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The Brooklyn Follies

3.75 of 5 stars 3.75 · rating details · 10,139 ratings · 856 reviews

National Bestseller

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice

Nathan Glass has come to Brooklyn to die. Divorced, retired, estranged from his only daughter, the former life insurance salesman seeks only solitude and anonymity. Then Glass encounters his long-lost nephew, Tom Wood, who is working in a local bookstore--a far cry from the brilliant academic career Tom had beg...more

Paperback, 320 pages

Published October 17th 2006 by Picador (first published 2004)

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Oct 01, 2012 Abdullah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

رجل ستيني يبحث عن مدينة صالحة لكي يموت فيها بسلام ، بعد حياة لا يمكن وصفها بالناجحة أبداً فقد خلّف ورائه مطلقة ناقمة و ابنة ترفض الرد على رسائله و سرطان قرر الانضمام إلى المعسكر الآخر . و هناك يلتقي بابن أخته الشاب الذي كان يحلم أن يكونه في صباه و لكنه هو الآخر قد تاه في رسالة الدكتوراة فوجد نفسه دونما انتباه سائقاً للأجرة و من هذه الظروف غير الجيدة أبداً تنطلق القصة و أستطيع القول بكل ثقة أنها رواية أمل من الطراز الأول على الرغم من كون الكاتب لم يغفل ضربات الزمان القاسية و التي لا بد أن تأتي بي...more

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Nov 28, 2009 hirtho rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: auster, best-of-my-2009-reading

11/28
pp 248: "He was an odd, unpleasant man... with... an unnerving revulsion against small talk of any kind." I like this guy!

This ended up being excellent. i mean, it began that way too but i'd heard it was sub-par and I'd say it's neck and neck w/ Oracle Night in the Top 5. I loved every character and the meandering narrative and the somber elegiac tone Auster's been into since Book of Illusions. A great read, and if it's the last new Auster I get to read then this is a perfect finale...

11/24...more

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Aug 02, 2008 Terri rated it 4 of 5 stars

I know that there have been mixed reviews of this book. I picked it up in the bargain bin and then looked it up on Amazon. Some loved it. Some hated it, saying that their beloved writer had been abducted by aliens and forced to write this book by money grubbing editors. They claimed that there was no plot, nothing happened and I looked at the cheesy cover with trepidation thinking that I had spent some hard earned cash on what would amount to a dust collector and could've spent it on umm, a latt...more

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May 09, 2007 Kelly rated it 4 of 5 stars

Nathan Glass, a retired life-insurance salesman diagnosed with lung cancer, moves out to Brooklyn to die. Throughout the course of the novel, he reunites with his nephew, becomes friends with a charismatic criminal-minded bookstore owner, and receives an unexpected visitor. The title stems from a series of notes Glass is putting together on life's mishaps, eventually to be formed into The Book of Human Folly. It's a touching book with the types of well fleshed-out, "I know that guy" type of char...more Nathan Glass, a retired life-insurance salesman diagnosed with lung cancer, moves out to Brooklyn to die. Throughout the course of the novel, he reunites with his nephew, becomes friends with a charismatic criminal-minded bookstore owner, and receives an unexpected visitor. The title stems from a series of notes Glass is putting together on life's mishaps, eventually to be formed into The Book of Human Folly. It's a touching book with the types of well fleshed-out, "I know that guy" type of characters. A little more feel-good than I was expecting.

Auster in his writing deals with unreliable narrators, which on the positive side leaves opportunities for mystery and interesting reflection. But in The Brooklyn Follies, at times Glass might not have been reliable enough to be believable. For a first person narrator, he gives extremely detailed accounts of other people's lives--stories where, in reality, he would have just had a general synopsis of. The academic dialogue will turn off some readers--the nine-year-old seemed overly precocious (but then again, I don't know many nine-year-olds, so maybe that's unfair)...and nephew Tom, who dropped out of grad school during his thesis, talks like a term paper.

