Man in the Dark: A Novel by Paul Auster (EPUB)

Description

A new novel with a dark political twist from “one of America’s greats.”*Man in the Dark is Paul Auster’s brilliant, devastating novel about the many realities we inhabit as wars flame all around us.Seventy-two-year-old August Brill is recovering from a car accident in his daughter’s house in Vermont. When sleep refuses to come, he lies in bed and tells himself stories, struggling to push back thoughts about things he would prefer to forget—his wife’s recent death and the horrific murder of his granddaughter’s boyfriend, Titus. The retired book critic imagines a parallel world in which America is not at war with Iraq but with itself. In this other America the twin towers did not fall and the 2000 election results led to secession, as state after state pulled away from the union and a bloody civil war ensued. As the night progresses, Brill’s story grows increasingly intense, and what he is so desperately trying to avoid insists on being told. Joined in the early hours by his granddaughter, he gradually opens up to her and recounts the story of his marriage. After she falls asleep, he at last finds the courage to revisit the trauma of Titus’s death.Passionate and shocking, Man in the Dark is a novel of our moment, a book that forces us to confront the blackness of night even as it celebrates the existence of ordinary joys in a world capable of the most grotesque violence.*Time Out (Chicago)

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐The first half of this book was awesome. Great story that keeps you on the edge of your seat and then, about half way through, the awesome story ends and what we are left with is the main character (an old man living with his daughter and granddaughter) inviting his eighteen-year-old Granddaughter into his bedroom to lay down with him in the dark while he tells her about his wild sex with her Grandmother. He tells her that the “human body has only so many holes and that they explored all of them.” I literally stopped reading and felt like I was robbed. Paul Auster needs to get his head out of the gutter. Paul also likes to lace his stories with his left-wing, hippy, ideologies. So, if you are either Christian, Republican, or simply someone who doesn’t want to hear a story about a creepy old man…this book won’t be a good pick for you.

⭐I began to read Paul Auster in the eighties. I was captivated by the bleak, mysterious, and inimical atmosphere of his novels. But at the same time his sense of humor, his love for the absurd, and the relentless search for The Father formed a counterpart for the dark side of his novels.All these things are together again in his latest novel “Man In The Dark”. I love this novel because it’s the real Paul Auster. He writes without commercial afterthought and he refuses to go easy on us (like in his novel The Brooklyn Follies).Seventy-two-year-old August Brill is recovering from a car accident in his daughter’s house in Vermont. When sleep refuses to come, he lies in bed and tells himself stories, struggling to push back thoughts about things he would prefer to forget – his wife’s recent death and the horrific murder of his granddaughters’ boyfriend, Titus.August imagines a parallel world in which America is not at war with Iraq but with itself. In this other America the Twin Towers did not fall, and the 2000 election results led to the secession, as state after state pulled away from the union, and a bloody civil war ensued. As the night progresses, August’s story grows increasingly intense, and what he is so desperately trying to avoid insists on being told.Passionate and shocking, Man in the Dark is a novel of our moment, a book that forces us to confront the darkness of night even as it celebrates the existence of ordinary joys in a world capable of the most grotesque violence.

