A review by plaidpladd
A Life Discarded: 148 Diaries Found in a Skip by Alexander Masters

3.0

The premise of this book is really interesting. I'm a faithful diary keeper myself, and often wonder what a stranger would think upon reading my journal--especially all the definitely TMI descriptions of my health problems, so the subject of this book and I have things in common! The format and structure were so... odd? It was meant to mimic the author's own journey of discovery about the author of the diaries, but it didn't work for me. Also could have done without the asides about the author's personal life, particularly the details about his friend dying of cancer. Usually once someone gets cancer, I immediately stop reading a book, but I figured since it was tangential to the narrative at best it wouldn't come up much here. I was wrong!