My favorite characteristic of the story is a question Auster poses of how people find serenity in their surroundings. Nathan finds harmony in Brooklyn, which is why he chose it as his final destination. Tom has a different notion of serenity, dreaming of developing a small society in the woods, escaping American industrialization. Auster manages to make both scenarios seem desirable. Reflecting back on the book, that was powerful to me since lately I've been trying to decide what my ideal environment is--whether it be city, suburban, or rural life. Sometimes the inconvenience of one makes the other seem more desirable, while sometimes small things, like a scene you witness on the street or your favorite diner, makes you appreciate your current setting. Lately as I've been dealing with the obnoxious cost of living in the NYC area, I wonder why people living in extreme poverty stick around when they could be living in small-town America for a fraction of the cost (yeah, I realize how naive that can sound on paper). What makes a place feel like home? Your family, your job, being able to see a musical once a week? For Glass, a large part of it was the culture of the city.
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Feb 18, 2007 Kitty-Wu rated it 4 of 5 stars

Nathan Glass ha sobrevivido a un cáncer de pulmón y a un divorcio después de treinta y tres años de matrimonio, y ha vuelto a Brooklyn, el lugar donde nació y pasó su infancia. Quiere vivir allí lo que le queda de su «ridícula vida». Hasta que enfermó era un próspero vendedor de seguros; ahora que ya no tiene que ganarse la vida, piensa escribir El libro de las locuras de los hombres. Contará todo lo que pasa a su alrededor, todo lo que le ocurre y lo que se le ocurre, y hasta algunas de las his...more
Nathan Glass ha sobrevivido a un cáncer de pulmón y a un divorcio después de treinta y tres años de matrimonio, y ha vuelto a Brooklyn, el lugar donde nació y pasó su infancia. Quiere vivir allí lo que le queda de su «ridícula vida». Hasta que enfermó era un próspero vendedor de seguros; ahora que ya no tiene que ganarse la vida, piensa escribir El libro de las locuras de los hombres. Contará todo lo que pasa a su alrededor, todo lo que le ocurre y lo que se le ocurre, y hasta algunas de las historias –caprichosas, disparatadas, verdaderas locuras– de personas que recuerda. Comienza a frecuentar el bar del barrio, el muy austeriano Cosmic Diner, y está casi enamorado de la camarera, la casada e inalcanzable Marina. Y va también a la librería de segunda mano de Harry Brightman, un homosexual culto y contradictorio, que no es ni remotamente quien dice ser. Y allí, en la librería, se encuentra inesperadamente con Tom, su sobrino, el hijo de su amada hermana muerta, a quien hace años que no ve. El joven había sido un universitario brillante, la gran promesa de su promoción. Y ahora, solitario y con unos kilos de más, conduce un taxi, urde teorías sobre «el valor ontológico de la vida de un taxista», ayuda al misterioso Harry Brightman a clasificar sus libros, y está enamorado de la B. P. M., la Bella y Perfecta Madre... Y poco a poco, inmerso en una fascinante red de personajes y descubrimientos; incorporado, en suma, de nuevo a la «espesa jungla de la vida», Nathan irá descubriendo que no ha venido a Brooklyn a morir, sino a vivir..
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Otra gran novela de Auster, impecablemente escrita, que engancha hablando sobre la vida, la muerte, las relaciones ("the ties that bind"), lo sorprendente, la familia.... aunque tu familia no necesariamente haya de ser consanguínea, habla de esos momentos en los que sientes que estas "ligado" de verdad a alguien, cuando son las historias las que unen, las palabras y no el libro de familia. Sobre los perdedores. Sobre los ganadores al fin. Sobre lo efímero.(less)

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Dec 19, 2007 John Sorrell rated it 3 of 5 stars

Always a creative, suspenseful story teller, but this one has some pretty bad (but easily avoided) aspects:

plotwise:

no reason to talk about Bush or religion (at least in the way it was mentioned); seemed strained and cliche (along with cliches of Vermont, Latino women who work at diners, and gay men, drugs leading to porn and then religion, etc etc).

no reason to have Rory suck off the priest near the end, which I have to admit made me feel actually disgusted, given the positive feelings toward...more

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Aug 26, 2008 Elizabeth L. added it

Disappointing. Fell apart when I started to have the suspicion that Auster's narrator was one of those avuncular ciphers, the soulful philosopher king, able to stand outside everyone else's problems, a lover of all women, shopper of impeccable taste, good with children and dogs, devoid of all complications (such as hair in the sink or a penchant for scooping up peanut butter with two fingers) beyond a failed marriage and cancer in remission. Neither of which messy, presumably lively affair warra...more

