Diary

Rating:
Summary: More Subtle, More Subdued
Review: Palahnuik is one of the few who can write subversive and satirical material that still qualifies as literary art. In a style all his own, he has tweaked the lines of fiction to create stories that resonate with our generation. "Survivor," "Fight Club," and "Lullaby" are some of my all-time favorite novels.

That said, I got "Diary" with high expectations. As some have noted, Palahnuik's unique voice has started to become an echo in each novel, and I hoped he would break his own mold.

He does. For good and for bad. Although "Diary" has themes that seem tamer and more polished in delivery, they are aimed more precisely than in some of his other works. The style is more subtle, more subdued. I read entire chapters waiting for one Palahnuikism to jot down in my memory banks, but few showed up.

In "Diary," Chuck steers away from clever sentences and goes for a clever overall picture. Just as his characters discover that art is birthed through pain and suffering, we the readers discover the beauty here by overcoming more obstacles than in his other novels.

Overall, I loved the theme of art inspired by pain, but never felt deep connection with any particular character or setting. I respect an artist/author willing to shift gears mid-career--U2 did so in the early 90s and fumbled back to greatness--and I believe Palahnuik will do the same. Here, he reinvents himself. "Diary" is his turning point. Though he might not connect with everyone, I believe he's taken a step toward bigger and better things.

Rating:
Summary: Not his best work
Review: First off, I consider myself a Chuck Palahniuk fan and have read all of his previous novels. Therefore, I was rather excited to start reading this one. However, once I got into the book a bit that quickly changed. The plot basically centers around an island conspiracy to save a rich-but-soon-to-be-poor island by finding and procuring a tortured artist. The artist will evidently be the savior but these twilight-zone like episodes will be repeated over and over with new reincarnations of this tortured artist character. Sound confusing? Anyway, in his other books I always found Palahniuk's best trait to be his lively and entertaining (if not eccentric) characters. In this book we basically have a vegetable-of-a-man who tried to kill himself, the tortured artist Misty, Misty's daughter Tabbi, and a few other minor island characters. In other words, who cares? These characters are extremely dry and boring. The book itself doesn't contain the bits of Palahniuk wisdom that you'll find sprinkled throughout works like Fight Club and it is a chore to complete. I had a very difficult time motivating myself to plow through it. The book does contain some similarities to other Palahniuk books as far as writing style but it appears his ghost showed up to complete it. I still consider Palahniuk a good and talented writer and hopefully he will rebound to his true form in the future. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

Rating:
Summary: 1st Chuck Book - Very Good
Review: No doubt, much like many people here, I loved Fight Club (the movie) and at some point noticed it was also book (a short one at that). I checked Fight Club out of the library and, for no particular reason, Diary as well. I swear I did not read a darn thing about the book before I started reading, I didn't check out Amazon and I didn't read the inside covers, I just read. I was enthralled and drawn in to a very interesting style of writing and it wasn't till about page 40 or so that I actually figured out what the heck the book was about. This is a good thing. Too often with books and movies there are too many expectations and prior knowledge that doesn't allow the writer (or director) to take you on the journey the way he intended.

Anyway, it was a very good book but not great. If you're already reading a review i'll tell you, the ending was a little disappointing, so allow for it, it is the reason i'm giving 4 instead of 5 stars. I don't know this man's writing so I don't have overly-heightened expecations, but it's a quick, interesting read.

As a side note that has nothing to do with this book: I read and obviously write some of these reviews on Amazon, but I encourage everyone to just pick up a book they know nothing about and just dive in, more often than not you'll be excited and interested by what you did not expect. Amazon is not an alternative to your local library, it is extension to furthering your joy of reading.