Summary

Short summary

Fight Club (1996) is a novel by Chuck Palahniuk. The novel opens with a scene where the unnamed narrator stands at the rooftop of an office building, being threatened with a gun by someone named Tyler Durden. Most of the story is then presented as a flashback which describes the events leading up to this confrontation. 

The narrator is dissatisfied with his life and suffering from insomnia. At first, he tries to deal with this problem by going to support groups for people with various illnesses and conditions, which allows him to cry and release his emotions. However, the narrator starts to see a woman named Marla Singer at these meetings, and she also seems to be faking her illnesses just like the narrator. The narrator cannot cry anymore because the presence of another faker ruins the experience for him. He becomes angry with Marla and confronts her, and they decide to split the support groups between them. 

Soon after, the narrator meets a man named Tyler Durden during his travels. Shortly after he meets Tyler, the narrator’s apartment is destroyed in a mysterious explosion, and Tyler allows him to move in at his place. After they have a fight in a parking lot, Tyler ...