--- product_id: 56528970 title: "The Diary of a Rapist: A Novel" price: "€ 26.55" currency: EUR in_stock: true reviews_count: 10 url: https://www.desertcart.ie/products/56528970-the-diary-of-a-rapist-a-novel store_origin: IE region: Ireland --- # The Diary of a Rapist: A Novel **Price:** € 26.55 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Diary of a Rapist: A Novel - **How much does it cost?** € 26.55 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.ie](https://www.desertcart.ie/products/56528970-the-diary-of-a-rapist-a-novel) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description This unnerving work is a contemplation of the middle-class existence in a changing world, narrated by an unstable man held hostage by his deteriorating mental state. The story begins with the unhappy marriage of junior clerk Earl Summerfield to the much older Bianca. Feeling victimized by his cold wife and mocking superiors at work, Earl decides to keep a diary, a chronicle of his apparently crumbling marital relations, the paranoia and abuses he is seemingly forced to tolerate at work, and the world around him going to pieces in 1960's San Francisco. What he sees, what he says, what he wants to say - everything swarms his head and consciousness, inciting and fueling fantasies of love, ambition, and avenging the violent crimes with which he was become obsessed. His angry and unstable mind alternates between feelings of apprehension and disgust, and exploring his own violent, sexual fantasies, and Earl takes action first by breaking into other peoples' houses and then fixating on various women, before settling with utmost and troubling certainty on the local beauty queen, Mara St. John's. Review: Don't let the title scare you off. - "The Diary of a Rapist" is a middle-class "Taxi Driver." It is a modern "Crime and Punishment." Connell has written one of the best novels I've ever read about fear, frustration and isolation. The main character, Earl Summerfield, is stuck in a loveless marriage, unhappy with his job, afraid of almost everything, and completely frustrated with how his life has played out. Earl alternates between self-love and self-loathing as he faces the ultimate fear: the possibility of a life wasted. As the days go on, Earl obsesses about the violence surrounding him, the drudgery and squabbling at his office, the hate he feels from his wife, the constant abuses he feels he suffers. Typically, Earl thinks he could have been so much more. If it wasn't for his wife, his supervisor, his whoever, he'd be a great man, a wealthy man. The frustration cracks him, and he latches onto a beauty queen he thinks represents what he considers the modern trampy female (Earl's incompetence with women leads to a deep misogyny). After the act the title of the book suggests takes place, Earl can't help but romanticize the woman. Thinking that he loves her, that he needs to marry her, that she enjoyed what happened. I don't think I've ever read a novel that better understood loneliness. How internalizing the rage of your inadequacies can lead to delusions and acts of impulsive violence. Connell gives you a front-row seat to Earl's pitiful life -- his lack of will, his fantasies, his inability to function, his almost bipolar shifting attitudes, and how he eventually takes this out on someone else and hurts her -- and it is scary and it is sad. The only other character study that so accurately reveals the dark conscience of the Broken American Male is Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver." But Connell's book is even better, because he puts you right in Earl's mind, and it is a place both fascinating and disturbing. Review: Deeply unsettling, utterly compelling - Earl Summerfield, 26, feckless junior clerk at the State Unemployment Bureau, miserably married to the loveless Bianca, 33, keeps a diary for one year. It becomes a record of marital hatred, the paranoia and pathetic rivalries of office life, and, increasingly, a record of violent crime - the rapes, robberies, senseless murders and gas chamber executions reported in the daily news. Earl's apparent disgust and dismay at the crime wave alternates with violent sexual fantasies of his own. Fleeing Bianca and his apartment some nights, he begins sneaking into other people's houses. When he becomes fixated with the local beauty queen, Mara St Johns, it's only a matter of time before Earl's fantasies become reality. Or do they?... I imagine many readers flee from this novel - even from the title - assuming it's some kind of exploitative or voyeuristic pornography. Far from it. It is relentlessly voyeuristic, but the object of that gaze is Earl's mind. This is a tremendously engaging novel of psychological realism, and what gives it that vivid quality is that Earl is as inconsistent as any real person. He loves himself, he's filled with self-loathing. He deserves to be promoted, he's an idiot for dreaming of it. One day he despises work, the next he can't wait to go in. One night he revels in personal insights and dreams of self-transformation, making life-changing decisions which are instantly reversed or forgotten by the next. He's a man unravelling; caught in the trap of middle-class existence which fuels his dreams without giving him any real hope of achieving them; caught, too, between desire and the Puritan legacy for which the circuit breaker is a violent rejection and punishment of sex. What's most compelling about Earl's diary is that the more deranged, anti-social and evangelical he becomes, the more consistent are his writing and behaviour. In the end, he lives up to his rhetoric. