Paul Auster

[Serge]

I know there are other fans here, so thought I'd start a thread.

The first book I read of his was Moon Palace, which I picked up with Leviathan in Bookthrift, a remainder bookshop that used to be on Sadlergate in Derby, and which I wish was still here. Those two novels are still my favourites of his, although having read them again last year for the first time in a while, I did notice that they weren't quite the flawless masterpieces that I remembered them as, though I still enjoyed their combination of odd little stories linked by what seem like outrageous coincidences (Auster is a fan of coincidence as a plot device.) Moon Palace in particular does slightly have the feeling of lots of short stories patched together, so that sections such as Fogg living in Central Park or Barber/Effing's adventures in Utah don't really have any connection other than the fact that Auster decided to make them all happen to members of the same family.

I then bought The New York Trilogy, which seems to be the one that gets recommended as a starting point, but which I find just tends to put people off reading further. There are lots of good ideas in there, but on the whole, none of the stories really work. In The Country Of Last Things is also a novel that doesn't quite make it, and is the least Auster-like of all of his books.

Thankfully, I then read The Music Of Chance and Mr. Vertigo, which, along with the first two novels I mentioned, make up the quartet of Auster novels I'd recommend to anybody. Music Of Chance has one of his most straightforward narratives, so much so that it was adapted into an excellent film. Mr. Vertigo was his last decent book for eight years, as he turned his sights on film-making, which led to the two brilliant companion movies, 'Smoke' and 'Blue In The Face', and the lesser-known (and barely released) 'Lulu On The Bridge', which I have to admit I've never seen myself.

During this time, the only new novel he turned out was the hugely disappointing Timbuktu, in which the main character is a dog whose thoughts are what the novel is comprised of. Weirdly enough, this was an idea done over a decade before by James Herbert, in the far superior 'Fluke'. To tide us over, there was a collection of earlier works, Hand To Mouth, which consisted of a memoir on his years as a struggling writer, and some of the stuff he turned out during this time, including a detective novel he wrote under a pseudonym!

He got his form back with The Book Of Illusions, which was informed by his forays into moviemaking. There then followed half a dozen novels of varying quality, though I have to admit that I've only read the first three - Oracle Night, The Brooklyn Follies and Travels In The Scriptorium. 'Follies' is probably the best of these, while 'Travels...' is full of the smart-arsery that tends to put people off his work. At some point I might get around to reading Man In The Dark, Invisible and Sunset Park, but from what I've heard about them from other people, I'm not exactly in a rush.

I was tempted back into the fold by his most recent novel, 4 3 2 1, which could be seen as his stab at writing The Great American Novel. At roughly four times the length of his normal books, it's fitting that this tells the story of four lives, all of them the same person, using the old 'what if their life had gone down this path?' formula. Thankfully, it's a formula I'm not yet tired of, and I enjoyed it a great deal, though I know it has split people, and the only other people I know who have read it didn't like it at all, or at least, not half as much as I did.

But after this, I will be happy to see what he comes up with next.

[Noodle Lizard]

I must be going mad because I'm sure I read a book of his about a paralyzed man sleeping downstairs in his house and sort of drifting off into escapist fantasies, but it was ages ago and I have no idea what the title is and can't find anything about it online.  Was that him or someone else entirely?

EDIT:  It's Man In The Dark.

[buttgammon]

I haven't got round to 4 3 2 1 yet, but it's on my ever-increasing to-read list. I won't even buy myself a copy until I know there is time to read it, because it's a big enough book to be a bit of a commitment.

My favourite Auster book is probably Leviathan, but I really like The New York Trilogy too.

[Spoon of Ploff]

My first Auster was In the Country of Last Things which I read while 'marooned' in Shipston on Stour for a year. A city breaking down, and ideas like the Runners sect appealed to me back in the day. City of Glass was the standout for me in his New York Trilogy. It's worth checking out the graphic novel adaption by Karasik and Mazzucchelli. Rounding up my early exposure to his works was The Invention of Solitude which had some interesting passages... describing faking whole households of citizens while working as a census taker (if I'm not remembering wrong) and such.

After that I would pick up other books as I came across them, Moon Palace, Music of Chance (consistently my favourite), and Leviathan. All of which I keep meaning to revisit.

Feel like its been diminishing returns since then, with the exception of Book of Illusions. I'd love to have read more of Hector Mann's movies. Last one I completed was Oracle Night which left me bored an annoyed - due to a large chunk of the book having the protagonist writing a novel the plot of which which felt like a retread of Music of Change, only shite.

Thinking about maybe giving 4321 a go... but the blurb sounds a lot like the film Mr Nobody. It's not is it?

[Serge]

My favourite Auster book is probably Leviathan, but I really like The New York Trilogy too.

