The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer
by Jennifer Lynch
Jennifer Lynch was about 21 when she wrote The Secret Diary. She was not far removed from girlhood, and it shows. She very successfully became Laura Palmer for the duration of this intimate book, and gives us a deeper understanding of her. It’s an impressively thoughtful and insightful achievement for someone her age.
It is also an empathetic work. Of course every happy moment Laura writes about is tinged with sadness, because we know how she ends up. The book charts her downward journey skillfully. It’s painful to watch her be tormented and gradually corrupted by BOB. And yet, as much of a tragic bummer as it is, the book is compulsively readable.
GRADE: A
Stray observations:
- Leo and Jacques come off as surprisingly sympathetic through Laura’s eyes.
- BOB sometimes takes Laura over when she’s writing in her diary, and at one point he says, “I don’t need anything. I want things.” Which is exactly what a key character says in the show’s 2017 season. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mark Frost and David Lynch re-read the diary before writing their script.