Auster's Tour-De-Force: Paul Auster is a fascinating writer; in many ways he may be the greatest contemporary American novelist, drawing obviously from both 'high' and 'low' extremes in culture (blurring if not obliterating the line between them), but also massively personalizing all the eclectic influences he draws from.

One of his great themes is chance and coincidence and their effect upon the lives of individuals - certain stories (like the film SMOKE) take far-fetched twists and detours, but also have moments of brilliance, beauty and style (like Augie's 'Christmas Story' in SMOKE). In this, MOON PALACE may be Auster's finest achievement.

One would think Auster's improbabilities would be a liability, but - having lived part of a life that has been knocked in all sorts of unexpected and - at times - very unpleasant directions by the sort of chance occurrences that cause one to question the idea of 'control' or 'self-determination' in life - much of MOON PALACE rings truer than it (at first, it would seem) should. The surrealism of this and other Auster fictions struck me at many points to be quite real, and nailing something of the kind of weirdnesses in everyday life that most people simply overlook. This plays out in a few ways - it makes MOON PALACE simultaneously mesmerizing, frightening through many stretches, but also ultimately hopeful. And not hopeful in programmed, cliched fashion, but offering the kind of hope individuals who might have been through hell can somehow manage to discover in spite of what the world has thrown their way.

Auster's writing is dense, but not impenetrable, instead quickly settling into the inner rhythm of characters that are respected, and known inside and out. Current events and pop culture breeze by, but Auster never resorts to name-dropping, instead settling into a comprehensive awareness of society and the world. MOON PALACE is a real triumph of imagination and skill.

-David Alston

Moon Palace is novel of searching. When we discover that our hero's name is Marco Stanley Fogg the signpost is well and truly planted. Marco Polo, Henry Morton Stanley and Phileas Fogg could hardly be associated with much else. When we then discover that he refers to himself as MS we get the secondary reference: man as an unfinished book - writing himself as he goes. Now, given that M S Fogg is an orphan it is quite clear that we shall be having a story of a man seeking his father and his identity that will feature book quite heavily - Auster likes his heres literary where possible. And so it goes. Auster's twist here is that he finds not only his father but his father's lost father too. Auster is in love with the list of three and the trilogy as an idea so the fact that we end up with the father, the son, and the grandfather is no surprise. Auster takes us and his hero through adventures with books, adventures in the wild west, and adventures with his father to arrive at M S Fogg finding himself having lost his antecedents.

Paul Auster is a very good writer. I was going to refer in this review to two previous reviews that I have written of his works: New York Trilogy and Oracle Nights but it transpires that while I wrote the reviews (in my head - which is where my composition actually happens) I have never written them down or should that be written them out, or published them. Which is a shame but not a disaster. To summarise I loved New York Trilogy which is a trio of novellas and I felt that Oracle Nights while good would have been better as a set of novellas. The same criticism, if it is a criticism applies to Moon Palace. It is essentially three novellas telling what is essentially the same story. After 90 pages or so I felt that the point was made and the text complete. I could see the joins where Auster has glued the three stories "together" into a "novel" and I resented it as a a writer. I suspect that Auster's publishers encourage him to write novel length fiction when his real strength is the novella. Alternatively he has not come to terms with his own metier. By all means tell me the same tale 3 ways - I'm happy with that but don't gussy it up and tell me it's a novel.

I liked this book, but didn't love it. Perhaps if I had taken 11 years to read it it would have grown on me. I see a story that emphasizes the importance of relationships, but am searching for something more profound than that. What is the significance of the references to the moon throughout.? Fogg quotes Tesla: " The sun is the past, the earth is the present and the moon is the future." Perhaps the frequent references to the moon stresses the importance of looking to the future. The character development, particularly Fogg and Effing, are wonderful. The most moving parts of the books describe the moments of complete isolation for these two men, Fogg living in Central Park and Effing living in a cave in Utah.

Although I was a little disappointed by Moon Palace I intend to read more Auster. ( )

Moon Palace by Paul Auster

A lost young man of the '60's struggles to find himself. Sounds pretty ordinary doesn't it? Not when Paul Auster gets through with the reader. In actuality there are at least three main stories, finally intertwining in a practically unbelievable series of meetings. Auster turns coincidence into a fine art form and makes us believe him.
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Young Marco Fogg begins his narrative many years after the fact, so we know he survives the year of the moon landing, but if not for that foreknowledge given by the author in the very first paragraphs, the reader would be hard pressed to believe Fogg could live through it. Loss of parent, all family, loss of home, the loss in fact of everything humans consider necessary to survive in this world is inflicted on this man, mostly through his own self-confessed inertia. What he finds however are the very things he has lost.

Reading this book no New Yorker will ever look upon Central Park in the same light, the deserts of the West will seem even emptier and more heartless than ever before, the Pacific even more beautiful than thought.

As Fogg traversed the few years covered, I found myself cringing, weeping, laughing and finally cheering him on, this is a must read. ( )

Fire år af en den unge amerikaner - Marco Foggs liv, hvor han skal helt ned på bunden af tilværelsen i New York, før han finder meningen med livet og historien om sin egen familie. ( )