paul auster

ridgewalker

hey , i was wondering if anyone has read ' the country of last things'??
I've read the book twice ( which is an alien concept to me) and found the thing addictive.
I'm after getting extremely mixed views from people i know that have read it and was wondering what ye guys thought. ?

Bibliofemme

Haven't read that one - I have read 'Moon Palace' (great), 'The New York Trilogy (excellent) and we also read Leviathan.
http://www.bibliofemme.com/reviews/leviathan.shtml

He's got an amazing collection of essays called 'The Red Notebook' which is full of observations and stories about fate, chance and how they're both a huge force in him being a writer.

Also there was an interview with him in the Observer recently too:
http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/generalfiction/story/0,6000,1142856,00.html

ridgewalker

thanks for the links . Just started reading 'The Invention of solitude' now. very enjoyable altogether. I'm looking forwards to getting my hands on his new one 'Oracle nights' ( when it comes out in paperback of course:) )

eclectichoney

really loved country of last things...im a *massive* auster fan though. i thought some of the descriptions were fantastic....moon palace is my fave auster book though, and i second the thumbs up on new york trilogy. also the book of illusions and music of chance are great, music of chance prob being the least good out of his books that i have read.

in short; read moon palace

Amazotheamazing

Just reading through the New York Trilogy now, only read the first two stories but he strikes me as pointing out the obvious in a very obvious way. He's a great writer, easy to read etc, but is there much point to reading him? The characters seem fairly one dimensional.

(I know it's an old thread but seemed easier than starting a new one)

ashyle

ridgewalker wrote: »

thanks for the links . Just started reading 'The Invention of solitude' now. very enjoyable altogether. I'm looking forwards to getting my hands on his new one 'Oracle nights' ( when it comes out in paperback of course:) )

I have Oracle Night (in paperback! haha)
It's a great book, really involving. I'll have to read more of his stuff.

johnnyskeleton

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

Just reading through the New York Trilogy now, only read the first two stories but he strikes me as pointing out the obvious in a very obvious way. He's a great writer, easy to read etc, but is there much point to reading him? The characters seem fairly one dimensional.

I remember reading Leviathan and thinking it was good, but nothing really special. I read the music of chance and noticed some similarities in style and purpose etc. I read Oracle Night and thought it was really good. At this point, I though that Paul Auster was doing something really clever which was to write a lot of different books that were tied together with some overall point to them. I certainly liked the idea of this.

I read most of the rest of his fiction books, but became very dissillusioned. It seems to me now that he writes books with a deliberately mystical or profound air to them, but there is nothing really mystical or profound to them. It would have been great if there was an insight linking, for example, the aimless wanderings through the cityscape in NY Trilogy with the aimless wanderings through the desertscape in Moon Palace, or connections between the way in which most of his novels start with a young man taking a job with a mysterious rich man.

But sadly I've come to the conclusion that, while they are pleasant to read, they are lacking in any real substance, and the air of mysticism is simply his way of avoiding having to have anything to say for himself.

That said, I still think he's worth a read, and if you find anything of note in his books be sure to post it here.

rain on

I did my masters thesis on Paul Auster a couple of years ago and I'm starting to come to similar conclusions to the poster above me. There are a lot of repeated motifs in his novels but it takes lots of work to get anything out of them! His last book (Travels In The Scriptorium) especially came off as lazy, just throwing together a load of characters from his previous books. Mind you, I wasn't reading it with my academic hat on.

BR Myers's A Reader's Manifesto gives Auster and a few other people a right going over. It's very entertaining.

Psychedelic

New York Trilogy was the 1st Auster book I read, and it completely blew me away. I don't think I'd ever read that style of writing before, and all the mysterious plot, quirky anecdotes and self references were great. I liked the middle story 'Ghosts' best. The way the dialogue was done was really cool I thought, and so was the whole business of Blue being paid by White to spy on Black.

I read Travels in the Scriptorium a while ago and really enjoyed it. I loved all the references to the process of writing.

I read Leviathan a few weeks ago and thought it was only average, some good bits but some boring.

I started Oracle Night last night and am about 50 pages in so far and am loving it so far.

henryporter

Anyone read 'Sunset Park' yet? It's only the second Auster book I've read after 'Leviathan' and I'm still trying to figure out if I'm expecting too much or if Auster is not giving enough given his general standing in the Pantheon of literature.

I felt that the characters in 'Sunset Park' were very one dimensional and that it was difficult to have any feelings for them whatsoever. The plot sounds good on paper and generally worked, but it's remarkable how a 'serious' writer' feels the need to resort to vignettes of perversity in order to pick the plot up when it starts to wane - almost trying too hard (excuse pun) to be like his hero Beckett but missing the point; where Beckett treats sexual acts as bodily functions, Auster seems to teeter towards Mills and Boon in his descriptions while at the same time trying to be perverse for perversity's sake. I recall similar feelings reading 'Leviathan' so it seems to prove my general theory.

Open to the forum....

Travel is good

Psychedelic wrote: »

New York Trilogy was the 1st Auster book I read, and it completely blew me away.

So weird, I just bought "The New York Trilogy" yesterday. I've never read anything by Paul Auster before so I'm very interested in all your comments. Thanks!

Ormus

some very interesting comments

i agree he is sometimes prone to being mystical for the sake of mystical.....he creates some beautifully mysterious atmospheres though.....i thought the music of chance was great, i never knew quite where it was going but i wanted to find out

the new york trilogy was very weird and dark

in the city of last things was very good

paulosham

Let's not forget Timbuktu.

Psychedelic

I've read nearly all his books by now. His newer books are a bit hit and miss. I didn't think too much of Invisible, but Man in the Dark was enjoyable and an easy quick read.

The Music of Chance was fantastic, one of those books I couldn't put down. It's a bit of a straight forward thriller but has some of the cool weird stuff too. It's my favourite Auster book after New York Trilogy. Try and get the film too if you enjoyed the book, it was made in the early 90's and probably hard to get on DVD or rent, but you can track it down on the internet.

Oracle Night was very good. Timbuktu was okay, interesting idea having it narrated through the eyes of a dog. The Country of Last Things, Moon Palace, Mr Vertigo were all enjoyable enough.

I haven't read Auggie Wren's Christmas Story, but I saw a film based on it, which Auster wrote the screenplay for, called Smoke, and thought that was good.

rubabbel

I loved the New York Trilogy when I read it, has still stayed with me after around 5 years or so. I then read Book of Illusions and found it beyond awful: one of the worst books I've ever read. Hilariously bad dialogue, unconvincing characters and a plot that was boringly average. I read Sunset Park recently and thought it was passable, entertaining and very light, and (like someone said above) a really, really interesting idea, but not convinvingly handled. I loved how he was dealing in subject matter that was so current, but it wasn't enough for me. I'm starting to think that he may have been a one hit wonder for me, although I have a copy of Moon Palace, so I'll give him one last go.

eclectichoney

Was really, really disappointed with Sunset Park, and that's coming from a massive Auster fan. The ending was... well... I won't ruin it, but let's just say, disappointing & unsatisfying! There are at least 6 or 7 other Auster classics to be read before you should even touch on Sunset imo. Some of the writing is lovely of course, but the narrative was just so flat for an Auster novel.