Diary

Chuck Palahniuk

Sep 2004 · Sold by Anchor

About this ebook

Misty Wilmot has had it. Once a promising young artist, she’s now stuck on an island ruined by tourism, drinking too much and working as a waitress in a hotel. Her husband, a contractor, is in a coma after a suicide attempt, but that doesn’t stop his clients from threatening Misty with lawsuits over a series of vile messages they’ve found on the walls of houses he remodeled.

Suddenly, though, Misty finds her artistic talent returning as she begins a period of compulsive painting. Inspired but confused by this burst of creativity, she soon finds herself a pawn in a larger conspiracy that threatens to cost hundreds of lives. What unfolds is a dark, hilarious story from America’s most inventive nihilist, and Palahniuk’s most impressive work to date.

Ratings and reviews

Look, there's no denying it, Mr. Palahniuk writes weird books. Anyone who has read or seen or heard about Fight Club or Choke would not dispute this fact. His plot lines occur in a surreal world, sometimes mirroring a subconsciously filtered nightmare masquerading as reality based. Other times he plumbs the depths of fringe subcultures bubbling in a frothy stew of low life encountering depraved. In Diary, he leads us on a bizarre journey involving disappearing rooms, supernatural driven artistic genius, murder, yes, lots of murder & an island community straight out of an early Stephen King novel. Each night that I finished reading a new piece I found myself shuddering with revulsion as I closed the book & placed it back on the shelf. I felt slightly unclean. It was like I was witnessing something nasty, not fiction, but all too real. I will not share now just how real or not this story is - why ruin the ride. However, please note the title of my review & beware - this could be your own. Or, maybe not. Who knows. One thing for sure, in the hands of Mr. Palahniuk, anything is possible.

It was alright: I can see why a whole generation of angst ridden youth would like it. The notion of reality is explored, but not quixotically; essentially, psychological unrest and physical discomfort are woven into the text because that's the "in thing" to write about for now.

My least favorite book of Palahniuk's. I got bored only 50 pages in and forced my self to read another 50, until I realized, this one was not going to get any better, and I really cared less on what was going ot happen.

About the author

CHUCK PALAHNIUK is the author of fourteen novels—Beautiful You, Doomed, Damned, Tell-All, Pygmy, Snuff, Rant, Haunted, Diary, Lullaby, Choke, Invisible Monsters, Survivor, and Fight Club—which have sold more than five million copies altogether in the United States. He is also the author of Fugitives and Refugees, published as part of the Crown Journey Series, and the nonfiction collection Stranger Than Fiction. He lives in the Pacific Northwest. Visit him on the web at chuckpalahniuk.net.