The narrator also admits that he experiences bouts of paranoia, further problematizing the relative truth of his narrative. It is also easy to believe that the narrator has blown his so-called relationship with Aisling way out of proportion, and that the reason she acts so cruelly towards him is because he is a creepy older guy who becomes obsessed with her. As such, the audience is disinclined to believe some of his suppositions about how deeply he hurt these women, especially when the narrator himself sometimes slips up and admits that this may not be the case. He believes he is the most important person and thinks that other people believe this as well. Similarly, he is also incredibly narcissistic and believes that the world revolves around him. The narrator does not seem to be trustworthy, mostly due to his apathy towards other people. Books can be attributed to 'Anonymous' for several reasons. While this retrospection allows the narrator to reflect on various aspects of both his behavior and his relationships, it also is partially responsible for the disbelief the audience feels towards the narrative. Diary of an Oxygen Thief is an honest, hilarious, and heartrending novel, but above all, a very realistic account of what we do to each other and what we allow to have done to us. The narrator’s writing of the novel takes place eight years after his entry into AA and about two years after his alleged relationship with Aisling has been terminated. The novel is told retrospectively, as the narrator looks back at his actions after he has been hurt. He writes this book in the hopes that it will be published before her photos, to palliate the humiliation he feels. The narrator realizes that she hates him. At the end of their so-called relationship, she takes him to a bar and has a male friend humiliate him and try to get into a fight with the narrator, which she photographs. He believes she is toying with his emotions and using him as the tragic subject of her art, a book of photographs. Once in New York, and still at the job that he hates, he begins to pursue her shamelessly, and she treats him very coldly. He claims she convinces him to move to New York, although there doesn’t seem to be any evidence to support this. After they have sex, he falls in love with her, although she seems lukewarm at best towards him. He starts looking for a way out on one business trip to New York, he meets Aisling, a beautiful, young photographer’s assistant. The book chronicles his relationships with women, many of whom he believes he has psychologically traumatized, as well as one woman, Aisling, who he feels is his karmic retribution for having treated women so poorly. He buys a house there and ends up getting stuck, realizing that he hates this job, as well as Midwesterners. The narrator is an Irish advertising executive living in London. He works on improving his career, eventually moving to Saint Lacroix, Minnesota to do so. Overall, I think this is a bit of a marmite book – you’re likely to either love it or hate it, sadly it just didn’t do it for me.The narrator enters into AA, finds a stable job as an advertising executive, and stays away from women for five years. Some of the things are true-to-life, whilst others are hard to ever imagine being real. It is simplistic in places, whilst being raw and full of sadness in others. Penned by an anonymous author, I’m unsure if the story is fiction or non-fiction – the lines are blurred. In fact, I think the main purpose of the book was to make the reader dislike him he wants us to pity him. Throughout the book the voice of the narrator got on my nerves, as he didn’t feel like an authentic character. Written in first person, this tale is full of misogyny, arrogance and narcissism. Whilst desperately trying to get his life back on track, it later gets turned upside down once more by a preying female. She by ambition.Īs a result of years of pain and abuse the narrator is trapped inside his own head – after years of alcoholism, he turns to a life of sobriety. Say Holden Caulfield was an alcoholic and Lolita was a photographer’s assistant and somehow they met in Bright Lights Big City. Okay…maybe not killed but dulled more lives.” “Romance has killed more people than cancer.
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