Reviews - Moon Palace | The StoryGraph

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335 reviews for:

Moon Palace

Paul Auster

3.79 AVERAGE

marine_books's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

milesdelibros's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional funny inspiring fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

isibooks's review against another edition

4.5

emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

cgharkness's review against another edition

“Then the moon came up from the hills. It was a full moon, as round and yellow as a burning stone. I kept my eyes on it as it rose into the night sky, not turning away until it had found its place in the darkness.”

My last book of the year, a perfect way to end this long haul that is 2024. MS Fogg embodies the perfectly flawed character constantly acting on survival mode, crushed by life’s fate and tragic circumstances. You can’t help but feel bad for him. But often times, I felt that his hamartia has always been his paradoxical sense of self-awareness and stubbornness to follow through his instincts that has led him to whatever shit hole he founds himself in. The book introduces themes of loneliness and grief, climaxing on struggles involving love, personal identity, series of butterfly effects from various peripheral narratives (which I find most times entertaining, other times tedious), and then a resolution that left me with more questions than answers. I find that his greatest tragedy has always been that he’s a stranger even to himself.

ole_wn's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous emotional reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

aurelie_the_explorer3's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous inspiring mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

florendie's review against another edition

4.0

emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. Contemplative fiction isn’t something I naturally gravitate toward, but Moon Palace felt right, authentic and, in a strange way, deeply relatable, even though I don’t have much in common with the main characters.

The intertwined narrative threads and shifting chronologies were occasionally disorienting but I’m glad I let myself be guided through it by Paul Auster’s poetic, precise, and colourful prose. I can’t wait to explore more of his work!

Addendum to that: after reading a few other reviews, I do agree that Kitty's characterisation felt fetichising and somewhat reductive, she's portrayed as delicate, smart, she dances, she's devoted to MS. But at the same time, she seems to be strong-minded and does have a life of her own that doesn't revolve around MS. I listened to the audiobook so it's possible I missed some of the misogyny or problematic passages.