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DIARY
by Chuck Palahniuk
Random House Audio, August 2003
Unabridged pages
$34.95
ISBN: 0739302841


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

There are some books where you're not quite sure if you'd ever make it to the end without the aid of oxygen and crampons -- and Chuck Palahniuk's DIARY is one of those. But a godsend of an audiobook reader turns a slight, if neat, idea into compelling listening.

Palahniuk's a highly experimental writer -- I am still recovering from reading a gross short story of his recently. For those of you who have read it, the words 'swimming pool' will no doubt be enough to send you scurrying for your cosiest of cosy reads. For those of you who haven't read it, proceed with due caution if it comes your way, and don't say I didn't warn you!

DIARY is bleak and spare and must surely be a performer's nightmare, but Martha Plimpton is a simply outstanding narrator. There's a great deal of repetition within the book, but she keeps the reader onboard every step of the way. I loved her matter-of-fact, harsh, almost throwaway delivery. The pacing is perfect. One inch the other way and it would have been verging on the flat and dull.

Briefly, white trailer trash Misty Marie Kleinman marries a boy from a monied family and goes back to his family home on the quaintly-named Waytansea Island which is over-run with tourists. Hubby Peter, though, tries to commit suicide, but ends up in a coma, leaving Misty with a teenage daughter and a self-centred mother-in-law. Then his former clients start popping up -- he's been doing some weird things with building conversions, like bricking up rooms and leaving bizarre and abusive graffiti all over the walls.

Misty, a former art student, hasn't painted for years, but is pushed back into it by daughter Tabitha and mother-in-law Grace. And suddenly she can't stop -- but there are worrying parallels with dead artist Maura Kincaid. Grace and the creepy family doctor keep Misty locked up with her eyes taped and force her to paint.

DIARY is in the form of Misty's own thoughts to her unconscious husband. But the point of view is unusual in that it swings between the second and third person, never the 'I' you'd expect in a diary.

Palahniuk's prose is relentlessly stripped down, with the emphasis on weird illnesses that killed artists, anatomical details, and snippets of information about paints. The constant refrain of 'for the record' does get dreary, though -- and I wonder if it would be so intrusive in the print version.

The book defies categorisation -- it's described as a coma diary, and verges on horror and mystery territory later on, although I'd cravenly file it under contemporary fiction! My view is that the ending is rather twee, and a lot of the repetition could go without ruining the flow of the story. But the audiobook for sure is worth seven hours of your time, both for Palahniuk's willingness to push the fiction boundaries and for Plimpton's mesmerising narration.

Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, January 2004

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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