Fight Club

Rating:
Summary: Different
Review: This book is almost word for word with the movie...the ending is different though so fans should check out at least the last few chapters.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: Fight Club was an action packed book that should be read for nothing more than pure enjoyment. The odd relationships and skewed views on the world today are ingenious. Once I picked it up, I could not put it down until I finished. There was not one part of the book that I didn't find interesting. I suggest this book for anyone on your list.

Rating:
Summary: Should be REQUIRED READING
Review: Fight Club is a rare phenomenon in that it works on two separate levels: both as a novel and as a movie. Like most people I saw the movie before I read the book and I am surprised to say that I like both equally, just in different ways.

The novel weaves the storyline of the narrator and Tyler Durden into a few different areas that the movie didn't touch on. All in all, though, the movie version was very faithful to the novel so if you liked one, you're sure to like the other.

Our narrator is unhappy with his life. Try as he might no amount of material possessions has made waking up in the morning (when he's able to sleep, he suffers from a severe case of insomnia) seem like it's even worth the effort of lifting his eyelids. The tricky part, though, is that he doesn't seem to realize how unhappy he is. That all changes, however, the day he meets Tyler Durden.

Tyler is a radical, no holds barred kind of guy. He makes a living by recycling the fat that people loose through liposuction. He uses it to make outrageously expensive soap that he then sells to the very people who had paid so much money to be rid of their fat forever. The irony of this is not lost on our narrator and he quickly becomes enamored. Tyler becomes his best friend, his world, his new reason for living.

Shortly after they meet our narrator's apartment is blown up and he is taken in by Tyler. They begin to explore the dark side of human nature and the first Fight Club is born. Men from all social castes flock to the club and find an amazing release in pounding (or being pounded) their opponent into the floor. The Fight Club experience is quickly passed from man to man and from city to city despite the club's first rule :"You do not talk about Fight Club."

When Tyler's disciples start taking things to a new level our narrator becomes frightened. He wants out but they won't let him. Everywhere he goes people are tracking him and he slowly starts to put the puzzle of what has become his life together.

Unjustly criticized for the violence of the story this book is less about violence and more about what makes people tick. The very people who condemn this type of book are the people whom Tyler was talking about. We all need to be able to embrace our inner animal every now and then or else we are nothing but vapid consumers and ticking time bombs.

My only complaint about this book is the writing style that Chuck Palahniuk has employed. At times his quick, short sentences are more of an annoyance than a help but this minor flaw is easily over looked.

This novel is engaging and the ending is excellent. For those who don't already know the surprise twist ending you will be in for one hell of a ride. And remember, when your friends ask you what happens at the end: The first rule of Fight Club is that you do not talk about Fight Club... I agree with the other reviewer who recommended [e-mail] by Tom Grimes, another consumerist, satiric romp, in addition to Fight Club. Another Amazon purchase that I liked is The Losers' Club by Richard Perez. Books, books, books...it's official -- I'm a harcore Amazon junkie. Not that I'm complaining.

Rating:
Summary: Tarzan, Lord of Bad Fiction
Review: The author of FIGHT CLUB, he writes like Tarzan talks. And he's got no original ideas (the "breaking-up of civilization" talk, all overblown and simple, is taken from John Zerzan, who comes from Oregon, just like Tarzan). Yeah, it's written as badly as this Amazon review, all infantile and with lots of cliches and stuff. But who cares? Stupidity is COOL, man. And so is FIGHT CLUB.

The author of this book, he doesn't need to know how to write, he's just cool and stuff. Tyler knows this.

This book, it means that beating people up and getting beaten up is how you get manly. And stuff. Yeah, that's not an idea far removed from one you'd hear at your local beer trough, the kind of place where Palahniuk used to pick fights and stuff. But who cares, man? I mean, Tarzan, he's, like, EDGY and stuff. And if you carry around this book with you, you'll be EDGY, too!

If you like FIGHT CLUB, man, you probably also like the music of Limp Bizkit and the movies, like, of Kevin Smith and stuff, too, man. Yeah.

