Customer Reviews

Fight Club

5 star:		(336)
4 star:		(91)
3 star:		(43)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

Fight Club was the first Chuck Palahniuk novel I read, and I have since become a die-hard fan of his works. I first saw the movie with my friend and fell in love with the story. She was the one who first recommended reading the novel, because according to her, the movie leaves out too many things, and you need to read the book to get the full impact of the story. She couldn't have been more right. I purchased the book and read non-stop for two days, then watched the movie again. It's truly captivating. The best thing, however, is not the story itself but the way in which Palahniuk presents the story. His writing style is one that is brilliant and unique. The characters he creates are intense, and you manage to find parts of yourself that relate the each of them, parts of yourself and your mind that you didn't even know existed. This book is amazing, as are all of Chuck Palahniuk's novels. Would also recommend the following books: Children's Corner by McCrae, Survivor, Plot Against America, and Bark of the Dogwood.

I ordered a USED copy of Palahniuk's Fight Club, it was shipped promptly, arrived in good condition. I was not disappointed. I will order from Alpha Textbooks INC. again in the future.

this is an amazing book. if you've seen the movie there won't be any surprises, but the book goes more in depth into the concepts and such so the reader can get a firmer grasp on the ideas the author is trying to convey.

the story starts off with this guy who's going to these anonymous groups for people with terminal diseases, but he doesn't have a terminal disease. so right at the beginning of the book we have the main character searching out destruction as a way to solve his discontent. the cause of his discontent of course would be that he feels he doesn't belong within his own society, that his individual self has no presence when interacting with society as a whole. so the individual revolts against society, reasserting its authority over itself. and this would be the reason for fight club. what makes fight club so wonderfully appropriate as a beacon for the individual to rise up against society is that society finds the concept of fight club so abhorrent, it doesn't understand the logic. society's morality dictates that we are all special individuals that are to cherished. we are all special individuals... something of an paradox, but as we all sway to society's rhythm we can see the logic. but if we take this statement apart and apply it to our own lives, because the western world believes this to be true, generation me as an example, and yet we are all alienated and desire/ are forced to be the same. one of the mantra's in this book was 'i am not a special snow flake' or something to that effect. by denying society's morality, the individual recognizes their discontent and counters it (of course in real life the contrasting extreme is no better than what caused the trouble in the first place, but one very much deserves the other... and its great for symbolic purposes:P). the members of fight club act in a way that society does not comprehend so that the individual can gain autonomy over itself, wresting itself out of the numbing grasp of society. this would manifest itself as destructive behaviour, both towards the self and towards the other, desiring the loss of the individual in a crowd, looking beneath the superficiality we create around ourselves to present as an image, and presenting something unacceptable in its place.

besides the extreme need for society and the extreme need for the individual there is also the need for balance, hence there being three components to the novel. the aggravator, the aggravatee, and something detached from both. the aggravator would be society, whose desire is to quell individuality and can be found in characters that are 'normal' like the guy's boss, or the very motivation in each of our heads and within the scope of each character's awareness to conform to the bigger picture. the individual would contrast this in it's desire to rise up out of society establishing its autonomy over itself, and this can be found in the idea of fight club and those who believe in it's teachings. the third party would be able to see the benefits and flaws in both extremes, and that would be our narrator, or even the reader, and this person sees a need for both.. or a need for neither.

it was very symbolic, which i enjoyed, but if you're not the type that goes for symbolism... well it'll tap into your rebellion or something.. and it has the fighting (which is you revelling in the symbolism but denying it!). great book though. i recommend.

Great debut novel from Chuck Palahniuk. I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for something away from the norm!

Living in a nihilistic society where your life needs to be threatened to feel alive, Fight Club takes us to a place beneath the surface, where we are broken down and bottom out before we can recreate ourselves better and stronger. The relationship between the POV and his mentor/nemesis, Tyler Durden, ranges from hero-worship to pure homoerotica. Palahniuk's first novel is a social commentary that gives the proletariat the upper-hand to change the world through planned acts of random violence. One great, great book.

Also recommended: "Choke," "The Losers' Club: Complete Restored Edition" by Richard Perez, "High Fidelity" by Nick Hornby

Living in a nihilistic society where your life needs to be threatened to feel alive, Fight Club takes us to a place beneath the surface, where we are broken down and bottom out before we can recreate ourselves better and stronger. The relationship between the POV and his mentor/nemesis, Tyler Durden, ranges from hero-worship to pure homoerotica. Palahniuk's first novel is a social commentary that gives the proletariat the upper-hand to change the world through planned acts of random violence. One great, great book.

