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'4 3 2 1' - New Paul Auster Book (SPOILERS!)

Started by Serge, February 09, 2017, 09:07:17 PM

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Serge

I've decided to start a thread for this, as I didn't want to put it in the general books thread with dozens of black bars across it, so be warned that there are spoilers ahead.

I dropped out of the habit of keeping up with Auster's new books about a decade ago, not particularly because I thought he'd gone off - though the last book of his that I read previous to this was 'Travels In The Scriptorium', which was a fairly slight book, to be fair - but just because there were so many other things lining up that I wanted to read, and I didn't think that he'd ever regain the form of his late '80s/early '90s run of 'Moon Palace'/'Music Of Chance'/'Leviathan'/'Mr Vertigo'. Advance word on '4 3 2 1' did make it sound like this might be a return to that form, though, and finding out that it ran to 866 pages in length - about four times the size of his usual novels - and the fact that Auster himself was touting it as 'the book of [his] life', made me want to check this out.

There's a reason I was so precise about '4 3 2 1' being four times the size of his other books - it's mainly because this is a life story split into four parts, or rather four different life stories, all about the same person. It's the well-worn fictional conceit of 'what if..?'...what happens if one path is followed rather than another (an idea done best in Kieślowski's 'Blind Chance', though also done pretty well in 'Run, Lola, Run', amongst others), though in this case, the separate paths are usually created by external forces, as the people and events surrounding the central character push the narrative in different ways.

That central character is Archie Ferguson, and after an opening chapter telling the story of how his family came to America at the turn of the century and the events leading to his birth in 1947 (also the year Auster was born), the story is then told in alternating chapters about each Ferguson, advancing the story bit by bit in steps, taking them through the '50s and '60s and just making it into the early '70s. Not every Ferguson lives to the end of the book - Ferguson 2 is shockingly killed aged 13, and where the chapters about his life would have been are just marked with a blank page throughout the rest of the book. Ferguson 3 dies aged 20, and gets one blank page after that. Ferguson 1's fate is left until until the final pages of the book (in a chapter about Ferguson 4 - more about that in a minute.)

Not only does Ferguson's life go in different directions, those of the people around him do as well. Stanley & Rose, his parents, remain together in Ferguson 1 & 2's stories, but in Ferguson 3's story, Stanley dies in one of the most horrific ways imaginable and Rose later goes on to marry Gil Schneiderman, whereas in Ferguson 4's timeline, his parents divorce, and Rose marries Daniel Schneiderman, Gil's brother. Confused yet? I have to admit that I did occasionally have to flick back to remind myself which events were happening to each Ferguson, but for the most part, it's a lot simpler read than I'm making out.

Ferguson 1 falls deeply in love with Amy Schneiderman, Daniel's daughter, loses two fingers in a car accident, goes to Columbia University and ends up becoming a journalist. Ferguson 2 shows early signs of the same journalistic career, but is killed by a falling branch during a lightning storm before his story even seems to get under way. Ferguson 3 has to deal with the death of his father, loves Laurel & Hardy, is bisexual and promiscuous and ends up living in Paris, before being killed in (another) car accident in London. Ferguson 4 starts writing young after the untimely death of a friend, ends up going to Princeton, and goes on to become a published author. Amy Schneiderman plays a part in all of the tales, to a greater or lesser extent, as does Rose Adler, Ferguson's mother, and various other characters play different parts in different strands.

Auster also has walk-on parts for characters from some of his other books. Marco Stanley Fogg from 'Moon Palace' pops up a couple of times (and at another point, Ferguson and some of his friends eat at the Moon Palace restaurant.) David Zimmer, who also first appeared in 'Moon Palace' before getting his own book, 'The Book Of Illusions' plays a slightly larger walk-on part. Peter Aaron from 'Leviathan' is namechecked, and I was half expecting the hero of that book, Benjamin Sachs, to pop up, but he never does. Having said that, Noah Marx and, to a lesser extent, Howard Small do share a lot of Sach's characteristics, making me wonder if he had toyed with the idea of bringing him in before realising he would have to mess with his own history to do that.

