The Brooklyn Follies: A Novel (original 2005; edition 2005)

This was a really enjoyable read even though the premise is that the protagonist, an older man, moves to NYC to die. What makes this book thoroughly engaging is how many stories about writers and life in general are found here. I also really enjoyed some of the conflicts-a child that refuses to talk, a woman who needs to be freed from the Christian right wing husband and in the midst of everything is the protagonist who realizes his life is pretty full of people who need him just as he was getting ready to join the choir invisible. ( )

Only Paul Auster could seamlessly stitch such diverse and fascinating stores and anecdotes together. Within a few pages, he tells the story of the Wittgenstein's abuse of his elementary school pupils and their refusal to forgive him twenty years later and then tell the tale of the main character, Nathan, tried to retrieve a buzzing Shick razor accidentally embedded in a toilel bowl. ( )

This book is so close to being the perfect novel. Discovery why! This is the second and not last time i am reading it! ( )

Prestato da Stefania, knight of Cydonia
http://www.anobii.com/stefy85/books

VOTO: 6

Dunque, c'è 'sto Nathan che fa il pensionato e torna a Brooklyn perché non ha nient'altro da fare. Poi succedono un po' di cose.

Mah, mi ha annoiato ._.
In fondo, gli succedono, sì, tante cose ma non è comunque niente di così particolare... Cioè, è la storia di una vita abbastanza "normale". Ma non "normale" nel senso che non succede niente di niente, "normale" nel senso che succedono cose che sanno di già visto (------------ SPOILER ---------- sì vabè, tua nipote è una ribelle e se n'è andata di casa giovane, litighi con tua figlia, tuo nipote era un promettente studioso e adesso non più... chissenefrega .__. -------- FINE SPOILER --------) e che comunque non attirano la mia attenzione... Sarò insensibile ma tutte le cose che lui racconta io non gliele avrei mai chieste >_>

E poi, no dai, siamo seri, ammettiamolo e non prendiamoci in giro: è una vita banalissima! Neanche un'invasione di Ufi, neanche una sfida a Munchkin, neanche un concerto dei Blink 182 (e dei Sum41) all'Arena Parco Nord in via Stalingrado a Bologna sabato 04/09/2010 per l'Iday... Tsk...

(L'ultimo paragrafo è ironico)

(Ma, sì! Sono andato davvero a sentire i Blink (e i Sum41) *___*)

(Paul Auster è quasi uguale a 'polàster', 'pollastro' in dialetto bresciano >_> l'ho sempre chiamato e lo chiamerò sempre così >_> ma questo non ha influito sul giudizio del libro, io non mi faccio influenzare da simili pregiudizi *_* in fondo siamo tutti uguali: i.... e questa è una cosa che sappiamo solo io e Stefania, knight of Cydonia
http://www.anobii.com/stefy85/books
e che mi piacerebbe davvero spiegarvi, perché è un Epic Fail molto divertente ma per farlo dovrei postare una foto e mi riesce impossibile, caspita... mi dispiace é_è) ( )

A man resigned to die quietly, Nathan Glass moves to Brooklyn. He has given up on life, and has pushed away his daughter, deciding that he would be dead within the year, so what is the use of taking up anything. He is determined to die alone.

That is, until he runs into his nephew, Tom, and Nathan's world becomes a whirlwind. Tom, a moping grad-school dropout , has attachments, namely his boss Harry, an ex-con and rascal, who foolishly lives life to the fullest, Aurora, Tom's wild sister, who has been beaten down by life with her terrible choices, and Aurora's young daughter, Lucy, who is a child who takes things too literally, intelligent but unsure of what her role is in life.

This is a beautiful study of how people with different backgrounds and beliefs handle life, how they accept bad situations, of those who give up too soon, and those that never stop fighting. There are certainly moments where you don't know where the author is going, but by the end of the book (46 minutes until the first plane crashes into the North Tower on 9/11), you see that Nathan's perspective on life has broadened, and his will to live and appreciate what he has has been restored. He has redefined himself, because life is so interesting and sad, and happy, and unexplainable at times, but it is what it is. It was wonderful watching Nathan grow.

This is the first novel by Auster I've read, and I can't wait to read more of him. This will most likely be one of my favorite books of 2012. ( )