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Feb 09, 2012 Kevin E. rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Paul Auster's good-natured take on fate, coincidence, making plans... once again the author takes on his set of themes and makes them enjoyable, simple to grasp. This simplicity is also, once again, a downfall; by ending the narrative action on such a flimsy, predictable note Auster exceeds his grasp and pumps the story two paragraphs past the point of art. The implications of our protagonist's decision would have been far-reaching, had a more universal logic had the defining event of the 00s no...more

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Aug 06, 2011 Matthew added it

When Nathan Glass begins his project entitled The Book of Human Folly, a chronicle of his unique mishaps, misunderstandings, foibles and foolishness, he unwittingly begins the process of authoring his own true existence. This effort of the narrative constitution of a Self leads eventually to The Hotel Existence, outside Burlington, Vermont. As Nathan describes it, echoing Thoreau, "A place to live on your own terms." It represents (as Poe clearly did in Lander's Cottage and A Philosophy of Furni...more

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Jan 26, 2009 Josh rated it 3 of 5 stars

"I've always had a soft spot for rascals," I said. "They might not make the most reliable friends, but think how drab life would be without them."

"I'm not sure Harry's a rascal anymore," Tom answered. "he's too full of regret."

"Once a rascal, always a rascal. People never change."

"A matter of opinion. I say they can."

"You never worked in the insurance business. The passion for deceit is universal, my boy, and once a man acquires a taste for it, he can never be cured. Easy money -- there's no gre...more

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Nov 24, 2008 Travis rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

This is perhaps Auster's most accessible novel but all his hallmarks are there. I thought this was an enjoyable, charming read. The characters were well-drawn and believable for the most part. The one exception being the Christian zealot who is painted so broadly it's almost cartoonish. I don't hold this against Auster or the rest of the book. Many authors seem to have problems depicting conservative Christians without turning them into either demons or cartoons. At any rate, it's a fantast...mo...more

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Jun 09, 2013 Ryan Lum rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: advisory-shelf-2010

Nathan Glass the protagonist and overall hero from The Brooklyn Follies finds a reason to stick around after all the hardship he endured in life. Through the happiness and success of his family, he discovers how problems that may occur, don’t even seem that big as along as his family is okay. With everything that Nathan had gone through with his family in the novel, nothing else seems to matter when his family was happy in the end of the day. The novel begins with Nathan moving to Brooklyn his h...more Nathan Glass the protagonist and overall hero from The Brooklyn Follies finds a reason to stick around after all the hardship he endured in life. Through the happiness and success of his family, he discovers how problems that may occur, don’t even seem that big as along as his family is okay. With everything that Nathan had gone through with his family in the novel, nothing else seems to matter when his family was happy in the end of the day. The novel begins with Nathan moving to Brooklyn his hometown and he moved there basically to die. After going through a tough divorce, losing his home, retiring and having a really rocky relationship with his daughter, he really had no reason to live in his mind. He figured why not die in the place where it all started and that was Brooklyn. Nathan had no meaning until he found family and those who needed him. After finding his long lost nephew Tom in Brooklyn, he begins his journey in finding a reason to live. Discovering how his nephew had sort of given up, Nathan becomes more active than in the beginning of when he moved to Brooklyn. Our hero goes out into doing small things like talking about Rory with Tom, introducing the BPM- the beautiful perfect mother to Tom, pushing with Honey and Tom who eventually get married and even taking care of Lucy who was mysteriously left with Tom. With Rachel, after rudely yelling at her, Nathan goes out of his way to write a sincere apology and just making sure that everything is okay with his daughter. He aids his daughter in advice with dealing with his son in law. Nathan as well goes about saving his niece Rory from her crazy religious husband and reunites Rory with her daughter Lucy. Nathan is so determine to help his family that he steps out of the box in protecting his family. When protecting Tom and his family, Nathan goes crazy with his conversation with Gordon and says “ I’ll have you busted and thrown into jail. I’ll fuck you up so bad, you won’t want to live anymore.” ( Auster 218). This shows Nathans primal instinct of survival for the sack of his family. Inevitably Tom finds happiness with a woman named Honey and runs the book store business that had belonged to Harry, Rory escapes her husband and reunited with Lucy who has been happily living with Tom and Nathan, the BPM has a relationship with Rory, and Nathan has a relationship with BPM’s mom. All this was thanks to Nathan in the end. Even with his emergency trip to the hospital in the end, potentially dying and seeing 9/ 11 happen, that doesn’t seem as big of a deal compared to what he already went through. Everything else seems secondary as he survived through the happiness of his family and found a reason to live. (less)

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Mar 30, 2013 Maria rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Deze reactie bevat spoilers, selecteer de tekst om de spoilers te lezen.