Having said that, the reality of any of these characters is called into question by the closing pages of the book, which reveal that the first three Fergusons are figments of Ferguson 4's imagination, and appear in a massive book he's writing called - you guessed it - '4 3 2 1'. It's here that Ferguson 1's fate is mentioned (though never quite resolved), and I have to admit, it's the only major mis-step in the book, the point at which Auster's prediliction for clever-cleverness overdoes itself - I would have preferred it to have been left open, for there to be no reason why we're seeing these four different versions of the same man - it worked in 'Blind Chance', after all.

That's a minor snipe, though. Although there are a couple of passages that are a slog - the Columbia riots go on a bit - and I would happily have edited out all of the baseball and basketball stuff (which wouldn't be a problem for most other people, admittedly), this is definitely his best book in years, and if I wouldn't quite call it a masterpiece, it's certainly a far better and more interesting book than we might have expected from Auster at this point (he turned 70 last week), and I can definitely recommend it.

biggytitbo


Spoon of Ploff

Thanks Serge.

With the exception of "The Book of Illusions" I've not really enjoyed Mr Auster's work since "The Music of Chance." Hopefully they'll have this one at m'local library afore too long.

Serge

'The Book Of Illusions' was definitely his best post-2000 book until '4 3 2 1' came along. But no love for 'Leviathan' or 'Mr Vertigo'?

Quote from: biggytitbo on February 09, 2017, 10:01:46 PMIs Ted Rogers in it?

No, but he does make an appearance in Don DeLillo's 'Dusty'.

I was reading an interview with Auster where he says that he had intended to call the book 'Ferguson', but obviously since 2014, when most Americans hear the word Ferguson, they think of the town and the riots that followed the killing of Michael Brown, which might make them think it's an entirely different type of book - although police brutality, racism and rioting all appear in '4 3 2 1' as it is.

There's another decent interview with Auster here, where he briefly mentions the title change, along with a lot of other interesting stuff about the book.

Spoon of Ploff

Quote from: Serge on February 10, 2017, 11:53:11 AM
But no love for 'Leviathan' or 'Mr Vertigo'?

I liked 'em well enough. I just didn't get that post good book glow[nb]if that makes any sense... i dunno[/nb] that I got with his earlier work. I don't 'member much from Leviathan, so maybe I should give it another shot. The problem I had with Mr Vertigo was the whole bit with Walt and Dizzy Dean, otherwise it would have been right up there for me.

Serge

To be fair, it's nearly 20 years since I read 'Mr Vertigo', so I must give it a re-read, though I remember liking it at the time - it was 'Timbuktu' that was his first real major disappointment for me. I re-read 'Leviathan' last year and, although it's not quite the perfect piece of work that I remembered it being, I still think it's great, though 'Moon Palace' is still the one I'd recommend to people who've never read him before.

I know what you mean about the post book glow....that feeling of satisfaction you get when you close a book that was satisfying in every way - so far this year, 'Moonglow' and 'Walls Come Tumbling Down' have given me that feeling, and '4 3 2 1', 'Shock And Awe' and 'The Sellout' have come close.

Neville Chamberlain

How the heck did you finish this book so quickly? Did Paul invite you to read over his shoulder as he was typing it up?!? I mean it's hardly been out five minutes! There are people who bought it on the day it came out and are still in the process of lugging it home!

kngen

After devouring everything up to and including it, Book of Illusions was where I jumped off - My copy of Oracle Night is still languishing on the shelves, unread - although Mr Vertigo was where my doubts started to creep in, but I'm intrigued by the new one thanks to your write-up, Serge (well, up until it got a bit spoilery, obviously, which is as good an indication as any that I'll be reading this myself soon).

