Monday 2 April 2007

Diary: A Novel by Chuck Palahniuk

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at PhotobucketPublished by Anchor Books - An Imprint of Random House

This books follows the life of Misty Kleinman, a promising art student who finds her life going down a very different path after meeting "the walking Peter" Peter Wilmot who proposes to her and takes her to live with him on the local island.

The book brings us in as Misty is taking calls for her husband who works in construction. His clients are starting to call with complaints of missing rooms in their homes and as she goes to investigate one such call where the client has rediscovered the sealed off room, she realises that there is so much she didn't know.

The whole island seems to be pushing her to find her inspiration and begin painting again. Misty is happy just waiting tables at the hotel until a fall keeps her away from work, and away from the mysterious trail of clues which all began with one cryptic message beneath a table at work. "choose any book at the library". Will she ever find the answers to her questions and if she does, will it be too late?

The whole book is a rollercoaster of a ride and you just won't be able to put this book down. The complex characters are a joy to discover and the storyline will keep you guessing constantly. This book has so many twists and turns all of which lead to an ending that will leave you amazed at the skill this author has for weaving an exceptional, mysterious tale. A tale which is darker than most but doesn't shine any less brilliantly because of it.

I loved the way he sprinkles the story with emotional weather forecasts such as: Just for the record, the weather today is bitter with occasional fits of jealous rage. There were more than a few quotes I liked in this book also but my favourite is probably:
Leonardo's Mona Lisa is just a thousand smears of paint. Michelangelo's David is just a million hits with a hammer. We're all of us a million bits put together the right way.
If the rest of his books are as great as this one. I know I am going to be hooked on this author.

Official Fan site: http://www.chuckpalahniuk.net/

Author's website? http://www.chuckpalahniuk.com/

5 comments:

claire said...

Cute blog. I just put down "Diary" and it was my first Palahniuk, which I think might've been the mistake. His incongruous style didn't really suit me and I'm afraid I didn't enjoy it that much. Might try "Invisible Monsters" next - have you read it?

Charlene Martel said...

Sorry for the delay in answering this. It was my first Palahniuk also. I am going to try more of his (I have Rant sitting on my bookshelf) but haven't read any others. Did you try Invisible Monsters? If so, what did you think of it?

anothercookiecrumbles said...

Like you, I loved the weather forecasts in the book as well. Thought it was fantastic, and can't wait to read more of his works, although I reckon Fight Club might be next on the list for me.

Charlene Martel said...

I have a really bad memory, but I noticed when I was updating the blog index that I read Rant also, some time ago. I am definitely going to be reading even more. I think I'm going to pick up both Invisible Monsters, and Fight Club. I've heard good things about both.

rohit said...

Must be an enjoyable read Diary: A Novel by Chuck Palahniuk. loved the way you wrote it. I find your review very genuine and orignal, this book is going in by "to read" list.