Customer Reviews

From a Darkened Room: The Inman Diary (Inman Fund)

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Arthur called his diary, "... pure crap... out of the rectum of a rotting shadow and of no possible interest to anyone save a psychologist concentrating upon the disintegration of a person." Although he was a somewhat nasty, prejudiced man, I think his diary was fascinating. I especially enjoyed his descriptions of his relationships with his female employees and the narratives of their lives. This is a book for specialized tastes--not for everyone

I hope someone else out there has actually read this book -- its worth it, in many ways.
While hidden away in his room during the whole of his lifetime with a medical condition no doctors could ever diagnose, the author kept a painstaking diary of his everyday "experiences". He paid for people to come sit with him and tell stories of their lives -- appealing, tragic, often sordid. He usually entered into intimate relationships with these people, all the while dissecting them within the thousands of pages of his diary. Arthur blackmailed his millionaire parents to subsidize him, viciously tormented his servants and wife and eventually committed suicide. But not before he left for posthumous publication his eerie, hateful, yet fascinating world view.

This book is one of the bleakest books I have read. The diarist has developed a notion that his eyes are delicate(among other psychosomatic diseases) so he lies in a darkened room most of the day. He has cut himself off from society, the only people with whom he associates are his paid staff: Doctors, talkers, helpers and wife. The talkers read and talk about themselves to Arthur who eventually beds them, grows emotionally dependent on them and lavishes them with presents to keep them. Even with his wife it's this way. Arthurs ambition is to chronicle every thought and not censor himself, and while he is mentally ill and thus deludes himself on a number of issues, he does succeed in being brutally honest especially on the members who has left his fold. I challenge anyone to find any positive human values in this book, it certainly does show the dark side of human nature.

I discovered this book after reading Colin Wilson's THE BOOKS IN MY LIFE. Interesting look into the life of a spoiled racist - I define a racist as someone who believes other races to be inherently inferior to his own - predjudice being something completely different.

Curious that this man could make all these assessments about races and events in the world from his bedroom, never truly experiencing anything, other than hemmoroids. However, a fascinating, candid read that suprisingly, 500 pages into it still kept my interest. This is afer reading Rousseau's CONFESSIONS in the same year! Need a rest -Proust will have to wait!

If you enjoy brutally honest, 1st person narrative that expounds on thoughts, I recommend this book. Since I, unlike many others, find the inane bigotry amusing, and am desenitized to the stupidity, I will refrain from warning against such and take the liberty of assuming the reader is mature enough to not to allow oneself to be offended.