"Choose any book at the library"

[ewx]

Diary, Chuck Palahniuk, ISBN 0224063898

Few real surprises here, if you've read any Palahniuk before. (If not: chatty style, horrible jokes, black themes, a gracefuly exploited penchant repetition; perhaps a similar niche to early Iain Banks in some ways.) Diary concerns the fate of Misty, a painter with strange abilities and afflictions, the weird town she goes to live in with her husband, and the unpleasant plans that the occupants have in mind, with guess-who as the key.

Unfortunately I found Misty a rather annoying character; while her troubles are not self-inflicted, her reactions seem so feeble that they almost might as well be. I was left feeling that Palahniuk was coasting when he wrote this; perhaps it is time for a new direction?