Finished Diary by Chuck P.

Yesterday I finished off my latest foray into the wild and slightly off kilter world of Mr. Pahlaniuk.  This one even had another sympathetic character which makes it two books in a row with that feature.  He takes the reader in a completely new direction with a story written in the form of a diary and there are some almost science fiction type elements in this modern horror story.  I loved the fact that he named the setting for this novel - Waytansea Island.  Most readers of Pahlaniuk are just “waiting to see” what bizarre turn his plot is going to take so this was appropriate.   The main character in this book is a female artist who is being manipulated by everybody around her for some arcane reason tied back to other long dead artists.  The book ends with a huge event and the reveal is everybody is not exactly as good or as bad as you had been led to believe, typical Pahlaniuk.  The diary technique allows Pahlaniuk to reveal the story in bits and pieces and really challenges the reader to be smart enough to figure things out before he reveals what is really happening.  I really like this about Pahlaniuk.  He takes you in those different directions and you can never really be sure where he’s heading.  This book was not as emotionally exhausting as some of his earlier works but was still extremely interesting.  A shout out to my son in law who started me on this journey with Chuck, thanks again.  Up next is the book Haunted, which according to my son in law, is Pahlaniuk’s most visceral work – now that should be interesting.  On a different front, the epic battle between Mother Nature and the paving company continued in front of my house yesterday.  The immense ravine was completely filled in, again, with dirt, so it will look great until the next rain fall.  I’m beginning to think they have a lot of extra dirt they’re trying to get rid of.  How long this fill it up, lose it to erosion and fill it up again cycle can last?  Down in Panama a lot of my wife’s family experienced the effects of the big earthquake centered in nearby Costa Rica.  Thankfully everybody is okay.  The funniest story was her aunt who was in a supermarket and thought she was experiencing vertigo so she went to the pharmacy where she joined a long line of other seniors in line.  The very patient pharmacist explained to the very chagrined aunt that there had been an earthquake which resulted in her feelings of vertigo.  The ground actually had been shaking.  She was very embarrassed until the clerk pointed out that she had said the same thing to all the others as well.  I watched most of Obama’s convention speech last night expecting to be electrified, as this has always been his strength.  I was severely disappointed.  He seems to have lost his fast ball or maybe the crushing responsibilities of the office have worn him down because he seemed to just be going through the motions.  I voted for him four years ago based on his optimism and drive (of course having Sarah Palin on the other ballot made the decision easy) but I’m not sure I’m going there again, something to ponder in the upcoming weeks.

How it looked this Morning

Lost His Way?