- Diary of an Oxygen Thief
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Diary of an Oxygen Thief is a 2006 Dutch novel, written anonymously and published in Amsterdam by NLVI. Diary of an Oxygen Thief was called a "surprise dark-horse Williamsburg best seller" by New York Magazine, referring to the independent art, literature, and music scene in Brooklyn, New York.
Summary
Purporting to be an autobiography, Diary of an Oxygen Thief begins with the narrator, an Irish advertising executive living in London, describing the pleasure he used to receive from emotionally abusing women. After the narrator starts attending AA meetings, he sobers up, abstains from sex for several years, and looks back on his past relationships with a measure of remorse. After taking a job in the United States, the narrator is confronted externally by the absurdity of corporate America, culture shock, and the conflict of moving from the lower to upper-middle class. Internally he grapples with paranoia, addiction, and a legacy of pain. Later, he meets a young, aspiring photographer in New York and falls in love with her. The relationship rapidly goes south and culminates in her humiliating him in public, thereby giving him a taste of his own medicine. The titular Oxygen Thief refers to the low self-esteem of the narrator who, because of his sense of self-loathing, seems to go through life unworthy of the very air he breathes.
See also
Categories:- 2006 novels
- Dutch novels
- Memoirs
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