52. Man in the Dark by Paul Auster

Category: 50 Books

52. Man in the Dark by Paul Auster

I haven’t read all of Mr. Auster’s work, but the three books of his I have read I’ve enjoyed. I don’t know why. They aren’t exactly mainstream. Perhaps I’m a sucker for the metafiction, the stories he creates within his stories (the one character in his book is a writer and he writes a story in his head. the book jumps from the story in the guy’s head to the “real” story. It sounds difficult and annyoing, but it wasn’t that confusing.), or maybe I just like a complex storyline every now and then.

The main story is a bit sad, but it’s sweet because the grandfather (writer) gets to spend time with his granddaughter and they discuss movies and literature and it’s all very interesting.

A bit of warning: the dialogue is not written with quotation marks around it. Usually this sort of thing is daunting and annoying, but Mr. Auster is a good writer so it works, and it’s not hard to follow at all. I hate to gush, but it’s like he handcrafts each of his sentences to not only be simple and elegant but to look good on the page as well. That’s how easy it was to read. Bah, that’s total gush.

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