Oracle Night

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Several months into his recovery from a near-fatal illness, thirty-four-year-old novelist Sidney Orr enters a stationery shop in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn and buys a blue notebook. It is September 18, 1982, and for the next nine days Orr will live under the spell of this blank book, trapped inside a world of eerie premonitions and puzzling events that threaten to destroy his marriage and undermine his faith in reality.

Why does his wife suddenly break down in tears in the backseat of a taxi just hours after Sidney begins writing in the notebook? Why does M. R. Chang, the owner of the stationery shop, precipitously close his business the next day? What are the connections between a 1938 Warsaw telephone directory and a lost novel in which the hero can predict the future? At what point does animosity explode into violence? To what degree is forgiveness the ultimate expression of love?

Paul Auster’s mesmerizing eleventh novel reads like an old-fashioned ghost story. But there are no ghosts in this book—only flesh-and-blood human beings, wandering through the haunted realms of everyday life. At once a meditation on the nature of time and a journey through the labyrinth of one man’s imagination, Oracle Night is a narrative tour de force that confirms Auster’s reputation as one of the boldest, most original writers at work in America today.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published December 2,2003

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About the author

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Paul Auster was the bestselling author of 4 3 2 1, Bloodbath Nation, Baumgartner, The Book of Illusions, and The New York Trilogy, among many other works. In 2006 he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature. Among his other honors are the Prix Médicis Étranger for Leviathan, the Independent Spirit Award for the screenplay of Smoke, and the Premio Napoli for Sunset Park. In 2012, he was the first recipient of the NYC Literary Honors in the category of fiction. He was also a finalist for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (The Book of Illusions), the PEN/Faulkner Award (The Music of Chance), the Edgar Award (City of Glass), and the Man Booker Prize (4 3 2 1). Auster was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. His work has been translated into more than forty languages. He died at age seventy-seven in 2024.

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Rating(3.8 / 5.0, 98 votes)
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98 reviews All reviews
March 26,2025
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این کتاب جز کتابایی هست که تو دوره ی تلاشم برای کنکور ارشد خوندم... قشنگ بود
March 26,2025
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Oracle Night, Paul Auster

The novel is about a writer named Sidney Orr (Orlovsky), who, after making a miraculous recovery from near fatal illness, buys a new notebook and starts writing a story about a man who completely changed his life when he realized how much his existence was ruled by randomness.

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: ماه نوامبر سال2003میلادی

عنوان: شب پیشگویی؛ نویسنده: پل آستر (اوستر)؛ مترجم: خجسته کیهان؛ تهران، افق، سال1384؛ در271ص؛ فروست ادبیات امروز، رمان23؛ شابک9643691632؛ چاپ دوم سال1386؛ چاپ پنجم سال1392؛ چاپ ششم سال 1397؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده21م

داستان «شب پیشگویی»، روایت زندگی جوان نویسنده ای است، که پس از مدتی دوری از نوشتن؛ با خریدن یک دفترچه ی آبی رنگ، بار دیگر اشتیاق نوشتن را، در خود احساس میکند، و با طرح داستانی در ذهنش، آغاز به نگارش داستان میکند؛ داستان مردی که یک زندگی را ترک میکند، و ناپدید میشود؛ تا در جایی دیگر، زندگی دیگری برای خود بسازد...؛ جوان نویسنده که به تازگی پس از گذراندن یک بیماری دشوار و کشنده، بهبود یافته، در کنار داستانی که آغاز کرده، در کنار داستان زندگی خویش، به روایت داستان همسرش نیز میپردازد؛ و این سبب ایجاد چالشهایی در زندگی مشترک نویسنده با همسرش میشود؛ نویسنده ی جوان برای پرداختن به بخشهای پنهان زندگی مشترکشان، خیالپردازی میکند؛ و داستان را پیش میبرد...؛

نقل از کتاب: (ما عاشق بدنها نمیشویم، بلکه گرفتار عشق یکدیگر میشویم، و اگرچه موجودیت ما در پوست و استخوان محدود است، ولی همه چیز در آن خلاصه نمیشود؛ همه این را میدانیم، با اینحال به محض اینکه از فهرست خصوصیات ظاهری فراتر میرویم، درمیمانیم و واژه ها در سردرگمی و استعاره های مه آلود و بی اساس، مچاله میشوند؛ بعضیها آنرا آتش وجود مینامند؛ برخی شعله ی درونی، یا پرتو درونی وجود، و بعضی دیگر آن را گوهر فروزان درون مینامند؛ این اصطلاحات، همیشه تصاویر نور، گرما، و نیرو را، تداعی میکنند؛ آن جوهر زندگی که گاه روح مینامیم، همواره از طریق چشم با دیگران ارتباط مییابد؛ پافشاری شاعران بر این نکته حتما درست است؛ راز اشتیاق، با نگریستن به چشمان محبوب، آغاز میشود، چون تنها در آنجاست که میتوان، لحظه ای به آنچه که او واقعا هست، پی برد...)؛ پایان نقل

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 20/09/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 28/08/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
March 26,2025
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Grande scrittura, alcune trovate geniali, un finale leggermente al di sotto delle mie aspettative, ma, in definitiva, un romanzo che attrae e cattura fin dalla prima pagina, questo libretto di Haruki Aust... oops, Paul Muraka... pardon, Paul Auster!
March 26,2025
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Loved it!!!
An accumulation of stories...