Na de achterflaptekst en na de eerste zin 'Ik was op zoek naar een plek om rustig dood te gaan' verwachtte ik niet dit toch lichtvoetige verhaal. De hoofdpersonen zijn Nathan en zijn neef Tom, heel gewone mannen, beiden behoorlijk wat pech gehad in hun leven. Zij ontmoeten elkaar na jaren weer in Brooklyn waar Tom werkt in een tweedehandsboekwinkel en raken verwikkeld in allerlei belevenissen onder andere door toedoen van To...more

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Mar 15, 2013 Aryana Mehrr rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

دیوانگی در بروکلین ماجرای مرد 60 ساله ای است که به دلیل بیماری سرطان، تحت شیمی درمانی است. از همسرش جدا شده و تنها دخترش نیز او را ترک کرده است. او بهترین جا برای مردن را همان جایی می داند که به دنیا آمده؛ بروکلین. و مثل سگ زخمی همین کار را می کند. اما وقتی با دیگران ارتباط برقرار می کند و روزهایش را با آنها سپری می کند، به روشنی نشانه های زندگی را در رفتارش می بینیم. گلاس تصمیم گرفته بود تنها باشد اما از خودش بیرون می آید. گلاس برای مردن آمده بود اما با بیرون آمدن از خود، زندگی را بر می گزیند....more دیوانگی در بروکلین ماجرای مرد 60 ساله ای است که به دلیل بیماری سرطان، تحت شیمی درمانی است. از همسرش جدا شده و تنها دخترش نیز او را ترک کرده است. او بهترین جا برای مردن را همان جایی می داند که به دنیا آمده؛ بروکلین. و مثل سگ زخمی همین کار را می کند. اما وقتی با دیگران ارتباط برقرار می کند و روزهایش را با آنها سپری می کند، به روشنی نشانه های زندگی را در رفتارش می بینیم. گلاس تصمیم گرفته بود تنها باشد اما از خودش بیرون می آید. گلاس برای مردن آمده بود اما با بیرون آمدن از خود، زندگی را بر می گزیند. زندگی در شهری که 56 سال پیش برای آخرین بار با پدر و مادرش از آن بیرون آمده است. ناتان گلاس از جمله شخصیتهایی است که طی سالها داستان نویسی تبدیل به یکی از شاخصه های اصلی داستانهای پل استر شده است و در خط به خط داستانهای او جان گرفته است و درست تر اینکه تبدیل به یک شخصیت محوری شده است. ناتان در کمال ناامیدی امیدوار است. او امیدوار است که مکان مناسبی برای مردن پیدا کند و به همین خاطر به بروکلین اسباب کشی می کند.

بر حسب تصادف خواهرزاده اش را پیدا می کند و تام تبدیل به رفیق یاروغار دایی اش می شود. درست در این نقطه تلاقی است که مضمون اصلی داستان شکل می گیرد و استر از این برخورد به عنوان محور اصلی دیوانگی در بروکلین استفاده می کند. سپس آن دو با آدمی آشنا می شوند که کلاه بردار است و ماجرا در مسیر دیگری می افتد، تام همه چیز را درباره رئیس عیاش خود به ناتان می گوید.
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دنیای "دیوانگی در بروکلین" استر این بار روایتی است از روزمرگی و در نگاه اول هیچ ربطی به ساختار کاملا فلسفی داستانهای پیشین او ندارد. او در این فضای روزمره و ساده، داستانی را در دل داستانی دیگر می بافد، قرار بود اول کار خواننده با تنهایی های مردی که خودش را برای مرگ آماده می کند مواجه شود اما یک دفعه سر و کله تام پیدا می شود و ماجراهای بعدی حس دیگری به داستان می بخشد.

