Hər Paul Auster cümləsiylə sanki evə qayıdıbmışammış kimi hiss edirəm.

My Paul Auster marathon (involving much sacrificed sleep) continues. This one opens "For one whole year, he did nothing but drive, traveling back and forth across America as he waited for the money to run out" which is characteristic; sometimes the characters are sitting in their apartments without moving for a year until the money runs out, sometimes they are driving aimlessly across the country, sometimes they are driving purposefully, blowing up small patriotic emblems as they go, but this existential crisis of more or less passively opting out of participation in society is a persistent theme.
In this case what one is opting out of is explicitly an economic system which is thinly disguised penal servitude - the narrator eventually does run out of money and finds himself in a Kafka-esque allegory with the moral equivalent of "the good German" keeping him there, while the real capitalist exploiters are largely invisible. It does not end happily and while riveting and thought-provoking, is still a bit heavy-handed.

I was reading this book on Kindle, so imagine my shock when I realized the book has ended. It was quite an audacious move, to end a book in the midst of a scene like that. I could just imagine so many readers throwing their books down and screaming out of sheer frustration. And if you were to ask him, what does the ending mean? He would probably just ask you back, what do you think it means? Well, it's not often you find a book that makes you ponder long and deep after you finish it. That's why this book feels so special to me. It has to be of my favorite from Auster. I've always loved the way he develops a story, adding layers of mystery and suspense, but not making any judgement, as if he wants the readers to decide for themselves. And in the end, I am still not sure whether Murks and Floyd did it to Jack Pozzi, and I begins to wonder whether Nashe's sanity is intact....

Absolutely loved this. Not a huge plot point, but Auster makes loneliness sound so cool.

Le premesse erano ottime, lo sviluppo mica tanto… trama realistica e avvincente fino alle prime 60 pagine, poi inversione totale verso un’inverosimiglianza che penalizza il romanzo e impedisce l’immedesimazione

I've bought this book without having ever heard of it. I was looking for a Martin Amis book, but I wasn't able to find it in the bookshop. Turning my eyes from left to right and from right to left, I've seen Paul Auster - Music of chance. I just knew the name of the author and I must say that the title has made me pretty curious.

Considering that my expectations on it were extremely vague, I haven't been disappointed by this novel. Auster knows how to write and albeit I don't like poker I've been able to read without difficulties a book in which that card game plays a key role in the plot.

Then my career as a merciless gambler began, but this is another story...

“ᴇʀᴀ ᴇʟ ᴀɪsʟᴀᴍɪᴇɴᴛᴏ ʟᴏ ǫᴜᴇ ᴏʙsᴇsɪᴏɴᴀʙᴀ ᴀ ɴᴀsʜᴇ, ʟᴀ ɪᴍᴀɢᴇɴ ᴅᴇ ɪʀʀᴇᴅᴜᴄᴛɪʙʟᴇ sᴇᴘᴀʀᴀᴄɪóɴ ʟᴏ ǫᴜᴇ ᴀʀᴅíᴀ ᴇɴ sᴜ ᴍᴇᴍᴏʀɪᴀ, ʏ ᴘᴏʀ ᴍᴜᴄʜᴏ ǫᴜᴇ sᴇ ᴇsғᴏʀᴢó ᴇɴ ᴄᴏɴsᴇɢᴜɪʀʟᴏ, ɴᴜɴᴄᴀ sᴇ ᴠɪᴏ ʟɪʙʀᴇ ᴅᴇ ᴇʟʟᴀ”.

Un hombre apurando su recién estrenada soledad en una huída hacia delante, con la carretera y la música como únicas compañeras de viaje. Luego, en un giro imprevisible, son dos, una pareja fruto del azar. Ambos en manos del destino, a merced de una partida de naipes que les llevará al éxito. O eso te hace creer como lector. Y tal vez no.

Auster desarrolla en esta novela sus obsesiones: la soledad, la desesperación, el dejarse llevar, la incertidumbre, el desarraigo y, sobre todo, las consecuencias del azar, siempre presentes.

Me ha sorprendido que, con una trama aparentemente sencilla, no conseguía separarme de sus páginas, continuamente queriendo saber qué pasaba a continuación, porque por muchas teorías que hacía en mi cabeza, todas resultaban desacertadas. El autor hace lo que quiere contigo. Te lleva de aquí para allá sin que apenas te des cuenta en un delirio constante en el que los personajes actúan por impulsos irracionales y lo que parecía una novela de carretera se transforma en la mitad del libro en una historia de tintes más oscuros, agobiante y desesperanzada.

Este libro ha sido mi primer contacto con Auster, (recomendación de @javierpenalopez1973 para su taller de novela, que iniciaremos en menos de dos semanas) y no me ha defraudado. Bueno, quizás un poco el final, que no me parece que haya estado a la altura de la novela. Pero ¿qué se yo? Lo que está claro es que me ha dejado un poso extraño, como si necesitara releerla para apreciar mejor sus matices. Y me gustaría hacerlo en inglés, porque tengo la impresión de que en la traducción se pierde la musicalidad del texto original, como podéis ver en la última imagen del post.

¿Y a vosotros? ¿Os gusta Auster?

Como siempre la narrativa de Paul Auster a pesar de contarnos una historia cercana a lo absurdo es maravillosa y llena de imprevistos que hacen que no se pueda dejar de leer.

Siempre grande, siempre maravilloso así es Paul Auster

4,5 ⭐️

Auster non delude mai

Weird, enjoyably so. Not read something in this ilk for a while.

I wish there was and a four half stars setting, this book was unsettling, unsatisfying, yet in it's imperfect way perfect, it reminded me of Magnus Mills and The Restraint of Beasts . There is a thing that Richard Ford and E.F. Benson do as novelists, they explain games and sports, Paul Auster obviously knows about Poker, Benson about Bridge and Richard Ford a LOT about games played in America but rarely in Europe, like Baseball (which we in the UK call Rounders...)
There's some snappy dialogue in this book, it's a page turner, HOWEVER money is the be all and end all here (I would argue) and that is why it does not satisfy and why I have turned back to the 'spy' genre. You get snappy dialogue AND global politics in the best of those, with Auster you get some neat tricks and one or two twists but in the end style wins over substance. And as for the ending ....