Diary Of A Canadian Nobody - Paul James 4/5 stars
I haven't been reading a lot lately but I as I set up my iPhone I added the Kindle app and remembered I had a copy of this from NetGalley. As I read it I wasn't sure if I'd like it even though I thought the premise was interesting enough. The problem is that when you read someone's diary you have to feel as if you're peeking into someone's most intimate thoughts. It's a running commentary on who the person is. You get them as they really are, not how you expect them to be. James' creation is an interesting read that shows us a man who is just like everyone else. If you saw him on the street he wouldn't really stick it. That's what makes this work so well. It's the reality that's injected here. Arthur could, in fact, be any one of us. We all have the same frustrations, the same ideas. These are the intimate thoughts that you never speak of. Instead, you allow the frustration to drip onto the pages of your diary. The thing is, Arthur wants people to read it.
As the book evolves you begin to see him become someone else. That's where the book strays a bit and even though he's a nobody he's still a human who's wife could be having an affair, and the struggles he faces in his life resonate because we've all been there. We understand exactly where he's coming from. A lot of people may find this tedious, but there's a great deal of humor throughout the novel. This isn't just an account of his day to day life, but a glimpse into his thoughts, his ideas about his life and of course everything else he decides to write about. Arthur is the kind of guy who has fallen into adulthood and has no idea how he got there, and as the diary goes on we see a new side of him emerge. That's when the novel begins to slip a little, but despite that, it's still an interesting read and one that doesn't fit into normal categories.
I haven't been reading a lot lately but I as I set up my iPhone I added the Kindle app and remembered I had a copy of this from NetGalley. As I read it I wasn't sure if I'd like it even though I thought the premise was interesting enough. The problem is that when you read someone's diary you have to feel as if you're peeking into someone's most intimate thoughts. It's a running commentary on who the person is. You get them as they really are, not how you expect them to be. James' creation is an interesting read that shows us a man who is just like everyone else. If you saw him on the street he wouldn't really stick it. That's what makes this work so well. It's the reality that's injected here. Arthur could, in fact, be any one of us. We all have the same frustrations, the same ideas. These are the intimate thoughts that you never speak of. Instead, you allow the frustration to drip onto the pages of your diary. The thing is, Arthur wants people to read it.
As the book evolves you begin to see him become someone else. That's where the book strays a bit and even though he's a nobody he's still a human who's wife could be having an affair, and the struggles he faces in his life resonate because we've all been there. We understand exactly where he's coming from. A lot of people may find this tedious, but there's a great deal of humor throughout the novel. This isn't just an account of his day to day life, but a glimpse into his thoughts, his ideas about his life and of course everything else he decides to write about. Arthur is the kind of guy who has fallen into adulthood and has no idea how he got there, and as the diary goes on we see a new side of him emerge. That's when the novel begins to slip a little, but despite that, it's still an interesting read and one that doesn't fit into normal categories.
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