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Dec 05, 2012 Silvia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: narrativa-ebraica

Follie di Brooklyn è un inno alla vita, un libro solare e divertente, ma anche profondo e intelligente, un romanzo che arriva dritto al cuore, che scalda e rasserena.

Nathan Glass, reduce da un tumore ai polmoni e da un divorzio difficile, si trasferisce a Brooklyn alla ricerca di “un posto tranquillo per morire”. Trova invece una nuova vita: incontra dopo tanti anni Tom, figlio della sorella morta prematuramente, che sbarca il lunario in una libreria antiquaria del quartiere, e il suo capo Harr...more

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Oct 16, 2012 Iván rated it 5 of 5 stars

Paul Auster ha pasado a ser uno de mis autores favoritos. He tenido el placer de conocerlo durante las largas horas de viaje de Concepción a Santiago, cuando el tiempo parece extenderse en una línea sin fin hacia adelante. Paul Auster es mágico, así de simple, o su escritura lo es. Logra visualizar en cada línea las miles de cosas que todos vivimos diariamente pero que pocos sabían que se pueden escribir. Es un escritor de lo cotidiano, de lo usual, pero no de lo que usualmente llamamos usual, s...more

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Sep 21, 2012 Lynne rated it 5 of 5 stars

All I can say is wow, this book is good! It's filled with humor, interesting characters, plenty of plot twists, and finally, wisdom. As the narrator says toward the end, "One should never underestimate the power of books."

I had a small resentment against Paul Auster. I submitted a story to his National Story Project, and he didn't choose to include it in the resulting anthology, I Thought My Father Was God.

But after all, he at least, as editor of his book, read my story--and I had never read any...more

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Sep 04, 2012 Vasco rated it 4 of 5 stars

IN PRAISE OF FOLLY

The Brooklyn Follies
by Paul Auster

Do not fool yourselves. Behind a narrative with a literary style – the narrator’s – apparently intuitive and simultaneously filled with a straight simplicity and ornaments that seem to evoke a 19th century writing ('there is no escape from the wretchedness that stalks the earth'), a world of allusions and references are hiding, and these make The Brooklyn Follies one of the most inspired works of Paul Auster.

The narrator of the story is Nathan...more IN PRAISE OF FOLLY

The Brooklyn Follies
by Paul Auster

Do not fool yourselves. Behind a narrative with a literary style – the narrator’s – apparently intuitive and simultaneously filled with a straight simplicity and ornaments that seem to evoke a 19th century writing ('there is no escape from the wretchedness that stalks the earth'), a world of allusions and references are hiding, and these make The Brooklyn Follies one of the most inspired works of Paul Auster.

The narrator of the story is Nathan Glass, a retired insurance clerk who decides to become a self-taught writer, and you need to be a great author like Auster to take the risk of letting a feeble writer like Nathan control the narrative and still fascinate the reader. Maybe that’s because there are things that can only assume a great expressiveness through the simple words of a simple person – the honest and yet naïve talent of enchantment and illusion becomes more plausible through the voice of the ignorant than through that of the wise man. Or, in a different perspective, and using a Shakespearean analogy, Iago does not fully pronounce the words of accusation, he knows the effect will be far more devastating if Othello himself verbalises the corollary of suspicion that will destroy him.

In spite of all, the usual Auster is there: once more an abrupt beginning – 'I was looking for a quiet place to die'; once more a character-writer; once more a book-within-the-book; once more Brooklyn; once more an immeasurable yet unfulfilled will that some details, waved at us en passant, had been more deeply developed because we are sure that other springs are hidden there – it wouldn’t be the first time that Auster carries a detail, a character or a situation from a novel to develop it in another one; once more so many traces that make up, on their own right, what can already be entitled an Austerian – but not austere – style… Repetitive? No way. Despite so many references and common traces, The Brooklyn Follies is a completely new work, and not just because of the style imposed by the narrator’s voice which, to the eyes of the Auster reader is like Coca-Cola in the advertising catch-phrase devised by the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa, 'primeiro estranha-se, depois entranha-se' (first you drive it out, then it drives into you).

