Oracle Night. Paul Auster, 2003
"Oracle Night" sounds like an exercise for "Brooklyn Follies". While the former contains mostly summaries of stories, plot outlines, skeletons of possible narratives, in the latter the stories have flesh, mood, and the sense of joie de vivre (as well as joie d'ecrire).
And of course, in both works, everything starts with someone buying a notebook. Auster makes writing look so easy and so exciting...
In the 2003 work, the story that lacks closure -- the story of Nick Bowen, is the most fascinating one--full-scale dramatism taken to a dead-end. The framework story - that of the protagonist Sidney Orr, has a beginning, middle and end, but refuses to explore the drama that is contained in it - the drama of betrayal. Auster seems to avoid that and turns it into a sentimental illustration of friendship, generosity, forgiveness or (I am not really sure what... may be - true love?!)
And of course, in both works, everything starts with someone buying a notebook. Auster makes writing look so easy and so exciting...
In the 2003 work, the story that lacks closure -- the story of Nick Bowen, is the most fascinating one--full-scale dramatism taken to a dead-end. The framework story - that of the protagonist Sidney Orr, has a beginning, middle and end, but refuses to explore the drama that is contained in it - the drama of betrayal. Auster seems to avoid that and turns it into a sentimental illustration of friendship, generosity, forgiveness or (I am not really sure what... may be - true love?!)
posted by bZ at 4:33 PM
1 Comments:
u hate murakami but appreciate auster? hard to fathom. i think they both suck. all of auster's stories are populated with weak, contrived characters. his characters are so stereotypical it's frightening that people actually read his stuff.
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