El libro de las ilusiones

[Please scroll down for English]

Na, azt hiszem, nagyjából sikerült végre feldolgoznom a traumát. Egy Auster-könyv, aminek egy része rendben van, a Hector-szál, de a keret, az valami borzalom. A nagyon idézhető idézetektől kezdve (már-már coelhós) a végtelenül olcsó húzásokig. Volt egy pont, ahol hangosan felkiáltottam, miszerint "what the actual fuck?!" (angolul olvastam) amikor a csaj bemászik az ágyába. Azt nem tudom, minden szülő rémálma-e a gyerekekkel és vele együtt zuhanó repülő, nekem már a repertoárom része volt, köszi, igen, pont így képzeltem, továbbra sem ülök velük repülőre. És más sem, ha addig élek is.

Ha ezt olvastam volna először Austertől, biztosan nem leszek rajongó. Szerencsére csak most került sorra, talán nem véletlenül maradt ki eddig. Amennyire emlékszem, Hector sztorija lehetne akár rendes Auster-regény is. Csak az a tetű keret, az húzza le. Lehet, olyan akar lenni, mint valami vacak film, minden klisével? Kétségbeesetten keresem a magyarázatot. Nem mintha Hector szimpatikusabb figura lenne. A halogató, döntésképtelen férfi, aki mindkét nőt tönkreteszi. És a saját magára kirótt vezeklésben aztán még egyet. Aztán további önbüntetéseket szab ki. Mert attól aztán helyrejön minden. Ja, nem, meg néhány életet tönkretesz. Way to go, Hector! Persze nem is kell annak lennie, hogy jó legyen a regény, csak baromira bosszant az ilyen.

Bírtam viszont a felismert utalásokat: Travels in the Scriptorium - ez egy másik Auster-könyv (2006), illetve The Inner Life of Martin Frost, ami az ő filmje (írta és rendezte is), 2007-ből. Csak a trailert tudtam megnézni, de az alapján ugyanaz a sztori, mint ebben a 2002-es regényben, csak nincs benne a „vakmerő húzás” meztelenség, vannak további szereplők és kétszer olyan hosszú.

Akkor most már megnézhetem, mit írtak a többiek erről. És akinek az első Austere volt, adjatok neki még egy esélyt, ez nem ő!

------------------------------------------------

So, I guess I finally managed to cope with the trauma caused by this reading experience. I'm a devoted fan of Auster and this book made me really angry. First, there were the very quotable quotes. Almost coelho-esque. Then that absolutely cheap twist where I said 'what the actual fuck?!' out loud when Alma got into his bed. Right to the my worst nightmare spelled out, thank you. Does every parent have this one?

Were this my first read by Auster, I wouldn't be a fan. Hector's story could be a proper Auster novel but the rest is just awful. Is it supposed to work like a cheap movie with all the clichés? I am desperate to find a proper explanation. Not to say that Hector was a more likeable character the man unable to make a decision until he ruins both women's lives. Then takes on a punishment he thinks he deserves and ruins one more woman. More self-punishing follows and guess what: it doesn't make everything right again. Instead, more lives ruined. Way to go, Hector! The protagonist doesn't have to be likeable of course, it could still be a great novel. But it isn't. (And I'm really pissed off by this kind of behaviour but that's just a sidenote.)

I thoroughly enjoyed recognizing the hints to other works: Travels in the Scriptorium (a later, 2006 novel by Auster) and The Inner Life of Martin Frost, a 2007 movie written and directed by him. I could only get my hands on the trailer but it seems to be same movie: no nudity, more characters and twice the length but the exact same scenes as described in this 2002 novel.

And now I'll go and check what all the others wrote about this book, it was a group reading way back in October. For those meeting Auster for the first time in this one, please, give him another chance, this is not what he's like!

What if it‘s all for nothing?

