The Music of Chance by Paul Auster (EPUB)

Description

An “exceptional” (Los Angeles Times) tale of fate, loyalty, responsibility, and the real meaning of freedom, from the author of the forthcoming 4 3 2 1: A NovelA finalist for the PEN/Faulkner AwardThis “rich and dazzling” (Wall Street Journal) novel follows Jim Nashe who, after squandering an unexpected inheritance, picks up a young gambler named Jack Pozzi hoping to con two millionaires. But when their plans backfire, Jim and Jack are indentured by their elusive marks and are forced to build a meaningless wall with bricks gathered from ruins of an Irish castle. Time passes, their debts mount, and anger builds as the two struggle to dig themselves out of their Kafkaesque serfdom. New York Times-bestselling author Paul Auster (The New York Trilogy) brings us back into his strange, shape-shifting world of fiendish bargains and punitive whims, where chance is a powerful yet unpredictable force.

User’s Reviews

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

⭐I have given Paul Auster 3 chances with Leviathan, Disgraced and now The Music of Chance, and I am done. 3 chances and the music stops. (Spoiler alert) I’m not impressed by the abrupt endings that neither resolve anything nor offer any interpretation of the events; they are the literary equivalent to a cell phone video. Rather than constructing nuanced characters, he chooses to create reprehensible, pathetic ones devoid of redeeming qualities.But despite that, a beautiful writing style might save such a story – but no, it’s packed with clichés. I just don’t get the hype about this author.

⭐”The Music of Chance” feels like an incomplete book. Mr. Auster is not known for very lengthy works, and at 217 pages, TMOC is not unusually brief. However, the pacing of TMOC is significantly slowed down from many of his other books, and for the majority of the novel, that works to the story’s advantage as a meditative musing on the nature of fortune. Unfortunately, “Chance” stalls about 4/5ths of the way through and never recovers. The ending feels rushed and cobbled together, nearly claustrophobic compared to the wide open, universal feel of the book up to that point. I have no reason to insinuate anything about the writing process behind this book, but it certainly gives me the impression that the author reached a certain point, and was unsure of how to proceed. There’s little confidence in writing in the latter half of TMOC.I consider myself a big Paul Auster fan, and while I feel some of his recent books have had very prominent fault lines (Timbuktu, The Brooklyn Follies) TMOC is right in the heart of what was, in my opinion, Mr. Auster’s best phase as a novelist. TMOC comes after “Moon Palace” and before “Leviathan,” and then “Mr. Vertigo.” Those three novels are a very clear representation of what Mr. Auster has to offer as an author. I’m aware that “The New York Trilogy” gets thrown in a lot, but honestly, I don’t think the vision in TNYT was as clear as in the aforementioned stories. One of Mr. Auster’s best abilities as a novelist is to make a short book feel like a Greek epic. TMOC feels like a 217 page book, and nothing more.At the end of the day, you’ll know if you’ll like “The Music of Chance” before you read it. It’s not the book people use to get into Paul Auster (I was personally recommended “Mr. Vertigo” as a starting point, and I pass on that recommendation) and by the time you work your way to TMOC, you’ll know if Auster’s style is for you or not. “Chance” will do nothing to upset that perception.

⭐Second Paul Australia novel with a very similar endings. An odd book with many plots left unexplained. While a quick read, probably not one I’ll read again.

⭐Intriguing novel. Paul Auster is full of surprises and unpredictability. This main character was recently divorced and feeling rudderless. He came into some unexpected money and quit his job as a fireman to travel aimlessly. Until. Until he met a young gambler. The fun and trouble began for the two of them and the story twisted and turned. A fun read with this reader pulling for the two of them to make good decisions. Short and meaningful book.

⭐❤️

⭐Classic Auster. Auster has always been interested in chance, fate, magic. It comes together in this earlier novel from a great writer. He knows how to tell a tale. Here when situations shouldn’t add up, they always do. Nothing is left to ‘chance’when a situation seems to be imposible, there ‘chance’is waiting to solve and resolve the situation. I was glad to find an Auster book that I hadn’t had the privilege to read.

⭐I liked the main character and his mercurial ways, his peculiarity reminded me of how Murakami writes narrators. Especially liked the charming dialogue between Nashe and Pozzi, the double act of the two.But the first 80 pages or so were nothing special, and the last 40 pages or so threw too many clumsy disjointed emotional curveballs for my taste.Overall pretty good.

⭐What can happen when one’s life relies completely on mere chance? This beautifully-told story sets out to explore topics such as music, duality, space and solitude, with chance being it’s motor. The characters are one with the text and they develop correctly. Difficult to put down, as if driving the reader in a road of music.

⭐This is, for me, one of the best novels ever written. Not the cheeriest, by any means, or rewarding in the facile sort of way so many people seem to demand of literature today. But it is an extraordinarily rewarding read in every way that counts.It is one of those books that start deceptively mellow, then make you shout ‘WTF?!’ several times throughout, and then shout the loudest at the end. And the ending is perfect: you absolutely don’t see it coming but then, when you think back (which I did, for a long time after finishing it) you realize that it was the only way it could have ended, it had been coming from the very start, in an frightful, inexorable, slow march. I actually didn’t find anything absurd in it. Horrific, yes; but absurd, not so much.This is a beautifully constructed novel but, make no mistake, a very tough read. It’s an unlikely story if anyone is foolish enough to take it ad-litteram, but it is a story anyone could have lived through, if we consider its symbolism and extrapolate a little. ‘The Music of Chance’ has been called a parable and it sure is one; and in it, Paul Auster has done the most wonderful thing a writer can do for us: force us to think, and allow every one of us to look at it in wonder and interpret his work in whatever way we decide. I am sure we will all construct our own idiosyncratic, but perfectly valid meanings, from the novel’s intricate building bricks (or, more appropriately in this case, stones).And that is precisely what the greatest works of art all do, isn’t it?

⭐I absolutely loved this book. Auster is a master story teller and I love his style of writing, he immerses you in the plot without exposure to overblown descriptive passages. His characters are beautifully crafted and you get a real sense of knowing them yet they still retain a sense of mystery. I highly recommend this book, it will leave you thinking about the plot for a long time afterwards. Auster will leave you wanting more – especially at the end.

⭐This is the first Paul Auster book that I have read. I thoroughly enjoyed it and will read more of him. Like McEwan, he combines excellent writing skills with a slightly off beat storyline. Life is a poker game. No matter how we want our life to pan out, fate and chance ultimately dominate the outcomes. In this case, two men have a chance meeting and play cards with two eccentric lottery winners. The eccentric millionnaires win the card game and the two young men are forced to fulfill a meaningless contract to discharge themselves from a gambling debt. The two isolated protagonists are then faced with a surrealistic predicament. Echoes of Kafka and Greek tragedies.

⭐didn’t like the end

⭐This is still my favourite Auster novel. Auster has the rare ability of being able to say something profound in an accessible way.

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