Fight Club

Books like Fight Club

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October 18, 2022
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#1 Last Exit To Brooklyn

The controversial masterwork Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr. has sparked more discussion than most books. This Penguin Modern Classics edition features an introduction by Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh.

Last Exit to Brooklyn portrays the experiences of New Yorkers. They constantly deal with the darkest excesses of human nature and have been characterized by various reviewers as hellish and obscene. But even in these tumultuous lives, there are exquisitely lovely moments. These fascinating characters include Harry, the strike leader who hides his actual wants behind a sexist macho, Tralala, the cunning prostitute who explores the depths of sexual depravity, and Georgette, the transsexual who falls in love with a heartless hoodlum.

#2 Animal Farm

Animal Farm, a satirical allegorical novella by George Orwell about a farm, was first released in England on August 17, 1945. It depicts the tale of a band of farm animals who rise up to confront their man farmer in an effort to establish an animal-friendly society.

Animals that have been abused and overworked on a farm take over. They went out to construct a paradise of advancement, fairness, and equality with fiery idealism and passionate slogans. The setting is therefore set for one of the most incisive satiric tales ever written—a sharp-edged fairy tale for adults that charts the progression from the revolt against oppression to totalitarianism that is just as dreadful. As Animal Farm was initially published, it was thought to be directed toward Stalinist Russia. Today, it is glaringly obvious that George Orwell’s masterpiece has a meaning and a message that are still fiercely relevant wherever and whenever liberty is attacked, regardless of the cause.

#3 Severance

Candace Chen is a routine-obsessed millennial drone who works alone in a Manhattan office building. So when a pestilence of biblical proportions sweeps New York, she hardly notices it. Shen Fever then spreads. Families run away. Businesses cease operations. The metro stops abruptly. As the fictitious blogger NY Ghost, she soon finds herself completely alone and unfevered as she captures the creepy, deserted metropolis.

But Candace won’t be able to survive by herself indefinitely. Here come the survivors, led by the ferocious IT specialist Bob. They are headed to a location known as the Facility, where Bob assures them that they will have everything they need to rebuild society. But Candace has a secret that she is certain Bob would use against her. Does she need to flee from her rescuers? Ling Ma’s Severance is a quirky coming-of-age story and satire that mocks and critiques the rituals, routines, and lost possibilities of modern life.

#4 Slaughterhouse Five

Slaughterhouse-Five, a famous American novel and one of the greatest antiwar works ever written, was chosen by the Modern Library as one of the 100 greatest novels of all time. Billy Pilgrim’s trip through time, which is centered on the horrific firebombing of Dresden, symbolizes the epic journey of our own fragmented lives as we look for meaning in the things we fear the most.

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#5 Catch 22

In spite of being published 50 years ago, Catch-22 is still regarded as a classic of American literature and one of the funniest books of all time. In recent years, Time, Newsweek, the Modern Library, and the London Observer have all included it on their lists of “great novels.”

This is the tale of the legendary, whiny bombardier, Yossarian, a hero who is enraged because thousands of people he has never seen are trying to murder him. It takes place in Italy during World War II. However, his army, which continually raises the number of sorties the troops must fly to finish their duty, is his actual issue, not the adversary.

#6 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

The focus of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is on the juvenile exploits of the book’s schoolboy protagonist, Thomas Sawyer, who is known for causing trouble and strife. Tom resides in the charming Mississippi River port town of St. Petersburg with his aunt Polly, half-brother Sid, and cousin Mary. St. Petersburg is regarded as having a typical small-town feel, with a strong Christian presence, a tight-knit social network, and a sense of familiarity.

In contrast to his brother Sid, Tom gets “lickings” from his Aunt Polly. Always up to mischief, Tom prefers to skip school and frequently climbs out of his bedroom window at night to go on adventures with his friend Huckleberry Finn, the town’s social pariah. Sid is such a “tattle-tale,” while Tom, despite his dislike of school, is incredibly intelligent and would typically get away with his tricks.

#7 World War Z

Unimaginably near to wiping humanity was the Zombie War. Max Brooks traveled across the United States of America and around the world, from completely destroyed cities that once mingled with upwards of thirty million souls to the most distant and uninhabitable parts of the planet, pushed by the urgency of conserving the acid-etched first-hand life experience of the survivors from those apocalyptic years. He preserved the testimonies of men, women, and occasionally children who had direct encounters with the living hell of that terrible era, or at the very least, the undead. World War Z is what happens. We have never before had access to a text that so effectively captures the magnitude of terror and fear, as well as the unbreakable spirit of resistance, that engulfed human society during the plague years.

Most importantly, the book vividly conveys the human aspect of this historic event. The reader must have some bravery to confront the frequently shocking and vibrant nature of these personal accounts, but the effort is priceless because, as Mr. Brooks states in his introduction, “We run the risk of developing a personal separation from history that, God forbid, could cause us to repeat it in the future if we ignore the human element. And ultimately, isn’t the only real distinction between ourselves and the foe we now refer to as “the living dead” the human element?”

#8 Choke

The medical school dropout Victor Mancini is an anti-hero for our crazy times. Victor has come up with a clever scam to raise money for his mother’s elder care in posh restaurants by pretending to choke on food. Then he lets himself be “rescue” by other customers who, feeling responsible for Victor’s survival, write checks to help him out.

When he’s not conducting this prank, Victor sees his insane mother, cruises to sexual addiction treatment programs seeking action, and spends his days at a colonial theme park. Chuck Palahniuk, the celebrated author of timeless works like Fight Club, is the visionary and satirist we need today.

#9 Infinite Jest

A massive, mind-bending tragi-comedy about the American pursuit of happiness. Infinite Jest explores fundamental questions about what amusement is and why it has come to dominate our lives, about how our urge for entertainment affects our need to connect with others, and about what the delights we choose say about who we are. It is set in an addicts’ halfway house and a tennis academy and features the most endearingly screwed-up family to appear in recent fiction.

Infinite Jest breaks every rule of fiction without ever compromising its inherent entertainment value. It is equal measures of philosophical quest and screwball humor. It is one of those old books that renews the notion of what a novel may do. It is an enthusiastic, distinctly American study of the feelings that make us human.

#10 American Psycho

Bret Easton Ellis wrote a book titled American Psycho, which was released in 1991. Patrick Bateman, a serial killer and Manhattan investment banker, tells the tale in the first person.

The 26-year-old Wall Street employee Patrick Bateman is attractive, sartorial, endearing, and smart. He is a psychopath as well. American Psycho is a grim, nasty, black comedy about a reality we all identify with but do not want to face, bringing us face-to-face with the American great dream—and its worst nightmare.

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