Some Paul Auster REVIEWS

... It's always Paul!

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Travels in the Scriptorium:

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[brainfragrances]

Only read the New York Trilogy, really liked it, so I def have some others on my TBR list. He reminded me a bit of Kobo Abe

[tonybennett]

I read Man in the Dark in 2018 and loved the narrative and writing style. I made it one of my favourite reads of the year.

[AndalusianIrish]

Great to see this. I know Auster loves Poe and Bolano.

[beatingaroundthebooks]

Great review!
I've had a similar Auster reading history to yours, I got really obsessed with his work when I was around 18 (started with Moon Palace, then went onto The New York Trilogy), then devoured lots of his novels and I guess I grew a bit fed up with it and haven't read him in years.
I really enjoyed Oracle Night and Man in the Dark, but funnily enough, since you mentioned The Music of Chance as being more popular with readers, I really did not enjoy it and felt like it was a waste of my time. However, I must admit, all of these I read well before I started studying literature, so I'd be interested to see how my take on them would be now.
I always mean to read more of his work now, but keep getting "sidetracked" with my readings for uni. 4321 and Travels in the Scriptorium are definitely on my reading list, but it will probably be at least half a year before I can pick them up. At the moment I'm knee deep into House of Leaves and some other unconventional fiction (Burroughs, Barth, Coover...) for a class, then onto re-reading Ulysses for my BA thesis.
I really enjoy your reviews, they're very insightful, but at the same time not too highbrow as to be exhausting after lots of academical reading.

[negriux]

I recommend you to read Enrique Vila-Matas work.

[bighardbooks]

Ive had Oracle Night on my shelf for six months. Totally ignorant about Auster. Didnt see this coming this A.M. but I guess IMA read some Paul Auster sooner in 2019 than I thought! Thx, BookChemist 🤩🇨🇮📿🍀🤯Post Script: Ill read the New York Trilogy, too. Question: Can you do a 2019 read along of Against the Day or Bleeding Edge, next? Appreciated, mate. 💥

[NCbassfishing]

I see more people reading Auster in Spain than I ever did in the US. Maybe it's a Latin or Southern European trend? Curious...

[arnauorengoguardiola]

Great review, I also really liked these 3 books, especially Oracle Night.
I strongly recommend Brooklyn Follies and 4321 as well, despite being long.
I did not enjoy, however, neither Mr. Vertigo nor In the Country of Last Things. I didn't feel like reading Auster, quite boring stories, not catchy, quite straightforward, not engaging characters... Have you read them already?

[tsvetelinmonchev]

Ma quelle che vedo dietro a te sopra il tuo letto sono foto di un gruppetto metal noto come Pantera?😃🤘

[bbslcm]

Hey! Have you read 4321? Do you have any thoughts on the novel?

[mrl]

Did no-one write "In The Country Of Bad Things : Unpleasantness in Paul Auster" yet ? I'm not being very generous myself, but all the books I've read - Oracle Night, The Music of Chance, the New York Trilogy and the fictionally-parodied In The Country Of Last Things - are a trip into guaranteed horror, unrelatable characters, gut-punch twists and a general claustrophobic misery. Hence the question: is it possible that his are horror novels? I think it's mostly how the characters spell out their own doom against common sense, like in horror movies. "Social Horror" or "Interpersonal Horror." Not much the Horror of Chance, unless you mean "letting oneself be guided by chance."

[gondwanaman]

yep, found the characters really snobbish, especially the wife laughing at the taxi driver's malapropism--and then I found the story within the story quite boring

[Parsifal]

Man In The Dark is Auster’s worst novel - a disgrace, he should never have published it. Oracle Night, Brooklyn Follies and Invisible are all mediocre, as is Sunset Park.