The Book of Human Folly, the book within The Brooklyn Follies, the agglomerate of short stories, episodes, loose sentences and descriptions that Nathan Glass writes and reveals throughout the novel is a real prestidigitator’s hat and shows well Auster’ talent to compose anecdotes of human life with a large amount of likelihood (already proven in his National Story Project, which led to the collection True Tales of American Life). These are the anecdotes that make up the traces of the bigger anecdote, for Nathan’s life is also anecdotic – and like any good comedian of life, he finds himself a suitable sidekick for the comedy, his huge nephew Tom Wood, who had vanished from his life years ago and was reencountered in Brooklyn during the new stage of his/their life/lives. The associations may be countless, from the comedy partnership of Laurel and Hardy to the static tragicomedy union of Vladimir and Estragon, but what is certain is that the relationship between the two characters ends up becoming, to a great extent, the fuel that propels the action.

I could still mention, to conclude, the themes focused throughout the “follies”, the “follies” of life by themselves – passion, friendship, ageing, dream, homosexuality, ambition, disillusion… – but all those aspects, and many others, only mean a new wrapping for the big streamline, the timelessness that we start to find as a pattern in Auster’s work: the path taken by human life, filled with chance, coincidence, detours, returns, surprises, encounters and evasions and, above all, a lot of folly.(less)

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Jul 15, 2012 Sara rated it 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed it, the first part more than the final winding-up of the plot. Nothing wrong with happy endings, especially when the narrator begins the book "looking for a quiet place to die." But the happy ending is not an ending, since the book ends at 8 AM on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

The reviews of this book are as interesting as the book itself. I liked this one:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Yes, the characters are ALL a bit over the top but they are also fun. The scene with the mi...more

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May 15, 2012 Carl Brush rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Brooklyn Follies is my second Paul Auster (see Book of Illusions, and it has one of the best opening lines I’ve ever seen. Every week, the SF Chronicle publishes a little box that claims to be grabby openers. Most of them aren’t, and certainly none I’ve seen there matches, “I was looking for a quiet place to die.” Unfortunately, The Brooklyn Follies doesn’t live up to the promise of its curtain raiser.
It’s an exquisite setup. Nathan is in his September years—approaching sixty—and suffering f...more

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Apr 16, 2012 Nino Frewat rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: american-fiction

Is Paul Auster worth your time?

This is my second Auster, the first was “Travels in the Scriptorium”Both works I have “read” as audiobooks while taking interminable journeys around the country. The journeys themselves were less taxing than the books.
The reason I checked both is because of -and I’m not ashamed to admit it- the publicity this guy gets!

“The Brooklyn Follies”, written in the first person narrative form, is about an ex-insurance salesman, Nathan Wood, well into his 60s, who survives c...more Is Paul Auster worth your time?

This is my second Auster, the first was “Travels in the Scriptorium”Both works I have “read” as audiobooks while taking interminable journeys around the country. The journeys themselves were less taxing than the books.
The reason I checked both is because of -and I’m not ashamed to admit it- the publicity this guy gets!

“The Brooklyn Follies”, written in the first person narrative form, is about an ex-insurance salesman, Nathan Wood, well into his 60s, who survives cancer and returns back to his native Brooklyn (Auster’s perpetual home). Does this return symbolize or mean anything? No. Do we get to feel Brooklyn? No.
Serendipity brings him in contact with his nephew; a would-have-been brilliant author / critic, had it not been for... Well we don’t really know. Tom Glass, Nathan Wood’s nephew (and yes, Nathan/Auster does mention this brilliant pun), foregoes his writing ambition for the “safe” job of a cab-driver.

Gradually, characters inhabit the story, effacing any potential interest it might spur, besides it being a family-reunion fiction.
It feels tedious, and possibly boring, to give an account of what happens along, but I can safely say that, in comparison with third-degree storytellers, no other writer I know of uses this “magical wand” so frequently, and liberally, to make things happen and work like Auster does: Love develops, people are reunited, oppressed freed, money distributed to those in-need, people cured... So much, that at the end of the story, I am impatiently waiting for: “And they lived happily ever after”

In all fairness, real life is real life; monotonous, uneventful, duplicate acquaintances tending towards normality... and it is about this ever-flow with its stubborn perturbations, here and there, that Auster writes. But he could have done it with style, with some depth, with something original, something different, than the everyday banter we engage in.
Throughout the book, a couple of stories are told about Poe, Melville, and Kafka, though they feel to me as”Did you know?”blurbs.

