I’m really not sure what influenced me to pick up this book, but I am glad that I did. Diary of an Oxygen Thief was initially published anonymously but was later found to be written by Vivian Walsh. 

If you’re like me, you’re probably wondering, why post anonymously? Well… Walsh is a children’s author, and to say Diary of an Oxygen Thief diverges from that would be an understatement. 

Written as an autobiography in the first person, the book opens, and the narrator says, “I liked hurting girls.” He goes on to describe the euphoria he experiences as he goes girl to girl, breaking each of their hearts. In his words, “I’d wait until they were totally in love with me. Till the big saucer eyes were looking at me. I loved the shock on their faces. Then the glaze as they tried to hide how much I was hurting them.” 

I immediately hated the narrator, who remains unnamed throughout the entire book, and this continued until I found myself cackling at some of the things he says and later empathizing with his experiences. 

The narrator briefly tells the relationship history of some of the women he has mentally abused, including Penelope. He describes his relationship with Penelope and how he drove their relationship into the ground with his low self-esteem and alcoholism. After a massive blowout at his birthday party, the narrator finds himself in AA.

Fast forward five years, the narrator is fully sober from both alcohol and women. He moves from Dublin, Ireland, to Saint Lacroix, Minnesota, where he takes a prestigious position at an advertising firm and buys a home. This is where I begin to find myself laughing. 

As he describes his first winter in Minnesota, he catches himself using “Minnesota” slang:

“But you know what, I’m trying to stop saying that. They said that a lot in Minnesota. ‘You know what this’ and ‘You know what that.’ To me, “you know what” should be reserved for something truly surprising.
‘You know what?’
‘What?’
‘Fuck you.’”

Talk about a moment that literally made me laugh out loud. 

The narrator is in New York on business about a year later when he meets a beautiful, extremely young-looking photography assistant named Aisling. 

The plot surrounding Aisling is absolutely riveting. The narrator outrightly tells the reader that Aisling will be his karma for the way he treated women, and in particular, the way he treated Penelope. He slowly reveals how Aisling emotionally ripped him to pieces and, ironically, how she enjoys breaking people’s hearts, just as he had. However, she broke people’s hearts for professional, sinister purposes, while he broke hearts because he was broken… 

I would recommend this book for adults/mature audiences who are intrigued by people’s dark side. This book takes you on a journey through a narcissist mind who, in one of three of the book’s parts, has no remorse for his actions. It’s a fascinating short read (roughly 150 pages) that will weirdly expose parts of you as you read.

Thank you for reading,

Iyesha Ferguson, M.A.

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