Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Diary A Novel by Chuck Palahniuk.


Okay, now I read a lot of different kinds of books and some of them I find quite disturbing even upsetting at times. I am by no means a genius and some books manage to plum puzzle me. Diary by Chuck Palahniuk, shocked, confused, and horrified me. This tale hit a little close to home because it talks about a woman who just waits for her next drink to dull the pain. No, I don't drink to dull any pain, and I am not saying I can relate to the main character in all ways, but I sometimes fear the events she faces being a young woman, married, and having my future ahead of me. When you're young the future seems so far away, but when you're an " young adult." You have to make decisions and you don't overly think "what if this is the wrong decision." No, that happens as you are older, and really no one knows if they have made the right decision until that decision leads them down the wrong wretched road and they are questioning their past decisions and realizing crap, nothing I can do now to change those decisions. This book was maddening and dizzy there was so much going on and I felt like clues were being dropped throughout the story that stood out like florescent puzzle pieces; only those pieces did not reveal anything until nearly the end. The main character I can almost sympathize for her, but at the same time there were all the red flags in her life. I will have to say and hope this does not give the plot away that the story was a cruel version of "The lottery." A short story that if you have read it you will understand it is not a happy tale, and utilitarianism in the extreme. This book took it a few steps further and played God with so many lives. I did not overly enjoy any of the characters in this book they did not seem wholly believable and they were so dingy and raw. The characters also were so abstract and barely had a face. The ending is clever enough though. The story only would work in the setting the author created anywhere else would never have worked. Perhaps I do not enjoy the main/lesser characters because I have seen people behave in similar ways. Anyway, I can appreciate the story and tale told, but I found this book just a tad too far out there and raw for me.

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