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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
Auster's writing this time around reminded me so much of Ray Bradbury in Something Wicked This Way Comes. Especially the first hundred-or-so pages felt like I was reading Bradbury and not Auster.
It was definitely a good read, I was very eager to get to the end and see how the characters would end up.
It was definitely a good read, I was very eager to get to the end and see how the characters would end up.
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
You must let yourself evaporate. Let your muscles go limp, breathe until you feel your soul pouring out of you, and then shut your eyes. That's how it's done. The emptiness inside your body grows lighter than the air around you. Little por little, you begin to weigh less than nothing. You shut your eyes; you spread your arms; you let yourself evaporate. And the, little by little, you lift yourself off the ground.
For Your Own Good
What is this thing? A parable of spiritual self-development? A re-telling of the Wizard of Oz from the point of view of the Wicked Witch? A case study in Stockholm Syndrome? Whatever Auster meant it to be, it is uninspiring, unedifying, and, as far as I can tell, meaningless - a collection of miscellaneous writerly bits and pieces dumped in the same bin bag of a novel because the mess was getting underfoot. It may be a dot on the literary map of Auster’s journey but not much more.
Exceptionally cruel child abuse in the cause of a carnival levitation act is not the most promising of story lines. Nor are the characters involved in the story - the obnoxious St. Louis street urchin, the Hungarian rabbi and mystical teacher, the ricketty black genius from Georgia, the drunken Wichita widow on the make, and the toothless Sioux matron who rode with Wild Bill Cody. They are little more than just weird ‘types’, ingredients thrown together to see what the resulting goulash might taste like. And aside from the ‘wax on, wax off’ 33-Step Program by the Mr. Miyagi-like Hungarian Master, there is no intellectual or spiritual take-away.
The relentless prose of the senescent narrator as he relates his largely non-adventures is relieved only occasionally by his youthful voice of sarcasm, resistance, and regret. But that too gets old rapidly. The mystery of the missing 60 years or so between the two is not enough to sustain the reader’s attention. Sure “there comes a time in every levitator’s career when the air is fraught with peril” But that doesn’t really conjure up any sympathy. Nor does it explain the transition by the urchin from carnival act to baseball-obsessed mobster and on to launderette manager with a sexual penchant for the elderly.
It frequently appears that Auster loses interest in his own story when he has nothing on the shelf to fill in page-bulk. An absurd fantasy about the baseball player Dizzy Dean goes on interminably; While crucial decades are compressed into single sentences. Motivations are absent, forced, or just silly. Something is driving these people but it’s never described much less defined. And whatever it is has no connection with life as it exists on this planet, except perhaps Auster’s deadline.
It is not inconceivable that Auster internalised Robertson Davies’s Deptford Trilogy, written two decades previously, and decided it would be better re-written in the style of Gabriel Garcia Márquez - a sort of North American magic realism. A very strange melange, quesadillas with maple syrup perhaps. It’s not a great theory but at least it stops further fruitless search for significance beyond Auster’s implicit advice to steer clear of Kansas. But that I already knew.
What is this thing? A parable of spiritual self-development? A re-telling of the Wizard of Oz from the point of view of the Wicked Witch? A case study in Stockholm Syndrome? Whatever Auster meant it to be, it is uninspiring, unedifying, and, as far as I can tell, meaningless - a collection of miscellaneous writerly bits and pieces dumped in the same bin bag of a novel because the mess was getting underfoot. It may be a dot on the literary map of Auster’s journey but not much more.
Exceptionally cruel child abuse in the cause of a carnival levitation act is not the most promising of story lines. Nor are the characters involved in the story - the obnoxious St. Louis street urchin, the Hungarian rabbi and mystical teacher, the ricketty black genius from Georgia, the drunken Wichita widow on the make, and the toothless Sioux matron who rode with Wild Bill Cody. They are little more than just weird ‘types’, ingredients thrown together to see what the resulting goulash might taste like. And aside from the ‘wax on, wax off’ 33-Step Program by the Mr. Miyagi-like Hungarian Master, there is no intellectual or spiritual take-away.
The relentless prose of the senescent narrator as he relates his largely non-adventures is relieved only occasionally by his youthful voice of sarcasm, resistance, and regret. But that too gets old rapidly. The mystery of the missing 60 years or so between the two is not enough to sustain the reader’s attention. Sure “there comes a time in every levitator’s career when the air is fraught with peril” But that doesn’t really conjure up any sympathy. Nor does it explain the transition by the urchin from carnival act to baseball-obsessed mobster and on to launderette manager with a sexual penchant for the elderly.
It frequently appears that Auster loses interest in his own story when he has nothing on the shelf to fill in page-bulk. An absurd fantasy about the baseball player Dizzy Dean goes on interminably; While crucial decades are compressed into single sentences. Motivations are absent, forced, or just silly. Something is driving these people but it’s never described much less defined. And whatever it is has no connection with life as it exists on this planet, except perhaps Auster’s deadline.
It is not inconceivable that Auster internalised Robertson Davies’s Deptford Trilogy, written two decades previously, and decided it would be better re-written in the style of Gabriel Garcia Márquez - a sort of North American magic realism. A very strange melange, quesadillas with maple syrup perhaps. It’s not a great theory but at least it stops further fruitless search for significance beyond Auster’s implicit advice to steer clear of Kansas. But that I already knew.
I'd be lying if I said I was looking forward to reading this book and liking it, but I didn't have any previous knowledge of it either. Mandatory reading you see. Yet, I couldn't help but feel it was okay. I hated a few parts of it, like the plot got away from the author at some points. There was too much, so much, but I guess that's something you should expect when it's someone's whole life you're reading. Maybe it's the time in which I've been asked to read the book, maybe it's Walt, or maybe life itself, but for whatever reason, I cannot bring myself to rate it over 2. Might change my mind one day, when I'm feeling less grumpy about it.
adventurous
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The Walt Rawley and Master Yehudi journey is so fascinating!
This story gave us the pleasure to see their friendship developing. I had never read anything written by Paul Auster, but this book made me want to read more, because the way he approaches themes like education, racism, failure and identity through the voice of a young boy is really touching.
This story gave us the pleasure to see their friendship developing. I had never read anything written by Paul Auster, but this book made me want to read more, because the way he approaches themes like education, racism, failure and identity through the voice of a young boy is really touching.
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
inspiring
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No