Oracle Night
by Paul Auster
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I don't know what to say about this book. I liked. If you look at how much I liked it w/r/t how low my hopes were before starting it, I guess you could say I really liked it. But all things being equal, I mainly liked it.
I think if I'd read this in college I would have wanted to write a paper about it. Although, maybe not because I feel like the book is in despearate need of critical exploration, maybe just because it seems like the kind of book that a college student could fairly easily wri...more
I think if I'd read this in college I would have wanted to write a paper about it. Although, maybe not because I feel like the book is in despearate need of critical exploration, maybe just because it seems like the kind of book that a college student could fairly easily wri...more
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Read in March, 2008
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Read in June, 2007
I picked up this book on a whim. I had read only one other Paul Auster book before this and I wasnt quite that pleased with it. However, "Oracle Night" was an enjoyable read. Im somewhere between liked it and loved it...From the jacket.....Several months into his recovery from a near-fatal illness, thirty-four-year-old novelist Sidney Orr enters a stationery shop in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn and buys a blue notebook. It is September 18, 1982, and for the next nine days Orr wi...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
People smarter than me who can explain it to me
I think this book might be too smart for me. I really enjoyed reading it -- the story was compelling and has a book-within-a-book-within-a-book device that I found interesting.
The thing is ... the narrator of the book just abandons the novel he's writing about 2/3 of the way into "Oracle Night." He wrote himself into a corner, and then he just dropped it. So I felt I had a lot invested in this story that he decided not to finish. Was the narrator being lazy, or Auster?
I feel l...more
The thing is ... the narrator of the book just abandons the novel he's writing about 2/3 of the way into "Oracle Night." He wrote himself into a corner, and then he just dropped it. So I felt I had a lot invested in this story that he decided not to finish. Was the narrator being lazy, or Auster?
I feel l...more
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Read in October, 2007
wow1 i was blown away by this book. was really in2 it &couldn't let go of it till the end. 2borrow from the review that's written on the book itself: "reads like an old-fashioned ghost story. but ther r no ghosts in this book-only human beings. wandering through the haunted realms of everyday life...a meditation on the natire of time & a journey through the labyrinth of one man's imagination.."
an intense read that deals with the basic emotions. at times felt like reading a fe...more
an intense read that deals with the basic emotions. at times felt like reading a fe...more
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Read in March, 2007
recommends it for:
lovers of footnotes and books that suck you in for undefinable reasons
This was recommended by Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls, who picked it up on the recommendation of a fan. I was vaguely aware of Auster's existence before I picked this book up, but only that he wrote "general fiction" and none of my acquaintances had ever mentioned him in passing.
Oracle Night is sheer & razing amazement. You think Gabriel Garcia Marquez is the pinnacle of magical realism? He may be for the magical end of the spectrum, but Paul Auster has the realism ...more
Oracle Night is sheer & razing amazement. You think Gabriel Garcia Marquez is the pinnacle of magical realism? He may be for the magical end of the spectrum, but Paul Auster has the realism ...more
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Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
wimps
When time seems to have no value, or can only amount to absolute zero, reassigning, or even assigning any relevance to time can have no bearing on future presents. Paul Auster seems to say that we are all detectives, detecting the truth of our own words, whether we have the courage to say (or write) them or not. The lesson isn’t time, time heals no wounds, only cuts deeper into fresh and festering wounds alike, with the alacrity of a disposable scalpel. We can relive the pain and trials of t...more
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Read in July, 2007
This was the only non-children's book left on the hospital reading cart the week my husband had an emergency appendectomy. I had read Aster's New York Trilogy, and it was extremely interesting, but not too satisfying and not much fun to read. I would probably have waited longer to try another Aster novel, but the hospital situation moved the date up! Oracle Night was a very pleasant surprise. It WAS easy to read, and had a complete and satisfying ending. Aster is consistently able to take yo...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
People who find that their prose imitates their lives
On a whim, I found and bought a used copy of this book at a local shop, having remembered that I liked Paul Auster but had sadly lost track of his more recent work. Once I began reading it, I couldn't stop and finished it quickly. Typical of Auster's interests, the book is chock full of odd coincidences, mysterious books/objects, unfortunate accidents, the streets of NY, postmodern fiascoes, writers as characters, and it even manages to include a novel within a novel within a novel within a nove...more
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Read in June, 2007
Auster to me is like an American Haruki Murakami, in that he twists noir tales into philosophical mysteries full of unanswered questions and haunting passages. And like the Japanese writer, Auster's protagonists inevitably have loads of free time while their loved ones work normal nine-to-five jobs.