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #3,272,881 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #13,674 in Psychological Thrillers (Books) #14,085 in Psychological Fiction (Books) #14,531 in Science Fiction Crime & Mystery | | Customer Reviews | 3.8 out of 5 stars 17 Reviews | ## Images ![The Diary of a Rapist: A Novel - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/614SKIDcvWL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Don't let the title scare you off. *by J***S on July 3, 2006* "The Diary of a Rapist" is a middle-class "Taxi Driver." It is a modern "Crime and Punishment." Connell has written one of the best novels I've ever read about fear, frustration and isolation. The main character, Earl Summerfield, is stuck in a loveless marriage, unhappy with his job, afraid of almost everything, and completely frustrated with how his life has played out. Earl alternates between self-love and self-loathing as he faces the ultimate fear: the possibility of a life wasted. As the days go on, Earl obsesses about the violence surrounding him, the drudgery and squabbling at his office, the hate he feels from his wife, the constant abuses he feels he suffers. Typically, Earl thinks he could have been so much more. If it wasn't for his wife, his supervisor, his whoever, he'd be a great man, a wealthy man. The frustration cracks him, and he latches onto a beauty queen he thinks represents what he considers the modern trampy female (Earl's incompetence with women leads to a deep misogyny). After the act the title of the book suggests takes place, Earl can't help but romanticize the woman. Thinking that he loves her, that he needs to marry her, that she enjoyed what happened. I don't think I've ever read a novel that better understood loneliness. How internalizing the rage of your inadequacies can lead to delusions and acts of impulsive violence. Connell gives you a front-row seat to Earl's pitiful life -- his lack of will, his fantasies, his inability to function, his almost bipolar shifting attitudes, and how he eventually takes this out on someone else and hurts her -- and it is scary and it is sad. The only other character study that so accurately reveals the dark conscience of the Broken American Male is Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver." But Connell's book is even better, because he puts you right in Earl's mind, and it is a place both fascinating and disturbing. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Deeply unsettling, utterly compelling *by S***S on December 1, 2004* Earl Summerfield, 26, feckless junior clerk at the State Unemployment Bureau, miserably married to the loveless Bianca, 33, keeps a diary for one year. It becomes a record of marital hatred, the paranoia and pathetic rivalries of office life, and, increasingly, a record of violent crime - the rapes, robberies, senseless murders and gas chamber executions reported in the daily news. Earl's apparent disgust and dismay at the crime wave alternates with violent sexual fantasies of his own. Fleeing Bianca and his apartment some nights, he begins sneaking into other people's houses. When he becomes fixated with the local beauty queen, Mara St Johns, it's only a matter of time before Earl's fantasies become reality. Or do they?... I imagine many readers flee from this novel - even from the title - assuming it's some kind of exploitative or voyeuristic pornography. Far from it. It is relentlessly voyeuristic, but the object of that gaze is Earl's mind. This is a tremendously engaging novel of psychological realism, and what gives it that vivid quality is that Earl is as inconsistent as any real person. He loves himself, he's filled with self-loathing. He deserves to be promoted, he's an idiot for dreaming of it. One day he despises work, the next he can't wait to go in. One night he revels in personal insights and dreams of self-transformation, making life-changing decisions which are instantly reversed or forgotten by the next. He's a man unravelling; caught in the trap of middle-class existence which fuels his dreams without giving him any real hope of achieving them; caught, too, between desire and the Puritan legacy for which the circuit breaker is a violent rejection and punishment of sex. What's most compelling about Earl's diary is that the more deranged, anti-social and evangelical he becomes, the more consistent are his writing and behaviour. In the end, he lives up to his rhetoric. ### ⭐⭐ "The diary of a rapist" is a dangerous title. ... *by B***K on December 13, 2016* "The diary of a rapist" is a dangerous title. I thought anyone bold enough to use that title would write an intriguing book, so I jumped on board at the thought of exploring a new genre. I wanted to be intrigued, and possibly read something that put me outside of my comfort zone. While I agree with others that the narrative is a portrayal of psychological disruption, for me the author doesn't jump deep enough in the water. While I feel the book is well written, it just didn't work for me. If it wasn't such a quick read, I would have abandoned it half way through, as I found my mind wandering off continually. Overall, I felt it was a little too safe, nothing of significance came to pass, and it ultimately failed to live up to its catchy title. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.ie/products/56528970-the-diary-of-a-rapist-a-novel](https://www.desertcart.ie/products/56528970-the-diary-of-a-rapist-a-novel) --- *Product available on Desertcart Ireland* *Store origin: IE* *Last updated: 2026-05-26*