Book Review: Fight Club

2. For what audience(s) is this book intended, and how can you tell? (In other words, for whom
would you recommend this book? this book intended, and how can you tell? (In other words, for
7. If you've read other books in this same genre, how does this one compare?
9. How should people with diseases or mental disorders be treated or cured?

The book that I chose to read is Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk. Fight club is a satirical novel that is about a narrator (never actually introduces himself) that has insomnia, which is having a hard time sleeping or not being able to sleep at all. I choose this book because my sister had recommended it and I was curious to read because it has been in our stacks of books for a long time. By the beginning, the narrator meets a person who becomes a mentor to the narrator. Together they start the Fight Club which serves to help men with some problem. Throughout the book, it teaches how to make certain things, and also proposes on how some people should be cured or treated with illnesses or mental disorders.

So far, this book has been interesting. In the beginning, it starts off as a tangent beginning that seems like if it starts off in the ending like in movies, which I liked. It started as unclear, but after a while I started to begin to get it. I have to admit that it was sort of boring after the beginning, and I had to bear through some boring reading. But then it starts to pick up again after some events in the book.

I think this book is intended for high school students and higher until adults. I believe this because much of the book is confusing at times. Middle school students would be really puzzled, even I am confused at times. I think that middle school students would easily get distracted on the not so important context of the book. Also there is a lot of cussing and harsh vocabulary and there is also a lot of sexual references and context, which middle school parents might not like. But I do think that some middle school students can be able to read this. Overall, I think high school students should read this because it is hard to understand what is happening.

This book reminds me of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. It reminds me of it because it changes subject quickly. What I mean by this is that In The Curious Incident, the narrator switched from ideas or added unnecessary information. This also happens in Fight Club, but in Fight Club it is more irrelevant and confusing. Also in The Curious Incident, the narrator or kid has a thing called autism. While in Fight Club, the narrator has something called insomnia too. So both of these books have a character with an illness that contributes to the style of writing. This gave me a connection to both of the books because they both have some of the same factors like treatments and what the characters have in terms of conditions like diseases.

As I kept on reading Fight Club, I began to realize that a big question laid on it. Since Fight Club talks a lot about treatments or cures about people with diseases or who have mental disorders, I realized the question. “How should people with diseases or mental disorders be treated or cured?”

In Fight Club, it really suggests that fighting is the real way to cure and treat. But the book also bears that support groups help into curing someone, but the book mainly supports into fighting for treatment. The fights are very organized and have rules in the book. These rules keep the fight(s) controlled and are strict so it can actually be a cure or treatment for anything.

In my opinion, I think fighting would be a good way of treating things but not curing. I think it would be a good treatment because it releases adrenaline, something that does not come out from support groups. Fighting would also be helpful because it would take out their anger and this anger might be from anything, and would enlighten the fighters. Fighting would also bring a sense of trust and confidence. As it says in the book, “This guy trusts himself to handle anything. (51)”. This quote shows that people who fight get confidence and are not scare of anything. By this, it shows that fighting somewhat does treat people with confidence and trust. I think this would be very successful if it were organized like in Fight Club. If it were not to be organized, then I think it would not be as effective because some people would take it too far. This would affect all the people in fight club with breaking rules and etc.

Support groups also are good for treatment because it lets people come out of their comfort zone by telling others about their lives. It also allows people to cry comfortably, even if they were not expecting to cry. Also in the book the narrator admits, “At almost every meeting since then, Big Bob has made me cry. (22)”. This quote shows that even if the narrator did not want to cry, he somehow did in support groups with certain people, in this case Big Bob. The reason I think that support groups are very effective because there are always people who do not want to participate and share their thoughts so some people would be left out.

I enjoyed this book, it was a nice book. I thought it could have been better in some ways, but still is a good book. I really recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a real plot twisting ending, but who is a high school student. This book covers many different questions and could be used as a book for a whole class to read. I recommend this book because it is different from other books and it could also be used in class, like I said before. My score to give this book is maybe a 8 out of 10. If you can, go out and buy, borrow, read this book.