![]() ![]() There is only a small scuff on each bumper. There’s no loud boom, no crunching metal and plastic, no fluid hissing from under the hoods - and no shattering glass. They hit head on, but in the split second before they do, they slow to a few miles per hour. ![]() Two cars are traveling toward each other at 100 miles per hour in some twisted version of a demolition derby. It’s not written in a way that is even close to enough. But when she finally delivers the blows that level him, it’s not satisfying enough. It’s even revealed long before he introduces Ainsley to the reader. The narrator makes no secret of this throughout most of the book. ![]() To make a long-winded story short, Ainsley does to him what he did to women in London. His paranoia continues to grow when he visits New York City on business and meets the beautiful Ainsley. Among other crazy things, he believes his employer is out to get him. Instead, his narcissism continues to shine through, along with a large dose of paranoia. At this point in the story is when the narrator might have had a ‘come to Jesus’ moment or redeemed himself in some other way. While in Minnesota, he’s sober and woman-free. When his narcissism fuels a career move, he relocates from London to Minnesota, USA. He seemingly gets off on his ‘power’ to get women to fall hard for him, knowing he will subsequently break their hearts and scar them. ![]() Not physically, as he explains, but emotionally. It’s simply the story of an alcoholic, sadistic narcissist who admittedly enjoys hurting women. Reading more like a fiction novel, the book is nothing spectacular in its writing or content. The narrator also admits that he experiences bouts of paranoia, further problematizing the relative truth of his narrative.“Diary of an Oxygen Thief” was first self-published in 2006 as a purported autobiography by an unknown author. 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. 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. 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. He buys a house there and ends up getting stuck, realizing that he hates this job, as well as Midwesterners. He works on improving his career, eventually moving to Saint Lacroix, Minnesota to do so. The narrator enters into AA, finds a stable job as an advertising executive, and stays away from women for five years. ![]()
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