Reviews with content warning for Death - Fight club

A great book. The style is uniqe and quite simplistic, which makes the reading very fast. Messages in the book are clear, just the methods are over the top.
Definitely recommend to everybody who does not want to just go with the flow.

Content Warnings

zakcebulski's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I cannot believe that it took me so goddamn long to read any thing by Chuck Palahniuk.
What can one say about Fight Club that has not been said for either the book or the movie adaptation.
This book was outstanding. For the debut novel this, to me, is comparable in another medium of entertainment- Nas' Illmatic in hip-hop music. This book is crass, vulgar, funny and littered with vivid depictions of squalor and dereliction that rubbed off on me and stayed with me for days after finishing it.

This book takes place from the point of view of the insomniac worker-bee, the unnamed protagonist. He lives day in and day out working at a corporate job just to buy things that he doesn't need. To help combat his insomnia he attends support groups for people with terminal illnesses. Here he meets the fatalistic Marla Singer- a strong- willed woman that is described as crazy throughout the book. She is the heel to the narrator who finds that his insomnia cure doesn't work when there is a person there who knows that he is a phony.
That is until one day when his fuckin' condo gets blown up and all of the unnecessary things that he spent years of his life acquiring, slaving away for, are destroyed, leaving him with nothing. It is at this time that he meets the suave, confident, sure and terroristic Tyler Durden. These two men, on opposite sides of the spectrum of personalities, team up to start the titular fight club. This is where people go and they beat the fuck out of each other. This allows them to buy in to the more primal way of living and allows for these slaves to dead end employment take back some of their agency.
But, as a shock to all, this does not stay as simple as it is. Tyler has more and more nefarious plans as he creates Project Mayhem- a terrorist organization that is aimed at the 1% to take away their livelihood in forms of destroying their things.
The way that Palahniuk writes this book to go through the everyman slave to the wage lifestyle to go all the way to domestic terrorism is extremely well paced. I think that Palahniuk perfectly matches the Narrator's understanding of what is happening to the point where we are finding things out with him.
This is even more wonderfully crafted when it is revealed that the Narrator and Tyler Durden are one in the same. The Narrator is himself, while Tyler is the Narrator's insomniac insanity induced manifestation of the man he wants to be.
Now, this twist is certainly well known by this point in history- but, in reading the book, I have to commend Palahniuk for his expert writing wherein he is able to give subtle hints to the reveal of the twist while still veiling the whole thing in shadows. I believe that much like the movie, if you were to re-read this book while knowing the twist you'd smack your forehead with exasperation in wondering how you missed such obvious references.

I thought that the commentary regarding consumerism was very interesting. I did think that the view of consumerism is a bit... surface level, or perhaps simplistic? However, I read it more as a cautionary tale of "hey lol don't let material shit hold the rope". This is interesting and is something that I think has more and more prevalence today than even it did in the 90s. I loved the commentary regarding one's own agency which I think is perfectly summed up in the quote "Once you've lost everything, you're free to do anything." This ties in expertly to the way that the Narrator looks at his own life.

I loved this book. I thought that it was such a fascinating read. It is definitely one that I think I would be pleased bumping up to a 5 star upon subsequent reads. It has absolutely inspired me to seek out more books by Palahniuk.

Content Warnings

lilyaugust's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

roosnf's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Content Warnings

More...