David, our narrator gets obsessed with an obscure 1920's-era silent film star Hector Mann, who made 12 silent comedies and then disappeared in 1928, as in he was a missing person and was never to found. David chases down and studies all his films and then publishes a book on them. Some time later, after the book is published and made a small number of sales, he gets a letter by someone claiming to be Hector's wife inviting him to meet Hector Mann in person, who is living incognito in New Mexico as Hector Spelling. Is this real? David's uncertainty leads him to explain himself, how this books hurts him, how his whole obsession happened in the midst of his kind of collapse after losing his wife and kids in a airplane crash while he remained in his Vermont home. And we learn that apparently Hector has continued to make movies, except he wants them all destroyed at his death and he's dying and no one has seen them.

This is terrific storytelling, a continual pouring out of captivating story facts. It's easy enjoyable reading (that I was able to put it down for long periods of time says more about me than the book). And there is a lot going on. Auster, I think, makes full use of Mann's name and his later life in New Mexico...Hector, the father, warrior, slain by Achilles, and it's direct meaing of hectoring man...a man or all humanity (perhaps with intentional sexist intent?). The book then comes to an uncomfortable end. There seems to be an unclear but distinct point. I think readers who effortlessly hummed through will feel suddenly uncomfortable. Left me that way. Wondering. Also, I suspect there is a commentary on nuclear annihilation here, highlighted by the New Mexico setting, the location of the WWII atomic bomb testing sites. That is, Hector's movies represent man's accomplishment and their destruction and the pointlessness of it all is, eventually, inevitable.

This is the first Paul Auster I've read. It was a really enjoyable book, one I can safely recommend to anyone interested and even to those a little resistant.

-----------------------------------------------

48. The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster
published: 2002
format: 321-page paperback, given to me by a coworker in August
read: Aug 20 – Sep 22 (8 hr 20 min, 1.6 m/p)
rating: 4
locations: mainly Vermont and New Mexico
about the author: American author from Newark, NJ, born 1947

Just arrived from Australia through BM.

Man has not one and the same life. He has many lives,
placed end to end, and that is the cause of his misery.
by Chateaubriand

Opening Lines:
Everyone thought he was dead. When my book about his films was published in 1988, Hector Mann had not been heard from in almost sixty years.

After a terrible family tragedy, Professor David Zimmer starts a huge translation project, namely Chateaubriand's  Memoires D'outre Tombe, a book of 2,000 pages.

In the meantime, he becomes obsessed by a silent comedian Hector Mann who was living in a retired small village in New Mexico.

When he finally meets Hector, his life will change forever.

CRITIQUE:

Multi-Dimensional Narrative

Paul Auster uses multiple dimensions of narrative to structure this story of Professor David Zimmer and silent film actor Hector Mann (born Chaim Mandelbaum).

The first and most straightforward tells us about Zimmer and the loss of his wife (Helen) and two sons (Todd and Marco) in a fatal plane crash in 1985. Understandably, Zimmer has failed to recover from his loss, and has suffered from depression in the intervening years: "When a man has nothing to look forward to, he might as well be dead". He has also been angry, self-loathing and unforgiving about his loss, and has often been rude and obnoxious to those surrounding (even especially close to) him, particularly women, even well-meaning work colleagues. When he seeks drugs from a doctor (before a plane trip), he says he "seeks oblivion, not his own death".

The second dimension is the story of Hector Mann, a handsome, mustachioed comic film actor who disappeared from Hollywood in 1929. A fictional issue of "Sight and Sound" described him as "the last great practitioner of the art of silent slapstick." Zimmer, a professor of literature, becomes obsessed with Hector's 12 extant films, and, when given indefinite compassionate leave from his university teaching post, he decides to write a monograph about Hector Mann. The second chapter seems to be a precis of, or extract from, Zimmer's book, "The Silent World of Hector Mann". We learn about the man, Hector, from a close reading and analysis of his creative work.

Auster also refers to gossip columns and newspaper articles speculating about the circumstances of Hector's disappearance, none of which advance a convincing case for a suicide, a kidnapping, a gangland murder, or a staged disappearance. His fate is a mystery. It will take a work of fiction, an assemblage or book of illusions, to solve it.