To the post’s question, my answer is No! This will definitely be my last Auster; there are other contemporary writers out there, some certainly in Brooklyn, who better deserve our time and support. (less)

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Oct 01, 2011 Talia Carner rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a novel in which the subtext is by far more interesting than the narration appearing on the page. And Auster seems to have worked hard to weave this subtext.

The retired, recently divorced Nat becomes reacquainted with his nephew, Tom, formerly an English professor who's failed to complete his Ph.D. Tom says, "Poe was artifice and the gloom of midnight chambers. Thoreau was simplicity and the radiance of the outdoors." In these words Auster captures the two main characters: Tom, the erud...more This is a novel in which the subtext is by far more interesting than the narration appearing on the page. And Auster seems to have worked hard to weave this subtext.

The retired, recently divorced Nat becomes reacquainted with his nephew, Tom, formerly an English professor who's failed to complete his Ph.D. Tom says, "Poe was artifice and the gloom of midnight chambers. Thoreau was simplicity and the radiance of the outdoors." In these words Auster captures the two main characters: Tom, the erudite yet bewildered and lost literary expert, who, like Poe, epitomizes disappointment and gloom, and Uncle Nat, the uncomplicated man who watches life on the sidelines and who is more interested in rehabilitating the lives of others than his own.

From that point on, the novel is peppered with borrowed literary concepts, starting with Rousseau ("As long as man had the courage to reject what society told him to do, he could live life on his own terms.") to Voltaire, in the form of the colorful, yet tragic, figure of Harry.

But that is also where the problem of this novel lies: A reader must work very hard at getting to the bottom of every scene--if not of every paragraph--in order to make the story come to life. The surface story is merely a mild plot that lacks either momentum or tension. When events finally move at the end, they are narrated succinctly, as an afterthought, a summary of what should have been allowed to bloom on the page in real time and to reach a climatic crescendo. If the reader has developed any attachment to the characters, she would be disappointed at the lack of emotions when these characters finally seem to resolve their problems. The summarizing tone, like an epilogue, must have been written on one leg at a Brooklyn phone booth rather than toiled at at the author's desk.

I could not help but compare the lackluster narrator of "Brooklyn Follies," Nat, to Auster's engaging narrator in "The Book of Illusions," David Zimmer. And when I thought of the unforgettable brilliant depiction of the comedian Hector Mann and compared it to the flat persona of Tom in "Brooklyn Follies," I wished that Auster would do better next time.

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Sep 12, 2011 Judy Mann rated it 1 of 5 stars

This was one lousy book. Now I've never read this guy before but this book had all the ingredients of good story.Here:
The narrator starts off miserable- which is great.
He's neurotic - which is also great.
His family is dysfunctional- which is marvelous.
His ex wife hates him.Wonderful.
He hates her.
Wonderful again.
And here he is in Brooklyn- Perfect. We're cooking.
So what went wrong?
Everything.
The book just sunk from there.
In fact if it hadn't been for those ingredients I would've stopped reading a...more

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Aug 27, 2011 Nancy rated it 3 of 5 stars

I want to say upfront: I enjoyed this. I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. The story is clever, engaging, entertaining. I didn't mean to read the end first, but I did, because I had to KNOW. The Brooklyn Follies is narrated by Nathan, a recently divorced cancer survivor who has come to Brooklyn to die (or at least, to write a book about Great Follies He Has Known.) Lucky for him, before he can sink into utter despair, he runs into his nephew Tom, an unhappy ex-academic who is now work...more

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Feb 20, 2011 Andypants rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary

What Auster managed to do in this book that impressed me most of all was to write a book in the first person narrative that was believable. The setup is that an intelligent but abrasive old man has recently divorced and is going back to Brooklyn where he was born, for no particular reason except to get away from the wreck of his marriage, and to mope about his cancer.

It's a great setup for a first person narrative, since we the readers get to meet every character and get their background at the...more

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Dec 30, 2010 Donnie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: bookclub, fiction

I'd like to give this book 4.5 stars, but goodreads.com fails to strive for precision.

