Paul Auster, '4 3 2 1'

From his early New York Trilogy to the later Man in the Dark and Travels in the Scriptorium, Paul Auster has stretched the conventions of fiction, using elements of detective stories to solve existentialist mysteries, or creating dream-like allegories that resist linearity and even reason. In 4 3 2 1, his first new novel in seven years, Auster revises the usual coming-of-age plot to follow his protagonist through not one but four different and simultaneous lives. All begin with Ferguson’s birth on March 3, 1947 in Newark, New Jersey, but from there each alternative life follows its own path—with occasional overlapping details that raise intriguing questions about chance and fate.

Produced by Michael A. Kowaleski

[prasantbanerjee]

The lady who introduces the proceedings has the very annoying habit of dropping the 'g' from every word ending with 'ing.'