Friday, 25 September 2015

Man in the Dark – Paul Auster



An Auster book that encountered mixed reviews (at best) from critics and was quickly forgotten by readers, and one which I actually really liked.

Dystopia is boring, dystopia is overdone, dystopia is so very often the same old story. But Auster writes it differently: Auster is supremely talented, Auster is (nearly) always interesting, Auster is cynically critical of everyone (including himself, I believe).

And Man in the Dark is not just about a supposed dystopian future, it is about a man facing his own fears, the pain of fixing a shattered family, the dynamics between a father and grandfather and his daughter and granddaughter, the long – and possibly impossible to complete – process of recreating a life after a massive loss.

This might not be Auster’s best book, yet it is still better (or, if not better, at least way more interesting) than 96.7 % of the books published over the last 10 years.

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