Rating:
Summary: a 13 year old's perspective
Review: chuck is amazing! I don't read much especially cause all I have time to read is the "classic" literature that my school is forcing down my throat, but Chuck writes the best books i have ever read. Ballard sounds interesting too. dark comedy is very entertaining and I think that Palahniuk's books would be a good gift for your neice/nephew/son/daughter or other teenage relative.

ThE ENd

Rating:
Summary: Quite possibly the fastest read ever.
Review: Aside from Dr. Seuss, this was the quickest read i've had in well... EVER! An ever-entertaining, ever-exciting, ever-hypnotic read.

Rating:
Summary: Utterly Surreal -- and True!
Review: Fight Club is narrated by an unnamed person, a man who fakes terminal illnesses for the solace from insomnia. He finds himself trapped in a love/hate relationship with a woman, Marla Singer, the most messed up femme fatale I have seen in fiction in years. He also finds himself at the center of a bareknuckle boxing society and a terrorist organization known as Fight Club.

Fight Club is the brainchild of Tyler Durden. It is an escape from the yuppistic, consumer-driven world in which the narrator and Durden live. As Fight Club grows in size, it grows in the amount of mayhem it creates... and the danger that it brings unto the narrator and Marla Singer.

The way one can best describe "Fight Club" is as a trial period for schizophrenia. "Fight Club" is so utterly riveting and so utterly insane that you are transported into Palahniuk's noirish world. And, like any good book, you never fully leave this place.
Other recent books I recommend: Survivor by Palahniuk, The Losers' Club by Richard Perez

Rating:
Summary: not an avid reader, but loved the book
Review: I am not an avid reader, but am trying to read more and watch TV less. I started reading Fight Club and immediately fell in love with it. This book is not for the faint of heart as is mentioned in other reviews. If this book had a rating it would be an R. It describes way to make homemade napalm and explosives in just the first chapter. Made me feel as if I were reading a novel version of the Anarchist's Cookbook. The writing is dark, funny, witty, and nihilistic all the same time. The book is mostly told in a narrative style by the main character, which oddly enough is never named. The main character is very tormented and confused about his place in life and is fed up with having things too easy and too perfect. He welcomes disposing of all this possessions and starting on a path of anarchy and destruction. Tyler is his influence for all this destruction and anarchy, he is the ringleader. He is the one with all the knowledge of destruction and interesting recipes for homemade explosions, napalm, and soap.

Rating:
Summary: A females oppinion...
Review: Since mostly males wrote reviews on this book, and the few female reviews rated it rather poorly and did not give it justice. It may be obvious why males love this book, because the premise is males beating each other to bloody pulps to take out aggression in basements of bars in "fight clubs".
I have read this book countless times, and enjoyed it every time. Although at times it can be gruesome and graphic, two traits that I do not particularly like in novels I read, this book really intrigues me. The dark and cynical view of corporations is like a reality check. The narrator, who is never directly named, but once possibly referred to as jack, takes you right into his thoughts and his dark humor is hilarious.
Although I do believe the book is better than the movie, which could possibly be due to my love affair with books, seeing the movie helps one understand the book better. Since it puts things right out there for the viewer to see, as opposed to having to create it in your mind on your own. Plus Edward Norton's amazing unmatchable acting skills make Palahnuik's contemptuous character much more complex and appealing.
Fight Club's Tyler Durdan has become the object of many men's idolization, not to mention obsession too. There are so many unforgettable situations and quotes from this book that just bash on everything from advertising to mothers.
Not everyone is going to enjoy this book, but if you do not mind dark humor and cynicism, I would recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Rare Excellence!
Review: "Fight Club" is one of those rare occasions where BOTH the book and the movie are excellent, yet not really that similar, (i.e. Mario Puzo and The Godfather, where it is almost verbatim.) I can't even say which is better...both leave you pretty stunned. Palahniuk can throw even the most hardcore nihilists into a whirl of questioning everything he knows. He's the new Hemingway for a lost generation. There are no more adventures or old men and sea, only angry young men waiting tables, pumping gas... "We have no great war, no great depression: Our Great War is a Spiritual War, Our Great Depression is Our Lives."