The Fan Club

"The Fan Club" is a novel by Irving Wallace published in 1974.

Plot summary

Four men form a fan club devoted to worshipping actress Sharon Fields, a blond bombshell. Eventually the club kidnaps Sharon, expecting her to fall in love with them. However, she does not become enamored of them, and they take turns raping her. She proves more intelligent than her captors, and "cooperates" with them, allowing her to survive and eventually triumph over them.

Wallace shows how four normal" representative" Americans can be corrupted to such an extent following what seemed at first innocent dreams. It also brilliantly explores how social norms and pressures can lead you to do things normal society will consider immoral and unthinkable.

It is also fascinatingly portrays the story of four individuals who commit kidnapping, rape, and extortion but could still be sympathized by the readers. It is perhaps because no matter to what extent their character falls down it essentially happens in such a seemingly natural way that it appears plausible that most of us would have done the same thing have we been in their place. Interestingly their immoral acts have not been justified by wrongs done to them by the society but just a natural but bizzare unfolding of events and group dynamics. Also the four characters to the end retain some humanness about them.