Finished the Book

Diary: A Novel, by Chuck Palahniuk. Finished and happy because I won't have to read it anymore. It wasn't terrible and luckily it only lasted 260 pages. But it reminds me of a Stephen King and M. Night Shyamalan cross. Not in gruesomeness, but the way it takes an ordinary event/occurrence, and tries to add a twist. But the twist aren't enough or are obvious and so I stayed reading and reading until I got to the good part. And like with Shyamalan, there's always this character or clue that pops up at the last minute...I don't get that. I know it was a limited omniscient point of view but still. Can you have a character throughout the novel and then all of a sudden say, "you know what, this was your husband's lover". Seriously? You have interaction with your husband's lover and there is not sense of animosity from the lover. Maybe it was the point of view that I didn't like, and the cheesy letter in the back saying...."dear author, i want you to listen to my story and write about it...and that story...is the book you just read." Sounds complicated the way I said it, but it isn't.


My real fear isn't liking the book, but telling the rest of the club that I didnt like it. I think they will regret having me in the club because I have been critical of most of the books. I expect to hear "then you write one". I expect to be ridiculed on my choice when i make it known. So that you know, it is When I was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago. I don't think I will regret my choice. I read the prologue where the author talks about a guava. That's it, a guava, the texture of having it in her hand, the taste of the guava on her tongue, and the memories the guava triggers. A page and a half on that and it was beautiful. I can relate to this. I can't relate to being part of a large social class....wait, I'm Mex-Am...I can't relate to a large wealthy social class. But I know what it means to pick a guava from my backyard and realizing it is bitter and tough and then learning to wait for them to be ripe, and picking the ripe ones from the floor. I know how it feels not to have that guava tree, and even planting a guava tree in my new backyard won't be the same. That's what I got from a page and a half!


What did I get from 260 pages about a painter who is a sacrifice based on tradition, ala "The Lottery". I got this...












I'm moving onto a new book, Black Hat Poems by Jose Montalvo. I ran across the book at the Half Price Bookstore in San Antonio. I'll let you know how it goes.