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3.61 AVERAGE
3.61 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
The pretension, it burns! Wow, I was not expecting what I just read. I cannot get over the fact that this book won the Edgar Prize for best mystery. What!?!? It's not a mystery. Were the judges all high on cocaine or something? Was the definition of a mystery different in the 1980s?
If I had gone into this thinking it was an arty-farty postmodern piece of literature I might have been more predisposed to like it. Or maybe not. You have to be an amazing writer to get away with no real plot and lots of random digressions of deep thoughts. I get what Auster was aiming for. I have read some amazing books that don't abide by the traditional structure of a novel and that have a sort of meta tone to them. I recently read a wonderful 19th century Brazialian classic - The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas - that manages to accomplish what Auster was aiming for.
I only finished this because it is for my book club and is novella length. Also, sometimes it is fun to hate read a book and mutter to yourself about how ridiculous the book is. I rated it a very weak 2 stars because sometimes Auster would write something funny or profound that spoke to me. On the whole though....ouch, this book does not age well at all. It is very apropos of the time in which it was written.
If I had gone into this thinking it was an arty-farty postmodern piece of literature I might have been more predisposed to like it. Or maybe not. You have to be an amazing writer to get away with no real plot and lots of random digressions of deep thoughts. I get what Auster was aiming for. I have read some amazing books that don't abide by the traditional structure of a novel and that have a sort of meta tone to them. I recently read a wonderful 19th century Brazialian classic - The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas - that manages to accomplish what Auster was aiming for.
I only finished this because it is for my book club and is novella length. Also, sometimes it is fun to hate read a book and mutter to yourself about how ridiculous the book is. I rated it a very weak 2 stars because sometimes Auster would write something funny or profound that spoke to me. On the whole though....ouch, this book does not age well at all. It is very apropos of the time in which it was written.
Más que una novela corta, es un descenso profundo entre las capas que conforman la identidad de un autor a través de sus personajes.
El comienzo te atrapa y si bien hay un punto, ya como a la mitad, en que que la narración se vuelve un poco cansada, el final me gusta muchísimo. Hay muchas cosas que quedan entredichas y otras que solo dan pie a dudas y preguntas que, espero, se resuelven en las siguientes partes de la trilogía. Para mí, lo más interesante es el planteamiento de la locura y cambio paulatino en la psique del personaje principal.
Alguien debería regalarme los otros dos también jajaja.
Alguien debería regalarme los otros dos también jajaja.
Wanted to like this book. Love the idea of this book. Somehow the actual experience of reading it, though, never satisfied. Couldn't lose myself in this book in spite of some good moments.
Down-on-his-luck detective novelist Daniel Quinn receives a mistaken phone call one day destined for a detective named Paul Auster. Compelled, Quinn assumes the identity of this mysterious detective Auster and takes on the case, leaving behind his shell of a life and entering the world of a mad scientist/radical theologian who investigated whether a human brought up in isolation would speak the natural language of God, and the traumatized product of that experiment. Quinn aka Auster quickly becomes consumed by this assignment, and, in the midst of it, confronts ideas of identity, language, and fate. I really enjoyed reading this. Not only was it interesting and entertaining, but the pacing and writing style made it easy to speed through, which I always appreciate.
I had to read this book a year before I read Moon Palace (both for English class in school, different teachers) and I almost have the feeling like they were written by different authors!
For one: this book has no end. Really. There is build up and build up and more build up, but then, nothing. No end. Just a cliff hanger that makes you want to throttle the author it is THAT annoying.
For one: this book has no end. Really. There is build up and build up and more build up, but then, nothing. No end. Just a cliff hanger that makes you want to throttle the author it is THAT annoying.