. You see, knowing that someone else is getting as much satisfaction as he is out of such a deplorable act is causing him to lose that much needed sleep. But then everything changes when someone else waltzes into his life...and that man is Tyler Durden. After a series of events (you notice how the one good thing in our narrators life, the one thing he is proud of, his gorgeous apartment is the first thing to go) the two men begin their new life which consists of `Fight Club' an underground fighting ring where the everyday man, fed up with his job, his wife, his kids or himself can beat our his frustration and sleep happy.

Things start wonderfully but soon escalate out of control and must come to a brilliantly twisted ending that will still leave you speechless even if you have been spoiled by seeing the film first. Honestly, I didn't even know this novel existed until years after seeing the movie and yet when I read the final page of this novel I think I was even more blown away than I was sitting in the crowed theater. Chuck Palahniuk is a masterful storyteller and he weaves this tale so thick with gritty realism that the reader can't help but relate and sympathize with the characters. This is definitely the novel for the reading man. It speaks to us on so many levels because it addresses the very thing that so many men are afraid to confront, that feeling of worthless, lonely dissatisfaction that can erode the very fabric of our lives and make us hate who and what we are. We've all been here, we've all felt this and we all need our own personal `Fight Club'.

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Simply amazing.

I love all of Chuck Palahniuk's novels. I admit I saw the film version first so I had to read this. I loved the premise. I loved the irony. The quotes. The way it made you think. This is an amazing book that has a very strong cult status among millions. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in the modern nihilism that surrounds all of Palahniuk's books.

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Great book

Palahniuk is a satirical genious. I couldn't put this book down. Eventhough I had seen the movie several times, it was a great read. I also highly recommend 'Survivor' if you like this book. It really is every bit as good... It's also a lot funnier, and maybe even darker.

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Fight Club

Fight Club is an awesome novel that stretches the mind and its imagination. This action-packed novel makes one think twice about society and who serves your meals. Fight Club is somewhat inspirational and uplifting. It shows how materialistic people are not free people, and that it is only when you lose everything that you are free to do anything. I highly suggest this novel for anyone willing to have a open mind and an extreme attitude.

Fight Club

This wasn't a perfect book, but it was a perfect premise. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk is one of those gems of literature which make good on a fantastic theme and becomes remarkably popular without sacrificing to any cookie cutter formula.

The thing that either works for the reader, or doesn't work for the reader is the voice. Palahniuk's narrator is the voice of frustration, a man who so despises what he has to do for a living because it benefits no one and he sees society as a rotting wasteland inhabited by pointless people leading pointless lives all working to destroy each other, build nothing and make Gods out of the wealthy. His satire is to show that the things we really crave - empowerment, validation, strength, soul - are being cast aside in favor of placebos like material goods, support groups, drugs, and entertainment. His argument that the power structure is upside down is dramatically symbolized by the Fight Club, where the most powerful are those with nothing left to lose.

He explores sanity and leaves the question unanswered - is mental illness really a problem or just a coping mechanism? Maybe the whole country is mentally ill and those who aren't are willing to make a stand, support anarchism, and subsequently are viewed as abnormal. Would the hunter of ancient times be in Fight Club? What have we become?

There are problems with some details, like the manufacturing process of soap and the technical details of explosives . . . but it works, I can get past all that for a great voice and a strong message. This book had both.

- CV Rick

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