555 Review: The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster

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Read: 18 July 2009

How I got it…
  • Bought it, from the local second-hand bookstore chain

Why I read it…
  • I read 1/3 of Paul Auster's New York Trilogy (City of Glass), and I loved it.
  • I wanted to see if Auster is really as good as I think he is.
  • Bottom line: he is.

What's the story?
  • David Zimmer, a literature professor who lost his family in a tragic accident, is also about to lose himself through depression.
  • He rediscovers laughter and, consequently, life when he watches a silent film comedian called Hector Mann.
  • He dedicates himself to writing the definitive book on Hector Mann, an underrated comedic genius who mysteriously disappeared back in 1929; at the same time, he also undertakes a translation of Chateaubriand's work, Mémoires d'outre-tombe, which he entitles Memoirs of a Dead Man.
  • When his Hector Mann book gets published and gains acclaim, he receives a letter from a woman who claims to be the wife of Hector Mann; she says that Mann is alive and wants to meet with him.
  • He initially doubts the veracity of the letter, but, through the efforts of another mysterious woman named Alma, he finds himself on his way to a surreal adventure.

What I liked about it…
  • Auster's portrayal of David Zimmer's grief is powerful and real; likewise, Auster builds up passion excellently in his characters.
  • There is a fascinating interplay of texts and genres here: Auster has his character write a book about a silent movie star, thereby having to describe through writing what is a visual art form; surprisingly or not, Auster succeeds at this little conceit.
  • Still on the interplay of texts: there are three books in the text--the Hector Mann book; the translation Memoirs of a Dead Man; and The Book of Illusions itself, which is the book that Zimmer writes years after the events in it occurred.
  • There are brilliant parallelisms between Hector Mann and David Zimmer, between Chateaubriand and Zimmer.
  • The book questions the relationship between life and art, the limitations of artistic conventions, and the meaning of death, and oh--how glorious the questioning is.

What I didn’t like about it…
  • For some reason, I felt that the ending was a bit rushed.
  • Perhaps by that point, I got used to the elegant writing that when events started happening quickly, I thought it was a compromise.

Rating:



(I highly and heartily recommend it.)

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