Fight Club: A Novel by Chuck Palahniuk Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Fight Club: A Novel
Book Review: A modern classic, one of the defining works of the 1990's
Summary: 5 Stars
Fight Club, first published in 1996, has become one of the greatest books of the 1990's, cultivated a sizable cult following, and is a book by which others should be judged. Chuck Palahniuk, the author of Fight Club, has written a brilliant and promising first novel. The language and construction of the sentences draws the reader in and the attention to detail and description make the story incredibly vivid. From the first sentence, "Tyler gets me a job as a waiter, after that Tyler's pushing a gun in my mouth and saying, the first step to eternal life is you have to die", is among one of the more memorble first lines of any book I've ever read.
The beginning of the book takes the reader on a journey, teaching you about the daily life of the narrator (never explicitly named), and how he came to meet Tyler Durden, an enigmatic, twenty-something individual who's philosophies range from the absurd to strangely simplistic. With a pessimistic view of the present, and a dangerously optimistic view of the future, Tyler is willing to stop at nothing to accompish his goals. He is both creative and persuasive, which is a dangerous combination with someone with so much apathy towards others. He is a complex character, with a passion for making soap. He starts fight clubs, underground boxing rings in large cities, and starts Project Mayhem, a group that is bent on destroying corruption, one building at a time. Aside from his personality and intentions, he is absolutely brilliant, forcing people at gunpoint to succeed and accomplish their own personal goals.
For a simple book (starting fight clubs, making soap, and destruction), Fight Club has amassed a passionate group of followers, including those willing to start their own fight clubs, change their names to Tyler Durden, and burn themselves with caustic lye. It spawned an excellent film of same name, which, is as close to as good as the orginal story as I have ever seen. One motivated reader went so far as to put Tyler's home addrss on Paper Street on the sample pictured for a popular line of Avery adhesive labels. I would recommend that if you haven't read this book that you borrow or buy it, along with a few extra copies for your close friends. Without question, Fight Club is one of the greatest stories I've ever read, and is destined to become it a classic novel.
Book Review: A novel with something to say
Summary: 5 Stars
Is it true? Has our society debilitated so far that we require pain, extreme violence and organized mayhem to feel alive? Has political correctness, imposed morality, middleclass convention and excessive consumerism turned most of us into desensitized automatons, pushing endlessly for a better adrenalin rush to experience something meaningful, something with definition, the ultimate sensation?
According to the narrator of Fight Club, modern man has failed to grow up, we are merely boys raised by women, and it will take a powerful leader to take us to the heights of manhood never dreamed of before - we've been lied to from the beginning, told that we all can become rock stars, movie moguls and national heroes, when in fact most of us have grown up to pump gas, wait tables, stare at computer screens, work menial jobs for minimum wage and are powerless to do anything about it. We have no control over our lives. The message of Fight Club is clear: it is time to take control, rise up out of our apathetic, consumerist daze, create positive anarchy and start all over again. We desperately need a person like Tyler Durden, Fight Club and Project Mayhem - before it's too late.
This has to be one of the darkest most uncomfortable novels that I've read in many years. Palahniuk has touched upon the modern malady, and that is, as a society, we are spiritually deficit, lost in our self-created perfect worlds of Swedish furniture, minimalist apartments, nine to five jobs and the endless stream of reality television. Generally we are lost in a consumerist haze, and it will take someone like Tyler Durden to show us that we have the potential to instigate change within society and ourselves. Men have always beaten each other up for fun and profit. Nothing has changed in this respect. But the notion of an organized underground movement, free of charge, to beat the hell out of strangers in order to feel alive, is certainly original.
Palahniuk has a unique voice that is hard edged without sounding like it is trying to be so...the prose is direct and descriptive, boiled down to the irreducible basics, flowing from one hard hitting scene to another, seamlessly. This is good writing, entertaining writing, from an author who feels to me to have his hand on the pulse.
This is an excellent novel that actually has something relevant to say. This is cutting satire, black humour with disturbing realism - in my opinion this novel is almost flawless.
Book Review: A truly inventive novel and a good read
Summary: 5 Stars
How many times do you read a novel and just know what it coming next? Too many stories seem to be re-worked versions of things we've read before; after all, how many truly new things are there under the sun? Palahniuk, however, has created something new and it is both interesting and fun to read.
"Fight Club" follows a disengaged young professional whose life is sliding meaninglessly by until he meets a man about his age who is his polar opposite, capturing each moment of life. The two strike up a friendship and a club that pits other disengaged young men in fights against one another. They strike a chord and events spiral. To an unpredictable conclusion.
Read this one.
Book Review: A work of exceptional skill, which I will never read again.
Summary: 4 Stars
Fight Club is visceral, surreal, and very well-written. If you've seen the movie, you've practically read the book, as they're almost identical, right down to the grim, off-center narration by the main character. My reaction to both book and film are also nearly identical: They are both works of mind-blowing originality and fantastic execution and I did not enjoy either of them much at all. They were both worth the time, don't get me wrong, but I would be lying if I said that I actually enjoyed either of them. Such is life.Book Review: All english reading humans should read this!
Summary: 4 Stars
Great book. It is a unintimidating book that can easily be finished in a day. However, in this short book is a well, uniquely written novel bringing interesting social commentary into the plot. A lot deeper than guys beating he post-digested matter out of each other. Besides, any book that teaches you how to make napalm and nitro is worth a read, right?