The protagonist then meets a mysterious man named Tyler Durden and establishes an underground fighting club as radical psychotherapy.

Due to the stress of his job and the jet lag brought upon by frequent business trips, he begins to suffer from recurring insomnia.

Marla, noticing that the narrator has not recently attended his support groups, calls him saying that she has overdosed on Xanax in a half-hearted suicide attempt.

As fight club attains a nationwide presence, Tyler uses it to spread his anti-consumerist ideas, recruiting members to participate in increasingly elaborate pranks on corporate America.

He eventually gathers the most devoted fight club members and forms "Project Mayhem", a cult-like organization that trains itself to bring down modern civilization.

This organization, like fight club, is controlled by a set of rules: While initially a loyal participant in Project Mayhem, the narrator becomes uncomfortable with the increasing destructiveness of its activities.

He resolves to stop Tyler and his followers when Bob, a friend from the testicular cancer support group, is killed during one of the sabotage operations.

Tyler plans to blow up a skyscraper using homemade bombs created by Project Mayhem; the target of the explosion is the nearby national museum.

This technique, developed by American author Tom Spanbauer, emphasizes the use of minimalist prose, and the use of painful, personal experiences for inspiration.

Under Spanbauer's influence, Palahniuk produced an early draft of what would later become his novel Invisible Monsters (1999), but it was rejected by all publishers he submitted it to.

"[19] In the unofficial meta sequel comic book series also penned by Palahniuk (with art by Cameron Stewart), Fight Club 2, it is revealed that the Narrator has chosen to be identified by the name of Sebastian.

His treatment with testosterone injections and resultant increased estrogen levels have caused him to grow breasts and develop a softer voice.

He is very loyal to Project Mayhem, laughing at the vandalism he and a group of "space monkeys" have caused as their crimes appear on the evening news.

At two points in the novel, the Narrator claims he wants to "wipe [his] ass with the Mona Lisa"; a mechanic who joins fight club repeats this to him in one scene.

After seeing Reader's Digest articles written from the perspective of the organs of a man named Joe, the Narrator begins using similar quotations to describe his feelings.

David McCracken discusses in his article “Disability Studies Simulacra in Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club(s)” about how within the context of Fight Club, there is a “"spiritual depression" [that] is congruent with spiritual disability, a malaise that impairs men and women from feeling an inner peace, a mystical transcendence, a euphoric sense of connection with a greater entity.” McCracken points out the importance of the support group chapters as it depicts victims overcoming biological and/or psychological diseases.

The practice of remaining anonymous is to ensure that everyone is equal, “at least in terms of identifiable status designations, and along the lines of disablism/ableism, legislated mediocracy rules.”[28] Jesse Kavadlo, a professor at Maryville University of St. Louis, argues that the Narrator's opposition to emasculation is a form of projection, and the problem that he fights is himself.

[31] Paul Skinner has also echoed this sentiment, stating, "the anger and dissatisfaction of the male characters is against one type of masculinity being suppressed by post-industrial consumerist society".

[36] Johannes Hell argues that Palahniuk's use of the Narrator's somnambulism is a simple attempt at emphasizing the dangerous yet daring possibilities of life.

In 2007, Ruth Quiney examined this link, stating that Fight Club's depiction of disaffected Western men joining a homegrown terrorist group anticipated some aspects of the War on Terror.

The fight club “allows men to fiercely embody revolution and desire and rejuvenate utopia”, experiencing sensations through their own aging, injured bodies.

On the other hand, Barker believes that the fight club is just as malicious as Project Mayhem, proclaiming that both perpetuate fascist systems.

[6] The "forecasts" section of a 1996 Publishers Weekly praised the novel: Writing in an iconic deadpan and including something to offend everyone, Palahniuk is a risky writer who takes chances galore, especially with a particularly bizarre plot twist he throws in late in the book.

Caustic, outrageous, bleakly funny, violent, and always unsettling, Palahniuk's utterly original creation will make even the most jaded reader sit up and take notice.

In 1999, screenwriters Jim Uhls, August Olsen, and co-producers Conor Strait and Aaron Curry joined director David Fincher.

Critics have attributed Fight Club's popularity with this audience to its critique of an emasculating consumerist culture, and to the implied message that modern men need revert to their primal, aggressive nature.

[48] At the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con, Palahniuk announced that a sequel to Fight Club is in the works and will take the form of a serialized graphic novel.

"[49] Dark Horse Comics published this new story in a 10-issue maxi series, written by Palahniuk and illustrated by Cameron Stewart, starting in 2015.

He also confirmed that he is working on a series of original short stories for comics which will appear as one-shots before eventually being collected into a single book.

[54] Expedition is a short-story prequel to Fight Club, released in Palahniuk's Make Something Up: Stories You Can't Unread.