Also recommended: "Choke," "The Losers' Club: Complete Restored Edition" by Richard Perez, "High Fidelity" by Nick Hornby

This is one of the most original books ever to come down the pike. (What exactly IS a pike, anyway?) The entire novel, written in first person, focuses around an insomniac, unhappy in his life, his job; material comfort means absolutely nothing, despite how much time he's meticulously devoted to furnishing his apartment. The narrator finds comfort in the most unlikely of places: Support groups for various diseases he doesn't even have. This lasts for years until someone else develops the same kind of addiction: The chain-smoking Marla Singer. If you're looking for book without a BIG twist, then pass this one by, for Mr. P. will give you an ending that you won't soon forget. Twist and twisted doesn't even begin to describe this one. And, unlike the fight club in the movie, you CAN talk about it. Without a doubt, one of the most unusual and unique books ever. Also recommended: BARK OF THE DOGWOOD.

Living in a nihilistic society where your life needs to be threatened to feel alive, Fight Club takes us to a place beneath the surface, where we are broken down and bottom out before we can recreate ourselves better and stronger. The relationship between the POV and his mentor/nemesis, Tyler Durden, ranges from hero-worship to pure homoerotica. Palahniuk's first novel is a social commentary that gives the proletariat the upper-hand to change the world through planned acts of random violence. One great, great book.

Also recommended: "Choke," "The Losers' Club: Complete Restored Edition" by Richard Perez, "High Fidelity" by Nick Hornby

There's not much I can say about FIGHT CLUB that hasn't been said already (besides I'm not supposed to talk about it -first rule of FC and all) It's one of those books on everyone's "to read" list and ultimately it's everything you'd expect it to be; disjointed, astonishing, dark, gritty and fantastic. Although I did wonder how you'd manage to understand what's going on in the beginning chapters without having seen the movie first because they don't make a whole lot of sense.

Of course you can't help but compare the book to the movie. And in saying that I was surprised to learn that Fight Club the movie followed the book faithfully (including dialogue). It is so similar in fact that the book now reads much like a screenplay adaptation, even though it came first. Movies rarely follow the book word for word and subsequently I didn't enjoy this as much as I'd been expecting to. There wasn't anything extra here, no added insight into Tyler Durden's character, no dirty scenes that didn`t make it into the movie. I just kept picturing Brad Pitt and Edward Norton (not a bad thing) but then I also pictured Meatloaf Big Bob and his huge man boobs.

The ending however is completely different and it blew my mind. We see the unnamed narrator's split personality develop much earlier "I know this because Tyler knows this" It's not the zenith moment, just a symptom, and he (and we) become aware of it much earlier. We then get to watch "him" try to keep it together, to reign in his space monkeys, to get rid of Tyler by staying awake, to disband project mayhem "Tyler told us you'd say that" and his descent into madness is just brilliant.

The afterwards by the author is also very interesting. Detailing how this all started as a 7 page story he wrote when he was bored at work one day (its included as chapter 6 in the book) and then of course he expanded, added some friends stories (the naughty waiters and film splicing) and wrote what has transformed into the cult classic it is today.

Still, I think everyone should read this book

I haven't seen the movie so all that I can comment on is the book. I was expecting a screed against consumerism and instead I got a mediocre psychological thriller.

There is no real philosophy in this book. We all hate consumerism to one degree or another at one time or another. Men getting together to beat the crap out of one another isn't the answer though. Joyous epiphanies through physical pain isn't the answer, although I understand the necessity of the "fight clubs" as a literary device to hold the book together. I don't know what the answer is, maybe just some good old fashioned self-control; maybe it's better to cut up your credit cards than to cut up your fellow man. I enjoyed the afterword most of all, when the author talks directly to the reader and explains what he had in mind when writing "Fight Club" as a short story, before it became a novel, before it became a movie, before it was taken way too seriously by way too many people. I think "Fight Club" would make a great short story, there's really not enough meat to sustain it as a novel.

"Fight Club" isn't as good as I thought it would be, but if you have a spare afternoon, read it and decide for yourself. Palahniuk's writing style is fairly easy going, and the book is an easy read. Just don't look for any deep message, there is none.