He is apathetic toward other people and believes that he is more important than others think he is. 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. 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. The novel is told retrospectively, as the narrator looks back on his actions after he has been hurt. 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. Once there, he begins pursuing her again but she treats him poorly.
He decides to move back to New York City where his friends are. He’s also not interested in dating women anymore after going through a bad breakup with Aisling (a photographer’s assistant). He buys a house there and realizes that he hates it. The narrator, who has been in AA for five years and is now an advertising executive, moves to Saint Lacroix, Minnesota. 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. Eventually, he spirals into alcoholism and begins hurting women just for fun. He cheated on her and then broke up with her because she got in the way of his drinking and cheating. He talks about his longest relationship, with a woman named Penelope, whom he loved but eventually grew bored of. The narrator of the story begins by telling us how he likes to hurt women emotionally. He thinks he deserves his karmic retribution for treating women poorly. Nonetheless, it’s a fictional story about an advertising executive who lives in London and has had many failed relationships with women. 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. Diary of an Oxygen Thief was published anonymously in 2006.