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1-Page Summary of Oxygen
Overall Summary
Diary of an Oxygen Thief was published anonymously in 2006. This novel is a work of fiction, although the author does try to confuse the audience in this respect, as both the author and narrator are unnamed. Nonetheless, it’s a fictional story about an advertising executive who lives in London and has had many failed relationships with women. He thinks he deserves his karmic retribution for treating women poorly.
The narrator of the story begins by telling us how he likes to hurt women emotionally. He talks about his longest relationship, with a woman named Penelope, whom he loved but eventually grew bored of. He cheated on her and then broke up with her because she got in the way of his drinking and cheating. Eventually, he spirals into alcoholism and begins hurting women just for fun. Then, he invites these women to his thirtieth birthday party but gets so drunk that he doesn’t remember anything from it at all—he even fights some guys in bars! Finally, though this may or may not be why it happened, the narrator decides to join AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) because one time when drunk he hit a girl too hard during an argument.
The narrator, who has been in AA for five years and is now an advertising executive, moves to Saint Lacroix, Minnesota. He buys a house there and realizes that he hates it. He’s also not interested in dating women anymore after going through a bad breakup with Aisling (a photographer’s assistant). He decides to move back to New York City where his friends are. Once there, he begins pursuing her again but she treats him poorly. In the end of their relationship she takes him out on the town with one of her male friends where they humiliate him by trying to get into a fight with him while she photographs it all for art purposes.
The novel is told retrospectively, as the narrator looks back on his actions after he has been hurt. 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 ended. While this retrospection allows the narrator to reflect on various aspects of both his behavior and relationships, it also contributes to disbelief in the narrative because the narrator seems untrustworthy. He is apathetic toward other people and believes that he is more important than others think he is. This narcissism makes him seem unreliable at times when he claims to have hurt women deeply but then later admits that may not be true or when he becomes paranoid about something going wrong with a woman even though nothing bad happened yet.
The narrator is self-centered and believes that he’s the center of his own tragedy. He thinks about television a lot, especially reality shows like “Survivor”. The last section has three points of view: first person (narrator), second person (audience), and third person (protagonist). In this way, the narrator feels as though he can speak to everyone without any barriers between himself and others.
The novel is divided into three chapters. The first chapter sets up the story and presents the narrator’s narcissism. In the second chapter, the narrator’s life falls apart as he descends into alcoholism and then gets better when he moves to Saint Lacroix. The third chapter details his relationship with Aisling, which causes him pain at times but also some happiness. He compares his experience to Dante’s Divine Comedy in a way that suggests that his descent wasn’t really an ascent from Hell to Heaven—instead it was just another tragedy in a long series of tragedies for him.
