Fabulous Follies
July 4th, 2006 | Published in Miscellaneous | 1 Comment
Nathan Glass has come to Brooklyn to die. This is only the latest in a long line of follies.
That’s what you’ll see, when you read what’s on the back of the dust jacket, and this is also how the story begins. Nathan Glass is the narrator and main character of the story (although he will attempt to tell you otherwise), which is actually a story about human connections and relationships. He is a retired life-insurance man, who got lung cancer in spite of never having been a smoker, and now returns to the Brooklyn he left many, many years earlier, a bitter man convinced that there is nothing left for him to do, but to wait for the inevitable.
But as everyone who has ever lived knows, life is not that simple. Unexpected things happen to all of us, and Nathan Glass is no exception. One day, he runs into his favorite nephew, Tom, whom he has not seen in years. When they parted way, Tom was a promising academic talent. Now, he has put on some weight and works in a bookstore. This meeting marks the beginning of a long journey involving many other characters, who all end up being somehow connected, though their stories and backgrounds are wildly different.
Auster takes us on a journey through these people’s lives, at the time when their paths cross, and it made this reader think long and hard about how people connect, about cause and effect in human relationships and of course, about life and death. Heavy things to occupy your mind with, one might say, but Auster’s humor is ever-present, full of irony and wonder.
In some ways, Brooklyn Follies reminded me a lot of the movie Smoke (also based on Austers writing), which has a lot of the same themes. Smoke happens to be one of my all time favorite movies, and this book is definitely one of my favorite books.
August 6th, 2006at 10:48 pm(#)
Thank you for this nod to Auster! I definitely have known his work for sometime, but I do believe you are correct in saying that not many Americans know it, or know it very well. I just read Three Films: Smoke, Blue in the Face, and Lulu on the Bridge. It is full of interesting stuff on how each of the films were written, directed, and produced. The full screenplays of each are in this one book, too! (Well, the suggestions, i.e. his “type” of screenplay.)
So, what do you think about his wife, Siri Hustvedt’s writing? I believe it’s popular to not like her writing, maybe because Auster is the only one allowed to be a writing genius in the family? I don’t know! I enjoy her stuff, though. I read The Blindfold in 1992. I re-read it a couple of years back and still appreciated it. I read The Enchantment of Lily Dahl after that, then What I loved, and now, A Plea for Eros: Essays. If you do read her work (or if you already have) let us know what your opinion is, alright? I will be interested to know. I haven’t met too many people that say Smoke is one of their favorite movies of all time (besides myself, that is).
Take care.
Pamela