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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
Quote:
"Try to roll with the punches. Keep your chin up. Don’t take any wooden nickels. Vote Democrat in every election. Ride your bike in the park. Dream about my perfect, golden body. Take your vitamins. Drink eight glasses of water a day. Pull for the Mets. Watch a lot of movies. Don’t work too hard at your job. Take a trip to Paris with me. Come to the hospital when Rachel has her baby and hold my grandchild in your arms. Brush your teeth after every meal. Don’t cross the street on a red light. Defend the little guy. Stick up for yourself. Remember how beautiful you are. Remember how much I love you. Drink one Scotch on the rocks every day. Breathe deeply. Keep your eyes open. Stay away from fatty foods. Sleep the sleep of the just. Remember how much I love you."
"Try to roll with the punches. Keep your chin up. Don’t take any wooden nickels. Vote Democrat in every election. Ride your bike in the park. Dream about my perfect, golden body. Take your vitamins. Drink eight glasses of water a day. Pull for the Mets. Watch a lot of movies. Don’t work too hard at your job. Take a trip to Paris with me. Come to the hospital when Rachel has her baby and hold my grandchild in your arms. Brush your teeth after every meal. Don’t cross the street on a red light. Defend the little guy. Stick up for yourself. Remember how beautiful you are. Remember how much I love you. Drink one Scotch on the rocks every day. Breathe deeply. Keep your eyes open. Stay away from fatty foods. Sleep the sleep of the just. Remember how much I love you."
As far as Austers go, I’d rank this above Leviathan but below The New York Trilogy, The Book of Illusions, and Oracle Night. The protagonist is a bit of an asshole with a weird disdain for fat people, but the plot was interesting enough for me to see it through.
Set in New York in the years 2000 & 2001, the spectre of 9/11 looms large over this tale, but you get so engrossed in the plot that the impending disaster soon becomes little more than an afterthought at times — that is until the author deals a decisive blow at the book’s end. It’s masterful. After all, it wouldn’t be an Auster story unless he pulls the rug out from underneath you.
My only weird qualm about this story is that it feels unfinished, but I suppose that, too, was intentional.
Set in New York in the years 2000 & 2001, the spectre of 9/11 looms large over this tale, but you get so engrossed in the plot that the impending disaster soon becomes little more than an afterthought at times — that is until the author deals a decisive blow at the book’s end. It’s masterful. After all, it wouldn’t be an Auster story unless he pulls the rug out from underneath you.
My only weird qualm about this story is that it feels unfinished, but I suppose that, too, was intentional.
emotional
funny
reflective
relaxing
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:
Yes
Themes of youth, justice, politics, family. The narrator, Nathan Glass, was godly and all knowing, yet so human and admittedly unreliable at times. I loved the Vermont chapter, the fire in Lucy’s character, and the simple/often reflections on life.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I have a lot of time for Paul Auster. For a start, I read his 4 3 2 1, and you need an awful bloody lot of time to do that. And it's well worth it. But this very much felt like a man with nothing to write about trying to pass off a half-hearted effort as something profound, purely due to its proximity to 9/11. It follows Nathan Zuckerman Glass, a middle-aged Jewish academic type returning to New York to revisit his roots who happens to bump into and start writing about his nephew Tom, a once promising academic turned hopeless and lost bookstore clerk.
Auster's talent has long been making the scene seem perfectly real, you know who you're with and where you are straight away, and he's never lost that, the painting is vivid. However, there's nothing here but rough draughts, disparate ideas from presumably different novel ideas stitched together with little conviction, passed off as a new coherent whole. The random bookshop-owner/conman character/plot-device shenanigans just doesn't really work or ring true. The mentally scarred niece turning up, the random road-trip to nowhere which ensues, the girl's porn-star-cum-religious-sect-hostage mother; all half-thought out ideas which don't belong in the same book. The prose is excellent, that comes seemingly naturally. The concept? Almost entirely absent.
Auster's talent has long been making the scene seem perfectly real, you know who you're with and where you are straight away, and he's never lost that, the painting is vivid. However, there's nothing here but rough draughts, disparate ideas from presumably different novel ideas stitched together with little conviction, passed off as a new coherent whole. The random bookshop-owner/conman character/plot-device shenanigans just doesn't really work or ring true. The mentally scarred niece turning up, the random road-trip to nowhere which ensues, the girl's porn-star-cum-religious-sect-hostage mother; all half-thought out ideas which don't belong in the same book. The prose is excellent, that comes seemingly naturally. The concept? Almost entirely absent.
Rakastin, en rakastanut, rakastin, hämmennyin ja nyt en enää edes ihan tiedä mitä tunnen. On jännä lukea kepeän komediallista tekstiä, väsähtää siihen ja huomata loppulauseiden jälkeen että lukikin ihan muuta. Hieman pitää vielä jäsennellä omia ajatuksia, mutta ehkä se tunne lopulta kuitenkin kallistuu jos nyt ei rakastumiseen niin ainakin vallan vahvaan viehättymiseen. Austeria täytyy lukea lisää, pian.
I got it for my birthday. It's got to be the worse book I've ever read (in a long time). Writing style was horrible and prone to long rants. I couldn't tell if it was a mid-life crisis book for both the author and the character. Never read such a bad ending in my life.
So, honestly, I bought this to trade on PBS and I got it cheap at the bookstore on 75% clearance rack. But, what I found was a real gem. I'd read Timbuktu from Auster before and I very much enjoyed his character, Uncle Nat, Tom, Aurora and of course Lucy. The hijinks and humor fit into Nat's life among just a year or so is unique, interesting and fun to listen to with the author reading the audiobook.
adventurous
funny
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
fast-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:
Complicated