Diary: A Novel

I started this book like four times and never got passed the 100th page but after almost a year of it sitting around I finally picked it up and read the whole thing and it wasn't that bad. ( )

"Diary" was certainly interesting, especially once I started to understand the flow and get into it.

The main character, Misty, has been told by her mother-in-law to maintain a daily diary that she can present to her husband once he recovers from his coma, the way old seafaring families did a couple of centuries ago. As a reader, you have to pretend you're her husband.

From childhood she's envisioned, drawn and painted her fantasy island of old, wealthy houses, all from her own imagination. Then in art school she meets Peter, a young man from Waytansea Island, and it turns out her imagination was of a real island, who is determined to marry her and have children.

Waytansea Island is full of old homes and old, decadent families that grow rich and poor over the course of many generations, or as they say "from shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves," but after twice being saved from poverty by an artist, now actively searches for her when the money runs low again.

During this story they're at one of their poor generations, with all the residents leasing their homes to what they call "summer people" and their island is full of tourists, the ferry running six or more times a day, corporate advertising all over and litter on the beaches from all the tourists.

Everyone in the old families on the island tell Misty to quit waiting tables at the Waytansea Hotel and get back into artwork, because it's up to her to save them all, even though she doesn't think she's a skilled artist. But her mother-in-law has odd confidence that she will...

The book is very weird and at first I didn't quite understand the pattern of how it was written, that it's written directly to Peter, and the references of "you" and "your" are to Peter, with Misty referring to herself in the third person. And that lots of times a character asks another a question, but no answer will come, the subject changes. Once I understood that, then it was good, although I felt it sort of fizzled at the end.

I'm looking forward, after this, to reading more of Chuck Palahniuk's books. ( )

This is my least favourite Palahniuk book, and I'll tell you why. It feels like 1970s horror film turned into a book, while filling it like a turkey with Palahniukisms.

It's got atmosphere and is well-written, but feels quite empty. And yes, cinematic. And quite lonely. At times it's funny and a bit scary, and it's even hard to put away but all in all I'd much rather recommend "Rant" or "Snuff". ( )

I really liked the set-up behind this book. Palahniuk does a great job of setting up the suspense and the mystery behind the motivations of Misty's husband and his failing resort home-town.

The problem for me was it seemed to rush into the ending too quickly, about half-way through the book feels rushed and while I still liked it, it just didn't live up to my initial expectations. ( )

I found this book to be absolutely insane (in a good way). Totally mind-blowing. I loved how everything ended. Palahniuk's words are harsh and his ideas are out-there, but he weaves those two things together to make a beautiful, interesting story. Honestly, I thought the book was pure genius. ( )