Diary

A Novel

By: Chuck Palahniuk

Narrated by: Martha Plimpton

Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

Diary takes the form of a "coma diary" kept by one Misty Tracy Wilmot as her husband lies senseless in a hospital after a suicide attempt. Once she was an art student dreaming of creativity and freedom; now, after marrying Peter at school and being brought back to once quaint, now tourist-overrun Waytansea Island, she's been reduced to the condition of a resort hotel maid. Peter, it turns out, has been hiding rooms in houses he's remodeled and scrawling vile messages all over the walls - an old habit of builders but dramatically overdone in Peter's case. Angry homeowners are suing left and right, and Misty's dreams of artistic greatness are in ashes. But then, as if possessed by the spirit of Maura Kinkaid, a fabled Waytansea artist of the nineteenth century, Misty begins painting again, compulsively. But can her newly discovered talent be part of a larger, darker plan? Of course it can...

Diary is a dark, hilarious, and poignant act of storytelling from America's favorite, most inventive nihilist.

©2003 Chuck Palahniuk (P)2003 Random House, Inc. Random House AudioBooks, A Division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

"...[the author's] last minute switching of gears...can turn a darkly ominous story into a source of heart-tugging inspiration." (The New York Times)
"A creative, unusual tale...the story is fresh." (Publishers Weekly)

Entertaining, but not Chuck's best

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Yes, I always enjoy looking through this author's eyes. This is not his best work, though.

Which character – as performed by Martha Plimpton – was your favorite?

No character in particular, but she did a great job at what must have been pretty challenging material to work with.

Did Diary inspire you to do anything?

Kill anybody wearing cheap costume jewelry...especially if they are from an island.

Any additional comments?

I always like Palahniuk's stuff, although my favorite will always be Lullaby. This one was entertaining and had some surreal, dark fantasy elements to it. It centers around the Diary a wife is keeping for her husband, who is in a coma...and she also decides to renew her pursuit of painting amidst small town, psycho weirdness.

It was a good read and included some of the author's trademark interesting social observations.

The uninitiated need not apply

Palahniuk has a knack for writing with a kind of obsessive feverishness that bleeds into the novels and, usually, the readers themselves. A trademark of his previous novels (most especially Choke and Survivor) are twisted, alluring central premises that start out too bizarre to wrap your head around and slowly resolve themselves into a satisfying internally consistent logic. Usually, this process leaves a few plot holes and loose ends in its wake, but what the hell, it's a good ride.
Diary is more mature than Palahniuk's former novels: the thematic structure is strong, the trademark gruesomeness is more subtlely and effectively applied, even the phrase repetitions are more significantly placed, if still used a bit liberally for my taste. But the novel still falls into the trap of biting off more than it can chew, and it raises an awful lot of questions, about the protaganist's husband, the town's history, and its own internal logic, that it never gets around to answering. Palahniuk's fans are used to chalking a few up to surrealism and not letting it get to them, but anyone who hasn't read Fight Club should be prepared to have the hell bugged out of them by the niggling questions.
As for the narration, it's competently done, which is saying a lot for the work: epistolary pieces by ANYONE are tough to narrate without infusing an emotion that obfuscates the significance of the words themselves, and lumping the wry sarcasm of the main character on top of that makes for a fairly difficult narration. I would have preferred less colour to it, but it doesn't get in the way. What did bother me (and may bother others who have read Palahniuk before they listen) is the pace: the author often spends pages spooling out a single twist in the plot amongst a bevy of meaningless detail, a device which works well on the page where you're free to rush through it, heart pounding, to get to the end of the segment, but which is simply torturous in audio form.

Great book, great narrator

Chuck Palahniuk is a great author. I've bought this book multiple times already but I enjoy listening while driving too.
One thing that bothers me is when the narrator just isn't right or the voices change change with each character and it doesn't sound right. Particularly when a male reads a female part. However Martha Plimpton does an incredible job reading all female voices so that they sound the part and it doesn't throw you or some weird when she reads a male voice.
Highly recommended.

Dark

Loved it for all of it's weirdness and darkness.

As always, Palahniuk does an amazing job of taking his reader on a dark and twisted, yet beautiful journey.

I love this reading.

I’ve read this book but something made me want to revisit it. I’m glad I found the audiobook because it’s one of my favorites. Chuck’s books are always flawed but worth it. Are there holes in the story? Yes! Is the ending a bit of a head scratcher? Sure! Is the plot completely unbelievable - yep! But that’s not the point. There’s a really good rhythm to this book and it has a lot to say.
Can you feel this?

Great story

I really loved it. Went differently than I expected. Great experience. I would listen again.

Martha Plimpton is excellent.

As narrator, Martha Plimpton is wonderful. The story itself is eerie and interesting, but the end disappoints.

Great narration, good story

Really enjoyed this, especially the narrator. The story was also very interesting and well-written, if you like Palahniuk's style.

Dark

This tale gets darker as you make your way through. So if you enjoy that type of storyline, as I do, then take a chance on this book!

Some Weird Shit

Love this book. It spoke to me in some unexplainable ways to awaken my own personal coma. I really liked the idea of some form of a cult, a pagan God, witchcraft, tradition and a thrill I feel specially towards the ending.