Diary by Chuck Palahniuk

Your name is Peter Wilmot. And all you need to know is that you turned out to be one sorry sack of shit.
Her name is Misty Kleinman. In case she's not around when you read this, she was your wife. In case you're not just playing dumb - your poor wife, she was born Misty Marie Kleinman.

Well, within the first few pages within an introduction like this, I wasn't sure how this story would unravel. I mean, how could I not? As a person talking in third person, but calling you Peter and her Misty, what are you to do? Who are they, and why does the book sound so gloomy?

Misty is a 41 year old woman, who is living with her mother in law and her daughter, Tabbie. Her life is more like one you see in movies, where she doesn't make much of a living and drinks extensively to drown out reality. Her husband has attempted suicide, and is now in a coma in the hospital. To get out of the depression she has fallen into because of this attempted suicide, she begins to paint again which is the reason why she met Peter in the first place.

None of this makes sense, am I right? You're just as confused as I am. Overall so far in the book, it's not an easy book to read. Because the book is a diary, sometimes I find myself re-reading the same paragraph over and over again because topics can change so quickly. Also, the vocabulary is quite large and often times hard to comprehend (I mean, in the first few pages, Misty talked about nearly all the facial muscles that humans have... in their scientific name). So far, the book is more like solving a puzzle, rather than reading a book. Nothing seems to make sense right now, but hopefully things will start to make sense, before it ends up back on Mr. Hill's shelves...