Book reviews

Fight Club
Chuck Palahniuk Book Review

Read a book review online (click here to search reviews)
Books Movies  
Sci-Fi/Fantasy Mystery/Thriller Literature Romance Biography Video
Chuck Palahniuk Books
New book search
Chuck Palahniuk Message Board
Get more information about this book
Plot Summary of Fight Club
"Fight Club is amazing book, one i have read again and again and again.. Palahniuk forces breaths to be held from beginning to end, and inspires the reader to think about their own way of life by showing how by simply meeting someone who can make us think, this way can be completely changed. I love this man."
Kookabara, Resident Scholar

"The narrator, an insurance investigator prone to depression and insomnia, finds temporary joy and distraction by attending various support groups. But he keeps running into another support group fraud named Marla, which spoils his fun. Meanwhile, he also meets a free-lance projectionist named Tyler Durden, who splices frames from porn movies into mainstream features and suggests they undermine capitalist society with dangerous pranks and the Fight Club -- a group devoted to bare knuckles, all-out battles between similarly confused and frustrated young males. Someone bombs the narrator's apartment, and he has to move into an abandoned house with Tyler. Eventually clandestine fight clubs spring up all over the country, and our hero finds himself uncomfortably stuck within a passionate triangle between Tyler and Marla. Something's gotta give, but what? Palahniuk's strange, offbeat 1996 debut novel came to a deservedly wider audience when it was made into a movie starring Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, and Helena Bonham Carter."
David Loftus, Resident Scholar

"    Fight Club centers on a nameless narrator whose job it is to determine whether or not recalls are necassary for a major car manufacturer. He's generally unhappy with his life, and with how consumerism has forced him to be exactly like everyone else. His body responds to his mental (maybe spiritual) anguish by inflicting him with a severe case of insomnia, which he discovers he can treat by attending support groups for various fatal/life-changing illnesses or conditions.
    His unique form of therapy is rendered useless when another faker, Marla Singer, starts visiting the same support groups that he does. He finds that with another faker present, he can't release the emotions he needs to release, and thus, can't sleep. They eventually work out a schedule (which is in Marla's favour) so that they don't have to see each other again at the groups.
   Eventually the narrator meets Tyler Durden, a free spirit who works low-paying jobs seemingly just for the fun of screwing around while on the clock and getting away with childish pranks. When the narrator's luck takes a turn for the worse, he moves in with Durden. Durden confesses that he's never been in a fight before, and would like to be in one. The narrator obliges, and they beat each other up. Both are surprised at how good it felt, better than therapy. Eventually more men join in in their late-night brawls, and Fight Club is born.
    As Fight Club grows and spreads across the country, Durden recruits the most loyal (and mindless) fighters and starts a new group, Project Mayhem. The group's ultimate goal is to eventually do away with consumerism and to initiate the downfall of civilization, a goal which the narrator is aghast at. After several scary encounters with the diehard Project Mayhem and the clearly insane Tyler, the narrator takes it upon himself (with aid from the reluctant Marla) to stop Durden's plans and disband Project Mayhem.
    "

Colin Kehm, Resident Scholar



Review Analysis of Fight Club
Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book? - humorous
Time/era of story - 1980's-1999
Romance/Romance Problems Yes
Kind of romance: - love triangle/polygon
Kind of sport: - boxing
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Sports Story? Yes
Lover is - a criminal (definitely)

Main Character
Gender - Male
Age: - 20's-30's
Eccentric/Mental Yes
Eccentric: - emotionally unstable
Ethnicity/Nationality - White (American)
Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - average physique

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - 20's-30's
Eccentric/Smart/Dumb: Yes
Eccentric: - obsessed - wild
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - throughout most of the book.
How sensitive is this character? - mean, arrogant
Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - bulging muscles

Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings? - 4 ()
United States Yes
The US: - West - Northeast
City? Yes

Style
Person - mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths
Sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - vague references - use of artificial tools
Unusual Style: - a lot of flashback and forwards - a lot of stream of consciousness
Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
Most similar books to Fight Club
0-200, $3m by Alan Beardmore
Wild Pitch by Mike Lupica
The Nanny by Melissa Nathan
Rocket City by Cathryn Alpert
True Love and Other Lies by Whitney Gaskell


Click here for more information about this book


Chuck Palahniuk Resident Scholar Profiles

TOP SCHOLAR:
  
Colin Kehm  

SCHOLARS:
Christine  Ryan Holden  Zahra  kenny bates  


Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).
Three ways to search for Literature books!

1) One-click plot searches! Simply click on a plot or subplot below!

Animal story

Crime & Police story

Ethnic/regional/gender life

Exploring into the wild

Family, caring for ill

Family, loving relations

Family, struggle with

Internal struggle/realization?

Job/Profession/Status story

Kids growing up/acting up?

Political/social activism

Poverty, surviving

Pregnancy/Child rearing

Religion theme?

Romance/Romance Problems

Sports Story?

War/Revolt/Disaster on civilians



or 2) Simple lookup
(title or author)

or
3) Even more search options available with a Detailed Booksearch (click here)

Use our site!
17 FREE Sci-Fi Ebooks!
FREE "How to be happy" Ebook!
Feedback


Most recent discussions:

General Book Talk
Book writing discussion
Off-topic message board
Suzanne Weyn 10:35:23 PM
George W. Bush 5:33:46 PM
Kin Platt 12:58:29 AM
Anonymous 12:47:34 PM
Lilian Jackson Braun 10:05:52 PM
Jane Rubino 10:04:38 PM
LaVyrle Spencer 10:04:00 PM
G.A. McKevett 10:03:31 PM
David Williams 10:03:01 PM
Steven Pressfield 10:02:30 PM
Jeanette Walls 10:00:19 PM
Darryl Ponicsan 9:59:27 PM
Ann Rinaldi 9:58:30 PM
R.L. Stine 9:57:34 PM
Geoffrey Huntington 9:57:14 PM
Betty Mahmoody 9:56:38 PM
Deric Longden 9:56:11 PM
Mary Downing Hahn 9:55:48 PM
Iris Johansen 9:55:24 PM
Marlo Morgan 9:54:58 PM

More message boards