Ah yeah, I love Leviathan. Although the plot turns on one of his biggest coincidences (the encounter with Reed, who just happens to be married to a friend of Sachs' New York artist friend), it's an exhilarating read, and Sachs, who could easily come across as the most insufferable man on Earth in another writer's hands, retains your sympathy right up until the end. It also contains the most obvious Paul Auster stand-in character in Peter Aaron, who even ends up meeting a woman called Iris (Auster's real-life second wife is called Siri). I've always wondered if Sachs' fall was inspired by Robert Wyatt? Probably not, I'm not sure I can picture Auster listening to 'Rock Bottom'.

Rounding up my early exposure to his works was The Invention of Solitude which had some interesting passages... describing faking whole households of citizens while working as a census taker (if I'm not remembering wrong) and such.

I'd forgotten about that one! It's so long since I read it, and my copy isn't to hand, but I remember finding one half a breeze to get through and the other a real chore. But I can't remember which half was which.

Thinking about maybe giving 4321 a go... but the blurb sounds a lot like the film Mr Nobody. It's not is it?

I don't know that film, so can't really comment, though a quick look at the Wikipedia page seems to show that it may have similarities - it's all about how different choices made in one person's life can lead that life down completely different paths, and how they and the characters around them respond to that, which has been done in quite a few films that I can think of: Blind Chance, which is probably the best cinematic treatment of the idea, Run, Lola, Run, which is really the idea applied to one day in someone's life, but with life-changing circumstances in each outcome and, most obviously, Sliding Doors. As I say, it's an idea that I really like to see explored, and I think Auster did it really well, though it hasn't met with universal approval....!

[ArchieGemmel]

I read Music of Chance, Leviathan and The New York Trilogy over a decade ago. Really liked the first two but didn't finish Trilogy and then stopped thinking of Auster's novels as a going concern.

When I saw that 4 3 2 1 was getting lots of good reviews I was reminded how much I liked Leviathan and Music of Chance and happened to spot Sunset Park in the library so took a punt on it. I really enjoyed it, he has such a great writing style that it was easy to get drawn into the story. I've since read 4 3 2 1 (brilliant) Invisible (weirdly erotic), Travels in the Scriptorium (fun but odd) Man in the Dark (decent) The New York Trilogy (liked it much more this time around) and Moon Palace (I enjoyed the structure and was finding the coincidences a bit much then it turned out one of the characters shared the same birthday as me!)

I'm planning to read the rest of his novels, including re-reading Music... and Leviathan, although it sounds like I may end up skipping Timbuktu as that description doesn't appeal.

It feels like he should be more widely regarded than he is, I've never met anyone who's read anything by him and have recently been mentioning him to my book-reading friends and they'd never come across him either.

[kngen]

I found Book of Illusions such a chore that I don't think I finished it. I quite enjoyed Timbuktu, though. But the former was where me and Mr Auster parted ways. Absolutely loved Leviathan, NYT and Music of Chance (which is generally the one I recommend to people unfamiliar with his work). Had no idea they had made a film of it - will have to hunt that down. Mr Vertigo was just a bit too heavy on the magic realism for me to really surrender to, but still had some great stuff in it.

I'm guessing the film adaptation of In The Country of Last Things is still in development hell - I enjoyed that book, too, although, yes, it's very un-Auster like. I read it as a kind of homage to Ursula Le Guin, for some reason.

[Serge]

Had no idea they had made a film of it - will have to hunt that down.

Yeah, it's definitely worth seeing - James Spader and Mandy Patinkin play the main parts. Auster makes a brief cameo towards the end, but even in the five seconds he's in it, manages to be fairly wooden!

[Spoon of Ploff]

Yeah, it's definitely worth seeing - James Spader and Mandy Patinkin play the main parts. Auster makes a brief cameo towards the end, but even in the five seconds he's in it, manages to be fairly wooden!

I need to see this as well.
I did like Smoke.. some nice moments.. one characters obession with a particular photographic project chimed with me.

Have recently bought 4321on the strength of this thead.

[Serge]

A friend of mine was inspired by Auggie's photography project to do the same outside her house. The trouble is, she lives in a small village in Northern Germany, so the view is basically a field, and not many people pass by. I think she kept it up for five days before jacking it in.

[Spoon of Ploff]

^ This has made me smile on a damp Jan morning. Perhaps a 'things we have been inspired to do by the books what we have read' thread is in order?

[kngen]

^ This has made me smile on a damp Jan morning. Perhaps a 'things we have been inspired to do by the books what we have read' thread is in order?

There are, of course, the credulous idiots who adopted The Diceman philosophy (aaaay!) - most of them hippy burnouts (my dad knew at least one), but some of them quite famous.

And I'm quite surprised there hasn't been a Leviathan copycat (unless there has, and I've just not heard about it)