Rating: 
Summary: Enthralling. Astounding. Inspired.
Review: Wait no longer. Chuck Palahniuk is back with another triumph of a novel that puts most other modern fiction to shame. Diary succeeds in continuing Palahniuk's legacy of unparalleled originality, masterful style, and signature dark humor. Fans of the author's previous work will be very pleasantly surprised with the more poised structure and razor-sharp storytelling apparent from the start. Newcomers will be hooked, as Palahniuk wastes no time getting to the heart of the material only to reveal even more shocking plot developments with every entry in Misty Tracy Wilmont's "coma diary" written for her husband who lies unconscious in his hospital bed. The novel comes with the tagline "Where do you get your inspiration?" In this case, the influence of authors J.G. Ballard and Amy Hempel on Palahniuk's writing is as strong as ever. However, Diary's characters possess an unmistakable David Lynch quality that adds fantastic suspense not found in Lullaby, the Portland native's best-selling first attempt at horror. While Diary does make some significant advancements, it is still quite a task to place Palahniuk in any set genre. A self-portrait of one of the most imaginative writers of our time, Diary delivers the goods.
Rating: 
Summary: Pure genius! Palahniuk at his wry best!
Review: Very possibly the darkest of all of Chuck's novels, and also perhaps the most compulsively readable and stylistically brilliant of his works. (note: I have not read "Fugitives and Refugees")
I read through this book in two sittings. It's that good. The pace moves very quick in Palahniuk's "verbs on top of verbs" style. And he doesn't waste a single word. The dark humor and philosophic message about the need for pain and suffering in art make the book worth reading in it of itself, and even if they weren't there the incredibly original plot line and story would make this worth the read.
It's also sprinkled with fascinating and bizzare factoids in true Palahniuk style. Such things as the diseases of famous composers, what lead poisoning does to your mind, how Rembrant cheated with many of his paintings, and so on. So for you pragmatists who want more then just an incredible novel, you'll also learn some stuff along the way. I'd rate this the best of his fiction with Fight Club in second, Choke in third, Survivor fourth, Lullaby fifth, and Invisible Monsters in a disappointing last place, and the only one that I wouldn't recomend for others to read. Honestly, this was the best book I've read all year. (and I usually read about a book a week)
Bravo Chuck!
Rating: 
Summary: Salon, dead on
Review: The review on Salon.com, which Mr. Palahniuk responded to by referencing himself to Fitzgerald--sure he'll regret that in the morning--pretty much summed it up: boring, repetitive prose punctuated by an occasional reference to the smell of urine. Just plain garbage.
Rating: 
Summary: What a disappointment
Review: Being an avid read of Chuck Palahniuk I became addicted to his writing after reading Survivor and quickly bought each of his other four novels (Fight Club, Choke, Invisiable Monsters & Lullaby) and was equally impressed by all of them. I was expecting the same experience from his sixth novel Diary, but I was wrong. This is awful, I hate to say it but it's true. The above summary basiclly explains the whole book being that the book seems to repeat itself and goes nowhere. The narrator, Misty Wilmont, isn't enough to carry the book. By the end of the book you don't care about any of the characters, nor what happens to them. The climax is stolen from a movies that probally everyone has seen about 12 times. Just a bit of advice, if you're going to steal a scene from a movie at least take it from a B-List or Indepentant film that all of America hasn't seen time and time again (and I'm not talking about Rosemary's Baby). I was far from impressed or entertained by this book, hopefully his next book is up to per with his first five, sorry Chuck.
Rating:
Summary: Alright already you broken record
Review: Terriable book, didnt like it
Rating:
Summary: Not your ordinary island retreat novel
Review: Of course, nothing is ordinary when Chuck Palahniuk is the author. "Diary" is the story of Misty Marie Kleinman, who has to deal with a past she doesn't know about and the secrets that the island she lives on holds. Using his unique style of writing, Palahniuk combines horror/suspense with his usual social misfits to create another great book. Highly Recommended!