"Memoirs of a Dead Man"

While Zimmer is waiting for his book to be accepted for publication, he receives an invitation from an old friend, Alex Kronenberg, to translate an autobiographical work of Chateaubriand, which he proposes to entitle "Memoirs of a Dead Man".

The third chapter describes Zimmer's experience of translating this book, and includes an extract from his introduction.

It also contains extracts from a box of paper clippings, fan zines, letters and other ephemera about Hector that Zimmer has collected, but not used in his book.

Both the second and the third chapters give us some context and insight into the broader concerns of the novel and Zimmer's frame of mind. These chapters evoked Nabokov's "Pale Fire".

These quasi-non-fictional works surround, bolster and influence the reading of the fictional work proper, although in reality the whole of the work is a work of fiction.

The Epistles Concerning Hector

While in the process of translating Chateaubriand, Zimmer receives a letter purporting to be from Hector Mann's wife, Frieda Spelling, which states that Hector has read his book and would like to meet him at their studio/ ranch in New Mexico. In a later letter, she explains that Hector had written and directed a number of additional films since leaving Hollywood in 1929, and that he is willing to screen them for Zimmer.

If Hector is actually alive, he must be in his nineties and potentially in bad health. Zimmer, literally, can't believe his eyes, and responds sceptically, which results in the correspondence being discontinued.

This epistolary section leads to the arrival of Alma Grund (Alma's father was Hector's trusted cameraman and friend), who apparently lives with the Manns on their ranch. Her mission is to bring Zimmer, by whatever means necessary, back to New Mexico with her.

Chapter 4, in which this encounter occurs, is written in a Chandleresque style. Alma is a burgundy-and hard-headed femme fatale, who packs a gun in her purse. After a late night argument about whether Zimmer will accompany her back to New Mexico, she declines to sleep on the proffered couch downstairs.

By morning, having found an alternative bed for Alma, Zimmer is more agreeable, so much so that he overcomes his fear of flying without the use of Xanax.

Talk on Trains, Planes, and Automobiles

Once their flight lands safely, there is still a 2 1/2 hour drive, until they arrive at the ranch. Alma talks most of the time, revealing her knowledge of Hector's private and family life, about which she, too, has written a book (an authorised biography) called "The Afterlife of Hector Mann" documenting Hector's "whole story" as told to her by him. Her intimate knowledge fills Zimmer in on the period immediately before and after Hector's supposed disappearance.

Because of its intimate and incriminating content, Alma has agreed not to publish her book, until after Hector's death. Frieda, on the other hand, wishes to eliminate all evidence or proof of Hector's existence (which includes his films, notebooks and biography) after his death (to honour an old pact made between the two of them after the bank robbery).

A large part of chapter 5 recounts Hector's amorous and sexual adventures under the pseudonym, Herman Loesser (including a live sex act with a young whore, which they perform 47 times), from which adventures he always walks out, disappears, flees or escapes, up until he meets his future wife in a bank that is about to be robbed by an armed man, who almost takes their lives.


Source

Love Doubles

In chapter 6, Alma elaborates, "They fell hard for each other...If we don't watch out, the same thing is going to happen to us."

Zimmer realises that "Alma was giving me the possibility of a second life, that something was still in front of me if I had the courage to walk toward it."

In effect, Alma was resuscitating or resurrecting Zimmer from his metaphorical death, just as Frieda Spelling gave Herman a new life, by marrying him and allowing him to take her surname, so he became Hector Spelling.

Zimmer and Alma are arguably doubles for Hector and Frieda. "In eight short days, she had brought me back from the dead."

A Book of Fragments...and Illusions

Zimmer admits that "This is a book of fragments, a compilation of sorrows and half-remembered dreams." Fantasies and illusions inevitably come to an end, if prematurely. Nothing lasts, except Zimmer's book. We hold in our hands the only memento that survived the (fictional) events assembled and catalogued in the tellers' tale.

