Finished January 5
Man in the Dark by Paul Auster
August Brill, a 72-year-old book critic, lies in the dark in his daughter's house and thinks. He thinks about his past, about his family, and makes up stories to keep himself from thinking about those things he doesn't want to think about, but can't help thinking about.
Besides the stories of his own life, he invents the story of Owen Brick, and man transported into another version of the world in which the United States is engaged in a civil war. Owen is given the job of killing the author of this version of the world so that the war may end, and struggles with the mission given to him.
This novel is like nothing else I've read. It concerns the life of a man who is sensitive yet not without his own destructive powers. I got a sense of the concern for others, as well as the inevitability of sorrow.
This is a wonderful little gem.
No comments:
Post a Comment