Whatever happened to the film adaptation of In the Country of Last Things, btw? Trapped in development hell?

Edit: Wikipedia sez 'As of 2013, a film adaptation directed by Alejandro Chomski was in production, shooting in Argentina but has not been released yet.'

Serge

Quote from: Neville Chamberlain on February 10, 2017, 02:55:34 PMHow the heck did you finish this book so quickly? Did Paul invite you to read over his shoulder as he was typing it up?!? I mean it's hardly been out five minutes! There are people who bought it on the day it came out and are still in the process of lugging it home!

Ha! I won't mention that I've just read George Saunders' new book in an afternoon.


BritishHobo

I've gotta admit I'm struggling with 4 3 2 1. I was loving it up until somewhere just before halfway, at which point it seems to lose all momentum. The focus on Ferguson's various high school lives, his repetitive desire to get his end away and the seemingly endless list of books and movies Auster gives us to keep reaffirming Ferguson's correctness in his journey through art is excruciating. I was excited to finish that section, but now it's just the same old shit at college. The most interesting parts to me are when Auster describes Ferguson's short stories, but I find myself absolutely bored to tears by the actual exploration of Ferguson's growth as a writer, and his discussions with and praise from various writers and teachers.

I'm feeling about it exactly as I did about Richard Linklater's Boyhood - technically it's impressive, but the longer and longer it goes on, the less I can muster up the energy to care about this utterly ordinary boy having utter ordinary experiences. As with that film and Everybody Wants Some, I have no doubt that the book is a deeply personal project for Auster, a mountain of nostalgia for all the things that shaped his childhood and adolescence and love of writing and so on, but as with those films I really struggle to find anything captivating in it myself. Anyone who's seventy and has a lifw of literary success behind them has more than earned the right to be wistfully self-indulgent, but I can't help but be left cold.

Saying that, I still have three hundred pages to go, so this post could wind up utterly premature bollocks.

Serge

Auster is notorious for putting things from his own life in his books - and for making walk-on appearances in them. Have you read any of his earlier stuff? While I know you're reading this one for the Booker thing, it wouldn't be the one I'd recommend as a First Auster (and neither would 'The New York Trilogy') - try 'Moon Palace' or 'Leviathan' if you're interested in checking out more (both of which are much shorter!)

BritishHobo

I've had a copy of The New York Trilogy on my shelf for ages, but I've only ever read the graphic novel adaptation of City of Glass.

I've gotten back into the flow of the book after quite a long lull, and I'll give it this - few, if any, other books have filled me with as much mortal dread upon the death of a character as this keeps doing.

Serge

'The New York Trilogy' seems to be the one that most people read first and which then puts most people off exploring further. I'm glad I didn't start with it, and that was only down to the fact that 'Moon Palace' and 'Leviathan' turned up cheap in Bookthrift, a decent remainder bookshop we used to have in Derby.

Small Man Big Horse

I finished this an hour ago, it being Marc's copy which I picked up when Timebug was kind enough to let us choose which of his possessions we wished to remember him by, and I often find myself wondering what parts Marc liked and what he didn't so it's been fascinating to finally read his thoughts above.

In general I really loved it, though there were some Ferguson's I was fonder of than others, and occasionally Auster goes in to a little too much detail about the inanities of his life (the sports stuff not really gripping me most of the time, either), but I was largely gripped by the stories told and the Auster sure does know how to pull off a fantastic cliffhanger. Like Marc the very last couple of pages of the ending left me a little cold (possibly because about two thirds of the way thought it I predicted the ending), and the coda about Nelson Rockefeller didn't really work for me, but Auster managed to create characters I loved an enormous amount and I have to confess that I'll miss not having them in my life anymore.


Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Puce Moment on June 02, 2020, 01:33:07 AM
Reading it now!

I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts, I read up on it further last night and though it has a fair few fans, some people/critics really seemed to dislike it and think it was horribly self indulgent!