The novel is made complete by what Zimmer calls "my pathetic little collection of notes, my trilogy of desert jottings: the breakdown of [the film] 'The Inner Life of Martin Frost' [in which 'Martin burned his story in order to rescue Claire from the dead'], the snippets from Hector's journal, [both of which he had brief access to when he arrived at the ranch], and an inventory of extraterrestrial plants that had nothing to do with anything."

Having been resurrected by Alma, Zimmer comes to recognise that he is now "living on borrowed time." It's an illusion to believe that he can live happily ever after, even if "something in me resisted the urge to destroy myself...":

n  
n  "I wasn't sure if I had tricked myself into believing that I was strong enough to go on working - or if I had simply gone numb.

"For the rest of the summer I felt as though I were living in a different dimension, awake to the things around me and yet removed from them at the same time..."n  
n

Ultimately, this novel is a fascinating experiment in temporality, stitched together with a thread of mortal romance and sentiment.


SOUNDTRACK:

Wilco - "Box Full Of Letters"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gyZw...

"I just can't find the time
To write my mind
The way I want it to read..."

Duke Special - "The Silent World of Hector Mann"

https://vimeo.com/25673507

Duke Special - "Hearth and Home" [Live at Nottingham Rescue Rooms on 8th May 2010]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AFfx...

Duke Special - "Mr Nobody"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsnyo...

Duke Special - "Teller's Tale" (Matt Hales)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG21D...

Duke Special - "Wanda, Darling of the Jockey Club" (Neil Hannon)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLX8V...

Duke Special - "The Prop Man" (Thomas Truax)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkJO7...

Robyn Hitchcock - "Intricate Thing"

https://youtu.be/3Jssr7_wFPo

Robyn Hitchcock - "I Just Wanna Be Loved"

https://youtu.be/a8bGYYGRMc8

Robyn Hitchcock - "She Doesn't Exist"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp63e...

Robyn Hitchcock - "You and Oblivion"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3LXD...

By reading this book I have become a die-hard Auster fan. The man is amazing. So clever, so imaginitive, so poetic and almost profound. This book rambles, and in doing so touches on so many intertwined narratives that one almost gives up on what was assumed to be the original plot and assumes the opening catch phrase was just another Paul Auster smoke screen story line. But this one, even in creating such an intricatedly woven network of a character experiences, never looses sight of its ultimate goal - to explain how the supposed disapearance of a silent film actor affected the life of a professor and widower from Detroit. The world created in this book is done with such care and is so full of unexpected and tangential details that I found myself wondering if I wasn't perhaps reading a work of historical fiction rather than just a plain old novel. It's an amazingly well crafted narrative, heartwrenching and hopeful at the same time. A man's life is an illusion to all except those who share in it.

لم أكن أريد كتابة أي شيء عن هذا العمل لأوستر، ليس بسبب عدم وجود الكثير لقوله عن الكتاب، لأنه على العكس من ذلك، هو عمل يستحق أن تكتب مراجعات عنه. الواقع مزاجي الحالي هو من يبعدني عن الكتابة، لكن، عندما نظرت مرة ثانية للغلاف وعنوانه"كتاب الأوهام" أدركت أنه سيمحى من ذاكرتي إذا لم أخلف خيوط من الحروف تربطني به.
بول أوستر انطلاقا من فكرة مشابهة ألف روايته "كتاب الأوهام". أستاذ جامعي يقفد عائلته الصغيرة بعد حادث، فتتداعى عالمه الجميل، ويقرر الدخول في حزن عميق، لا يخرجه منه إلا مشهد لفيلم صامت مثله شخص يدعى هكتور. ثواني فقط من ذلك المشهد هي ما جعلت مارتن يبتسم، وكان ذلك المشهد المضحك هو حبل النجاة الذي انتشل مارتن من كمده الذي كان يقوده لانهاء حياته، ويتحول إلى شخص موهوس بأفلام فكتور الصامتة. وهنا تبدأ القصة الحقيقة.
مارتن بعد أشهر من تتبع أفلام هكتور يقرر أن يكتب عنها كتاب نقدي ويعيد بعث هكتور للحياة وهو الذي كان ممثلا ومخرجا سطع نجمه في العصر الذهبي للأفلام الصامتة، ولكن، بشكل مفاجئ، يختفي عن العالم وتنقطع أخباره. وقد حاولت الصحف التحقيق والبحث عنه لكن دون جدوى. وبعد صدور كتاب مارتن عن هكتور، تصله رسالة من طرف زوجة هكتور تدعوه فيها لزيارة الممثل الذي اعتقد الجميع أنه قد مات بعد اختفاءه.
في هذا العمل تتكرر الثيمة التي تميز معظم أعمال أوستر، شخصية غريبة يظهر طرف خيط لها إلى الوجود فيقوم تحري بتتبعه وكشف القصة فصلا بعد آخر، وحتى في هذا العمل نجد تكرارا لأنواع من الشخصيات اعتاد أوستر استعمالها، مثلا التحري والكاتب.