Rating:
Summary: What a disappointment
Review: I anxiouslly awaited the realese of Palahniuk's sixth novel, after being enchanted by the first five I expected the same for Diary, well it didn't happen. I never thought I would say this about Chuck Palahniuk's work, but this was awful. It went nowhere for about three quarters of the novel, it seemed like I was rereading the same chapter for 200+ pages. There were no characters in the book that were remotely interesting, nor did I care what happened to them. There isn't much to sumarise because there isn't enough context to eleborate on whats written in the dust-jacket. I'm hoping that his next novel makes up for Diary. To fans of Palahniuk, I'd wait for the paper-back.
Rating:
Summary: Another great novel!
Review: Once again, Palahniuk proves himself to be the modern master of the anti-consumer novel. This is the coma diary of a repressed artist, whose husband is being sued for scrawling nasty messages in the rooms he's been remodeling. Hilarious, lively and fun -- I found myself sucked into it instantly. If you're a fan of this man's work, then I highly recommend it! His best novel since Choke and Fight Club! Also, recommended: The Losers' Club by Richard Perez.
Rating:
Summary: Good Book
Review: I loved the book. But in my opinion not as good as other Chuck books. It did not hook me like any of the other books that he has written.
Starts off a little slow but picks up nicely and then just keeps getting better and better with each page.
Rating:
Summary: An Oddly Enthralling Story
Review: Chuck Palahniuk writes novels with exoskeletons so visible they're hard to ignore. You can see the bones of every paragraph, every sentence; they stick out so much you can barely find the substance of the story hidden within the structure. In his recent bestseller LULLABY, for example, there are so many parallel lines in mirror-patterned paragraphs that every page creates the sensation of deja vu; reading it feels like an epileptic seizure of nervous tics and twitches, a written version of Chinese water torture. The bones of the novel obscure any scrap of genuine appeal in the characters along with much interest in whatever the writer is actually trying to say. Palahniuk's new novel, DIARY, has most of the author's signature verbal tics, such as his habit of starting every other sentence with "And" or his aggravating reliance on casual (or lazy, depending on your view) sentence structures like "Peter and Misty, they'd go to art museums and galleries." But the characters in DIARY refuse to be obscured by any mere stylistic distractions. They pop out of the word-cages Palahniuk writes around them in a way that seems almost in spite of their creator. (He doesn't, after all, tend to invent particularly nice, meek little people.) And they drive the oddly enthralling story along toward ever- creepier territory. Misty Kleinman was your average homely loser in art school when she met Peter Wilmot. She knew of him before, of course. Everyone knew of him --- he was the campus weirdo. He came from Waytansea Island, a former rich-family hideaway turned tourist trap, and he wore gross baggy sweaters with pieces of tacky old costume jewelry. He courts Misty with a bizarre combination of aggression, encouragement and hostility that only makes sense much later --- when it's far too late. By that time, Misty is married to Peter, living on the island and working as a waitress/maid at the historic Waytansea Hotel. They have a young daughter and are also looking after Peter's mother. Or rather, Misty is. Peter is in a coma after a suicide attempt, and this novel is Misty's diary, which she is writing in case he ever wakes up. But that's only the beginning of the story. Things start getting weird when homeowners around the coast begin to call Misty, outraged that rooms in their recently remodeled houses are missing. Peter, before he went comatose, had a habit of scrawling violent, deranged messages on the walls of rooms in houses he was remodeling, then blocking off the doorway and plastering over the room. Vacationing homeowners would turn up at their summer places to discover their closets and breakfast nooks missing; eventually they'd find the room, see the messages, call Misty and threaten to sue. One such homeowner is Angel Delaporte, who starts visiting the houses along with Misty on the pretense of analyzing Peter's wild handwriting. Meanwhile, Misty's imperious mother-in-law keeps demanding that she get back to painting; when Misty finally does pick up her sketchpad again, in a fever of hallucination brought on by Grandma's picnic lunch, she paints so frenziedly and so compulsively that she stops eating, stops leaving her room, stops speaking to her kid, and stops showing up for work. It's clear she's headed for something seriously catastrophic --- but whatever you might think is going to happen, the truth turns out to be weirder. If you like Chuck Palahniuk generally, you'll love this novel. If you usually find him annoying, give this one a chance. Misty's hypnotic voice and the story's slowly building creepiness are powerful enough to overcome any stylistic trickery that might otherwise be off-putting. --- Reviewed by Becky Ohlsen
| 