Mit bravado written!
You will laugh, cry, be flabbergasted and enjoying it so much...

It will let you with hunger for more, the greatest compliment made to a novel.
Paul Auster is what you could call a gifted writer...

After the first few pages I was totally hooked!!!
Good at the beginning, better in the middle, and awesome at the end!!!

No, I want say anything about the characters and what happens in the novel;
Because if you go blind into it, the more will be the pleasure of discovering...

Only let me say this, it is full of unsuspected turns, so fasten the buckle and get ready for the trip!!!


March 26,2025
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A volte conosciamo le cose prima che succedano anche se non ne siamo consapevoli. Viviamo nel presente, ma il futuro è dentro di noi in ogni momento.

L'incipit è intrigante
Ero stato malato per molto tempo . Il giorno in cui lasciai l’ospedale camminavo a fatica e quasi non ricordavo più chi avrei dovuto essere. Usi la volontà, mi disse il medico, e in tre o quattro mesi tornerà come prima. Non gli credetti, ma seguii lo stesso il suo consiglio. Mi avevano dato per morto, e ora che avevo smentito i pronostici evitando misteriosamente di morire, che scelta mi restava se non vivere come se mi aspettasse una vita futura?

Paul Auster con La notte dell'oracolo ci regala una storia nella storia
nella storia ,un gioco di specchi, riverberi
un romanzo-matriosKa magnetico , avvincente, una scrittura fluida, raffinata , in sottofondo l'intrigante musica del caso

coglievo un'inaudita assenza di lotta interna, un equilibrio della mente che sembrava esentarla dai soliti conflitti e dalle solite pressioni della vita moderna: il dubbio di sé, l'invidia, il sarcasmo, il bisogno di giudicare gli altri, o di svalutarli, il dolore infuocato e intollerabile dell'ambizione personale. Grace era giovane ,ma aveva un'anima antica e navigata [..]fu di questo che mi innamorai : del senso di calma che l'avvolgeva, del radioso silenzio che ardeva in lei

4 stelle piene
March 26,2025
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"Finché sogni, c'è sempre scampo".

Dopo un incidente a cui è riuscito miracolosamente a sopravvivere, Sidney Orr ricomincia, con un po' di fatica, a scrivere.
Grazie a un taccuino blu, proveniente dal Portogallo, e che sembra avere poteri magici, comincia a svilupparsi la trama di questo romanzo di Auster.
Con La notte dell'oracolo di Auster, si entra nel meta-romanzo, un romanzo nel romanzo in cui confluiscono diverse storie. Da un lato, la storia privata di Sidney e del suo matrimonio con la moglie Grace e dall'altro quella di Sidney scrittore e delle varie vicende che si intrecciano e prendono forma.
Qui sono presenti alcune delle tematiche tipiche dei libri dell'autore: l'amore, il tradimento, la bellezza della scrittura come rimedio ai propri mali, come salvezza e la bellezza della scrittura intesa come ritorno alla vita.
Paul Auster trascina il lettore in una vicenda in cui finzione e realtà si mescolano, dove il protagonista assume il ruolo di investigatore per scoprire una realtà e una verità molto più forte del romanzo che sta scrivendo e di qualsiasi oracolo.
March 26,2025
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6 წლის წინ 61 გვერდი წავიკითხე და თავი მივანებე. 6 წლის შემდეგ ხელახლა დავიწყე და ვეღარ შევეშვი. დაე, სამარადისოდ ცხონდე, პოლ!
March 26,2025
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Auster's favourite theme is randomness, chance. And we see it again in this novel, which is a story within a story within a story, told in Auster's favourite narrative style. Given that there is so much ground to cover in this short book, I'm not sure there is any other way but to "tell" this story. However, only the main story line heads towards any type of conclusion in this book, while the others stall midway, again, demonstrating randomness, perhaps?

I like this book because it deals with the life of a writer, Sydney Orr, who has suffered a long illness and is just picking up his interrupted life. It is also a good study on plotting, for Auster weaves plot within plot in his embedded stories - quite deftly, it seems. Sometimes randomness can be a cop-out, when new plot points are introduced just to hype things up or slow things down. The late arrival of Jacob Trause, the truant son of Syney's mentor John Trause, and his suddden but drastic impact on the course of the narrative, pushes the concept of "chance" a bit too far. Auster also experiments with putting back-story and other non-essential detail into lengthy footnotes that overlap several pages and that can be read ( or not) to enhance the depth of the main storyline - this device worked for me..

The lesson of randomness however, is quite powerful, because after the random event, all previous efforts by those affected seem trivial and unecessary.Which begs the question of whether one should strive in life or just go with the flow?


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