Man in the Dark :: Paul Auster

Title: Man in the Dark
Author: Paul Auster
Read: August 2009; NYC
Format: kindle

August Brill, book critic, is an invalid. He lives a lonely life with with broken women: his daughter who has been left by her husband and his granddaughter who is mourning her boyfriend. Stuck in bed, August lays in bed all night and spins a story to occupy his mind. He imagines a young man, Owen Brick, who wakes to find himself in an alternate world where 9/11 never happened and where the liberal states have seceded. To get back to themselves, everyone must reorient themselves, explore their situations, and confront difficult challenges head on.

This is another one of those Auster novels with layered stories and layered meaning; where fragility, mortality, and loneliness are prominent themes. Man in the Dark is not my favorite, though. While it's not completely bleak, it is still too gray for my tastes and lacks the magic, mystery, or sweetness that the author can do so well. Instead, we get a heavy-handed suspense narrative couched within an exploration of sadness and loss.

A fast read and well-written, so not not worth it.

3 out of 5 stars

some thoughts about auster

I'm working on 3 back-posts for some Austers I read this year: Man in the Dark, The Brooklyn Follies and Oracle Night. Thinking about all 3 at once made me come to the following realizations:

• i possibly don't get it
  
• i should not read Auster on kindle. i end up reading too fast and don't take the appropriate amount of time to unpack it
  
• not fun
• maybe i picked the wrong three to read in the same summer, but the format seems pretty one-note
  
• i tend to read auster when i'm indecisive: i want to read something substantive, but fast. (lesson: when i want to read something quickly, i should probably just read something that is light too)
• i continue to read his novels, though often underwhelmed, because i'm looking for something more like Book of Illusions. seems like BOI really stands alone, style-wise.
  

Oracle Night :: Paul Auster

Title: Oracle Night
Author: Paul Auster
Read: May 2009; Madrid
Format: kindle

Oracle Night is yet another one of Auster's lonely-writer, nested-narrative novels.

Suffering from an undetermined illness and recovering from a recent episode, Sidney Orr returns to writing. In his convalescence, he had been filling his days with mundane activities: lunch, errands, etc. However, one day he visits a mysterious stationery store in his Brooklyn neighborhood. There, he purchases a mystical, Portuguese notebook and begins to write after a long drought. The story that Sidney begins to write is complicated and I don't care to recall it. Just know that it begins as an exercise, but then the writing pours out of him and what he creates becomes fuller and darker.

Like much of Auster's writing, Oracle Night concerns itself with the process of writing and the relationship between writer, life, and work.

Auster, to me, is a go-to author when you want to read something substantive, but you don't want to commit a lot of time to it. He's brilliant with mood and meaning; through this he's able to construct layers that are readable and suspenseful, but also challenging. We come to expect this from the author, but Oracle Night took it a little too far, I think. Maybe one layer too many? Maybe we could have dialed back the alienation a bit? Though, maybe that was me. I read this while traveling alone in a foreign city.

Anyway, it was an interesting read. And since it's not much of a time commitment, it's worth picking up. But don't be shocked if you find yourself on the verge of an eye-roll every once in a while.

Captivating and well-paced, with a healthy dose of mystery.

3 out of 5 stars

The Brooklyn Follies :: Paul Auster

Title: The Brooklyn Follies
Author: Paul Auster
Read: Nassau, the Bahamas, NYC
Format: kindle

Nathan Glass thinks he's dying so he moves to NY. He reacquaints himself with his estranged, but beloved, nephew Tom. Tom was a promisingly intelligent young man, but has lost his way as well. In the course of rediscovering their relationship, Nathan and Tom figure out how to survive and rebuild with the help of Tom's little niece Lucy, an outrageous book dealer, and a neighborhood woman.

I liked Brooklyn Follies fine, though I can see why fans of the author might not. While Nathan is a classic Auster protagonist - lonely and somehow infirm - there is a lightness and hope (that might be too strong a word) to the novel that is unusual to his work. Purists might find it a stilted departure, but I found it nice. That being said, I wasn't especially moved by it and it was kind of forgettable.

A worthwhile read if you want something quick, but not empty.

3 out of 5 stars