This book delves deeply into how levels of intertextuality in a book (and in life) can affect us. What's a coincidence and what's a casual...more
This book delves deeply into how levels of intertextuality in a book (and in life) can affect us. What's a coincidence and what's a casual...more
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Read in July, 2007
This was the latest choice in my bookclub, and my first foray into Paul Auster. One reviewer likened this book to nesting dolls, in that it contains plots, within subplots, within yet more subplots. I would tend to agree with this depiction. The book is at once the story of a writer and the act of writing itself, as it is a meditation on the randomness of life (see the Flitcraft episode in "The Maltese Falcon"). I liked the fantastical elements (i.e. a magical notebook reawakening ...more
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Read in August, 2007
this was almost classic paul auster - something about it wasn't disturbing enough, didn't indulge in the twists and turns enough to really leave me wanting more. in the end, i was glad that it ended and i was through with these people. the premise was great (paul auster always delivers that) but the most exciting and interesting points of the book just end. and they don't end in that way that has you still contemplating the meaning or the possible future - they just end, at least for me they ...more
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Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
novel lovers
I was given this book, and assured that I would like it. And I did! This is the first time I have read an Auster novel and I found it to be a lovely piece of work, I started it and stopped for a moment to breathe, since I have no other books to read, I tried to savour it but alas! I couldn't I just had to read it in one sitting. Such is the the curse of the fast reader. I enjoyed it from start to finish and liked visiting a Brooklyn neighborhood I spent a lot of time in(my sister lived in in Car...more
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Read in May, 2008
I'm getting less and less enchanted with paul auster's tendency to recycle major plot concepts - people abandoning their lives & families and disappearing, etc. But this was this most irritating yet, since he recycled a major plot point from one of his wife's books! I don't consider pointing that out to be a spoiler, because anyone who has read siri hustvedt's "what I loved" will probably pick up on it just as quickly as I did. it ruined the rest of the book for me.
edit: both boo...more
edit: both boo...more
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Read in January, 2006
His stories intrigue and infuriate me. I also hate that his books often come with tempting cover designs, making me want to own them. This book was especially frustrating as the magic of the little blue journal is never explained or made explicit enough and dropped midway, just as the footnotes of background story about his relationship with his wife are dropped, making the book stylistically lop-sided. Be consistent, follow through, have book covers that are representative of how disappointi...more
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Read in March, 2008
Interesting read. I was, like most I think, a little frustrated with the unfinished effect of this book. Paul Auster wraps up very little leaving us to wonder eternally how Nick might have escaped, amongst other things. I did enjoy this book once I adjusted to the flicking back and forth between stories as it were through the footnotes and the story within a story within a story. Very cleverly written and definitely one of those 'couldn't put down' reads that I love to engross myself in.
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Read in September, 2007
Through the entire story I had the feeling I was on the verge of stumbling on the meat of it, but it never happened. I stuck with it hoping for even a line that would satisfy the "on-the-verge" feeling, but by the last line on the last page, I realized it wasn't coming. Maybe I'm too dense to really get the underlying substance of this book, but believe me, I was looking for it.
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Read in July, 2007
I haven't read anything by Auster in a few years (I've read most of his stuff fiction wise) and really enjoyed this novel that has a lot of stories running through it. There is a novel within a novel. There are other stories that pop up as a writer tries to write in a blue notebook and those stories take place in Oracle Night. I actually starting getting into the novel within Oracle Night and wanted to see how it developed as much as the "real" part of the story.
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Read in March, 2005
I consider Paul Auster to be my most worthwhile discovery of 2005. I picked this one up randomly, because the cover seemed mysterious. And with a title like "Oracle Night", I was willing to try it. And it was every bit worth it. He relies on footnotes in this book, but he rarely abuses it. I didn't get to read any of his other books that year. Seattle Public Library had one other title, and I didn't get a chance to read it (I owe SPL money for it, actually).
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Read in December, 2007
I often find myself distanced by self consciously clever writing, but in this particular case, I found Paul Auster completely absorbing and refreshing. I liked the 'suspense' and alternate narratives and found myself beguiled by his various techniques of narrative and was challenged by the conclusions that Sid came to after all his experiences. Words are important and what we can imagine reflects strongly on our experiences. I agree wholeheartedly.
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