⭐Despite a well-crafted writing style, and the author’s ability to drive the story forward, “Man in the Dark” is a ripoff. SF writers have pulled off Auster’s thematic format with much more credibility, if with less eloquence. Colonel Brick, the alternative main character of this part fantasy novel is more human,and deserving of more sympathy than his “imagineer”, August Brill. Brill is old, and damaged by the emotional trauma of his life, family, and so creates this alternative story which is actually more interesting than Brill’s recollections of his past. Corporal Brick appears to be just a working class guy who has found a niche of happiness in his life without much money, and with marriage to a sexy, loving woman. August Brill, despite his traumatic life(dramatic may be more accurate) has fared well in his life, not rich but comfortable and achieved a degree of public success as a journalist and writer. Auster would have better served his readers and “characters” by continuing Brick nightmarish story; but Brick is killed off in the fantasy “war” in Brill’s mind. The novel proceeds like a juggernaut from this point onward–wallowing in supposedly connected incidents of tragedy and serendipitous mishap. Brill’s life despite his burdens has been not that bad: he married a beautiful, talented French woman who gives him an equally talented, though troubled daughter. He knows Europe culture, has an appreciation for good food and art and is reasonably well educated….The first Auster novel I read was “Moonpalace and then “Leviathan”. I was struck by Auster’s artisty and craftmanish. I thought he would possibly be the next F.Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe or Saul Bellow. I have not read all his books, but it seems that “unlike” those other classic American authors, Auster has no thematic context to build a catalogue of novels. He seems to be flailing to find a theme but substitutes a temporary situation– for example, his ludicrous novel, Timbuktu(which I abandoned after 40 pages) Fitzgerald wrote about the rich, Bellow about Jewish experience and culture. Faulkner wrote about the South. Despite the achievements of his earlier novels, Auster seems recently to be squandering his stylisitc brilliance on unimportant, if not trivial themes. It seems unworthy of his skills to continually attempted to capture the situational chaos of modern life. Every middle-class parlor tragedy may be not worth capturing—who cares!! Surely, the ruminations of the existential mind, does not have to eventually examine the life of a Sarah Palin, or Joe the Plumber…. I recently viewed again on cable, Oliver Stone’s film “W”. Bush almost seems like a tortured St Augustine seeking spiritual affirmation. Stone brilliantly portrays Bush’s angst as a product of his ignorance, shallowness, and stupidity, not a voyage toward personal identity. Stone’s thematic context is therefore political and provocative….I think Auster’s reputation as an American writer may be only identified in the future by a literary footnote.

⭐In this novel Paul Auster continues his exploration of the writing process, and why it is vital to the writer. Once again he presents us with a story within a story, but this time he sheds light on the urge to create fiction. the story within the story presents a parallel universe where the characters are manipulated by their creator, Brill. That narrative is summarily interrupted when the protagonists are killed off, the author taking care to ensure they got a dignified funeral. That story was about the ravages of war and the relationships between a man and the two women in his life. As we read on, we realize that Brill himself is living with the repercussions of war, and is dealing with the consequences of his entanglement with two women. An insomniac, he creates stories in order to while away the hours of the night. As he negotiates his pain and that of his daughter and grand-daughter, he gradually frees himself from his solitude. The ending of the story within the story coincides with his ability to confront the demons that possess him and his loved ones. His storytelling was an integral part of his grieving and helped him reach a point where the healing can begin.

⭐Strange novel which kept me glued at times but other times I became quite confused with the many stories. I failed to grasp the thread, the objective of the novel. There were dates of significance, the what if scenarios, the myriad locations, the many many characters, the scantness of detail, all leaving a lot of room for my imagination to fill in the blanks in the story, making the novel more of a fill in the blanks exercise book for its readers. But I did come out with my imagination in invigorated and memory flashing. Maybe that’s what the writer intended?

⭐I liked this book very much but there definitely was an element of ‘what just happened!’. The book itself does not delve enough into characters so there is a certain shallowness to the book even though it is wonderfully written. The stories in the book do not reconcile and the storey involving the parallel world and the war just comes to an abrupt end and leaves the reading thinking ‘is that it?,Good read.

⭐Bought as Christmas gift

⭐”Escaping into a film is not like escaping into a book. Books force you to give something back to them, to exercise your intelligence and imagination, whereas you can watch a film -and even enjoy it- in a state of mindless passivity.””Life is disappointing, isn’t it? Noriko looks back at the girl and with a distant expression on her face, she answers: Yes, it is.””In spite of the aches and boredoms and disappointments, living in this world is the closest we will ever come to seeing paradise.”I enjoyed this book by Auster, although it would have needed more fleshing out in my opinion for me to think of it as ‘good’. Although I enjoyed some parts of it more than others (I wasn’t so keen on the dystopian story-within-the-story), it was certainly very thought-provoking throughout. It is probably the saddest and most lyrical of all the Auster novels I’ve read so far.I enjoyed the usual Auster themes and I thought this novel was particularly well constructed. Auster is definitely a master story-teller!

⭐

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