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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-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
"4 3 2 1" von Paul Auster entfaltet eine meisterhafte narrative Struktur, indem es die verschiedenen Lebenswege von Archie Ferguson erkundet. Auster verwebt geschickt die Elemente von Zeit, Zufall und Entscheidungen, um vier alternative Realitäten zu präsentieren. Die lebendige Darstellung der Zeitgeschichte und die tiefen Einblicke in die menschliche Existenz machen dieses Werk zu einem fesselnden Leseerlebnis, obwohl die Komplexität der Handlung herausfordernd sein kann. Wer dran bleibt, wird mit einer reichen, vielschichtigen Geschichte belohnt.
Ein außergewöhnliches Buch. Ein und dieselbe Person - 4 unterschiedliche Lebenswege. Das Buch ist einfach unglaublich gut und reich. Die Lebenswege sind in die historischen Ereignisse der amerikanischen Geschichte der 50er und 60er Jahre eingebettet. Vom der Ermordung Kennedys und Martin Luther King bis hin zum Vietnam Krieg, die Studentenunruhen, die Bewegung der Schwarzen und die Rassendiskriminierung. Darüberhinaus auch sehr viele philosophische Gedanken über das Leben und was bestimmte Lebenswege beeinflussen kann. Das Ende macht das Ganze Buch noch einmal rund, darf aber nicht verraten werden...
Ich habe das Buch als Hörbuch gehört, in Englisch von Paul Auster selbst gelesen. Ich denke ich werde es irgendwann noch einmal hören/lesen. Es ist einfach sehr reich an Inhalt, aber ohne einem zu viel zu werden.
Ich habe das Buch als Hörbuch gehört, in Englisch von Paul Auster selbst gelesen. Ich denke ich werde es irgendwann noch einmal hören/lesen. Es ist einfach sehr reich an Inhalt, aber ohne einem zu viel zu werden.
I absolutely loved the premise but this was an epic. I made it through the first 30% but then it became so confusing and exhausting to follow. Still, 4*
Wow - an absolute epic of a book. To carry off something this ambitious is truly something, and by living Ferguson's lives four times, the connection is so much deeper than with your average protagonist.
Could not finish despite persisting the best I could. Repetitive beyond belief and so looooooong. I really wanted to like it. I just didn’t.
Wow! It might be 866 (big, dense, wordy) pages long. It might not be the most original idea ever conceived (sliding doors style multiple universes) but boy, does this book pack some power. It is, at the heart, a stunning feat of narrative imagination. You want plot in a novel - this book has so much plot, so much story it's almost unbelievable Auster could come up with so much. It really has the feel (stylism not withstanding) of a classic Dickens style novel, where the lives of multiple characters are slowly built up, but in such a way that we care deeply about every single one of them. The masterstroke here is that in presenting them as four different outcomes, we see them succeed and fail, come together, break apart and miss each other in so many different ways, it's like seeing multiple facets of the heart of each character. Seeing them in this way made my heart ache for them sometimes. From the times when we want them to get what they want and deserve from life and do, which is so fulfilling, to the times they miss the mark, and the heart lurches over what was possible, is made all the more powerful because we have, literally, seen in a different plotline what they are losing out on.
Auster has always been able to write dazzling prose, there's no doubting that. And he has always had the cerebral style of writing that means his books are full of clever tricks and concepts. But in someways, even though there is a narrative trick at the heart of this book, it is the purest storytelling of any of his writing, and in that his genius shines.
Approximately 500 pages or so into reading this, which, make no mistake is a sustained effort to make, I knew that I would be bereft when the book ended. It might be 866 pages long, but I already knew I wanted and would welcome so much more. So fully do we inhabit the lives of Auster's characters, so well do we get to know them, and root for them, the final act of leaving them aside at the books end feels like losing a friend we have come to love and know so well.
It's been a good year for outstanding fiction for me so far - but, this book stands out, in a way that both Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries, and Donna Tart's The Goldfinch did as head and shoulders above anything else I'm likely to read this year. A truly amazing piece of writing. I would urge you to overlook the size (you will come to love the depth and scale of it I am sure!), sink your heart into this and be rewarded with a wonderful literary ride. Chapeau Mr Auster!
Auster has always been able to write dazzling prose, there's no doubting that. And he has always had the cerebral style of writing that means his books are full of clever tricks and concepts. But in someways, even though there is a narrative trick at the heart of this book, it is the purest storytelling of any of his writing, and in that his genius shines.
Approximately 500 pages or so into reading this, which, make no mistake is a sustained effort to make, I knew that I would be bereft when the book ended. It might be 866 pages long, but I already knew I wanted and would welcome so much more. So fully do we inhabit the lives of Auster's characters, so well do we get to know them, and root for them, the final act of leaving them aside at the books end feels like losing a friend we have come to love and know so well.
It's been a good year for outstanding fiction for me so far - but, this book stands out, in a way that both Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries, and Donna Tart's The Goldfinch did as head and shoulders above anything else I'm likely to read this year. A truly amazing piece of writing. I would urge you to overlook the size (you will come to love the depth and scale of it I am sure!), sink your heart into this and be rewarded with a wonderful literary ride. Chapeau Mr Auster!
challenging
reflective
slow-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