ძალიან ემოციური და საკმაოდ მძიმე წიგნი იყო ჩემთვის.

كتاب الأوهام
بول أوستر

كتاب عن أوهام الطموح، عن شبح السعادة الماضية، عن الفقد المفاجئ وعن تعويضات الحياة المستحقة. الكتاب الثاني الذي أقرؤه لبول أوستر بعد اختراع العزلة حيث مسّني أسلوب أوستر الراقي ونبرته الحزينة.

حزن مقيم

لعل أبرز ما في هذه الرواية هو الأسى المستشري في جنباتها. كل من الشخصيات فقد شيئاً: شخصاً مقرباً، حلماً في مهده أو حياة مهنية صاعدة. يختلف كل منا في التعامل مع الفقد، وكذلك هي شخصيات الرواية. وهذا لا يعني أن الرواية ميلودرامية أو مقبّضة للغاية، بل قُدمت بشكل متزن واحترافي إلى حد بعيد.

عالم وهمي - حقيقي

اختيار الموضوع فريد من نوعه. نقرأ عن ممثل كوميدي من حقبة الأفلام الصامتة اختفى في ظروف غامضة إبان صعود نجمه. بهذا الاختيار للشخصية، يُدخلنا أوستر في عالم السينما الصامت بتقنياته ورموزه وموضوعاته. ولا يكتفي بذلك بل يعرض لنا بالكلمات أفلاماً وهمية قامت بها شخصيته. هو هنا يخترع فيلماً، يحلله وينتقده. النتيجة هو أننا نعيش عالماً له أبجدياته الخاصة وقد نواجه صعوبة في نفض زَيف الشخصية عن أذهاننا ونحن نمضي في النص.

أحداث متسارعة

رغم الخط السردي شبه الكلاسيكي، إلا أن الرواية تتحدى الملل. الأحداث كثيرة ومترابطة وهناك شيء من الغموض وبعض المفاجآت الكامنة في المنعطفات السردية. لعل الكاتب استرسل قليلاً في وصف أفلام هكتور مان بأحداثها وكواليسها، فيما عدا ذلك كنت ألهث وراء الأحداث. في لحظات معينة شممت رائحة الرواية التجارية، ولكنها كانت مجرد هبّة خفيفة لا تغلب على رزانة المحتوى.

تفاصيل ذات معنى

في عالم بول أوستر وهكتور مان التفاصيل مهمة وتشركنا في الأحداث. اسم الدواء المستخدم للتغلب على رهاب الطيران ومفعوله، الشامة بحجم قبضة اليد على وجه الفتاة، اختلاجات شارب هكتور مان في مختلف المواقف...كلها إضافات تجعلنا نرى النص رأي العين ونستلهم كل مشاعره. لا يسعني سوى أن أثنى على مهارة أوستر في رسم المشاهد والشخصيات بريشة دقيقة.

رواية ممتازة، يكتنفها الحزن، غنية بالتفاصيل، مزدحمة بالأحداث.