Dairy by Chuck Palahnuik

After finishing Diary there isn't much I want to say regarding the plot because it becomes so complex that I wouldn't even do it justice. Let's suffice it to say Diary was my introduction into the crazed world of a tortured artist. Diary explores, among other things, how art is achieved and what it means to be an artist.

"Art school doesn't teach you how to escape your soul being recycled."

I was completely engrossed by this novel. It is beautifully disturbing. This is the first Palahnuik novel I've read and I don't think it is going to leave my thoughts anytime soon. Dairy forces it's readers to think about their life, how they live it, and what they will leave behind after death.

"We all die... The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will."

Palahnuik also addresses certain sociological aspects of human nature; what will people do to make themselves happy and how far will they go to maintain that happiness? What will people sacrifice to keep the ones they love happy?


I also liked the overall theme of a diary and Palahnuik's suggestion that a diary isn't just a book one writes it. We are constantly documenting who we are and what we do throughout our everyday life. We act as a diary ourselves.

"Everything is a self-portrait. Everything is a diary."

Quotables: Chuck Palahniuk

"Just remember, the same as a spectacular Vogue magazine, remember that no matter how close you follow the jumps: Continued on page whatever. No matter how careful you are, there's going to be the sense you missed something, the collapsed feeling under your skin that you didn't experience it all. There's that fallen heart feeling that you rushed right through the moments where you should've been paying attention. Well, get used to that feeling. That's how your whole life will feel some day. This is all practice. None of this matters. We're just warming up."