I really, really, really enjoyed this book. The voice and tone of it is so warm and an inviting. I loved every character in the book, not so much for their personalities, but rather that Auster portrays each one with so much sensitivity and kindness. There is no judgement or scorn in his approach to these people, despite their "follies."

There isn't much of a "story" here. Really, for me, the "story" occurs on...more I'd like to give this book 4.5 stars, but goodreads.com fails to strive for precision.

I really, really, really enjoyed this book. The voice and tone of it is so warm and an inviting. I loved every character in the book, not so much for their personalities, but rather that Auster portrays each one with so much sensitivity and kindness. There is no judgement or scorn in his approach to these people, despite their "follies."

There isn't much of a "story" here. Really, for me, the "story" occurs on the last page, when the events of the book are placed in a context larger than the book itself. It makes everything one just read seem less important and more important at the same time. Lately, I have been wondering how I should approach life. I mean should one take life seriously, or should we just coast- do what's good in the moment? And, if I take life seriously, does that cover investing in human beings or does it just mean "being an adult," being responsible, learning to stand alone. I don't know what the answer is, but this book made me think about it more. It would seem that Auster falls on the side of investing in human beings and not taking life too seriously.

I feel as if he is asking us to put a strong value on retreat, giving in, the victory in flat-out survival. Every character in the novel is raising some kind of white flag. The characters are dashed; ephemeral hopes dissolved into concrete daily grinds, and the beauty Auster is trying to portray for us is the gentle pleasure of being ok with defeat. It is almost as if he wants us to revel in surrender. He shows us that there are rich intimate spaces and deeper connections, perhaps, in a world that is constructed around commiseration than the one we are used to, the one in which we lie about our aspirations, hide our failures, and strive to make something of ourselves. I wonder how plausible this world is; it does sound and feel very rich and comforting.

Everyone fails, and when those around us fail, we somehow tend to love them more. The old adage that flaws and imperfections are what make each person unique and beautiful in his or her own ways, is reflected wonderfully in this book. Somehow, Auster is asking us to skip that whole part in between failure and others loving us, where we feel shame, embarrassment, and pain in the face of our missteps. We have so much to learn from our wrong turns and so much to take in during each fall that we might as well get over ourselves and open up to the world and people around us.

There is a place that is referred to often in the book, called the "hotel existence" a place where one can escape the bullshit and miserable aspects of the world we live in, a place where one can retreat to a life less entangled in the morass of the planet. The people in the book never get there in a physical sense, but it becomes clear to me that Auster means to say that the "hotel existence" is bullshit in and of itself. There is no true escape from the bullshit. Life is fucked. It just is. There isn't escape there is only the white flag.

It was an awesome book.
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Nov 18, 2010 Aaron rated it 3 of 5 stars

The narrator of Brooklyn Follies, an ex-insurance salesman named Nathan Glass, is compiling a book of follies. He gives the example of a young Jewish boy whose prescient German parents ship him to America in the early 1930s. After the war, the boy, now a young doctor in New York, learns that by some miracle, his mother, who he has not seen since he left Europe, has survived the Holocaust. He arranges for her to fly to New York, the day arrives, but before he can pick her up from the airport, he...more The narrator of Brooklyn Follies, an ex-insurance salesman named Nathan Glass, is compiling a book of follies. He gives the example of a young Jewish boy whose prescient German parents ship him to America in the early 1930s. After the war, the boy, now a young doctor in New York, learns that by some miracle, his mother, who he has not seen since he left Europe, has survived the Holocaust. He arranges for her to fly to New York, the day arrives, but before he can pick her up from the airport, he is called into emergency surgery. After performing an operation, who should he see being wheeled into the hospital but his unconscious mother -- in her son's absence she has taken a taxi from the airport to meet him, but the taxi gets into a smashup. She never recovers consciousness.

What do we make of such a story? That is the question Auster is ultimately asking in this book.

After struggling and surviving through the worst, the boy and his mother were ALMOST there ... against all odds they were able to see and almost TOUCH the possibility of reunion, closure, happiness, peace...God knows they deserved it for their suffering. But the world is a cold place, and maybe that glimpse is all we should ever expect. And maybe only the LUCKY ones get a fleeting glimpse.

The story Auster unfolds isn't as grim as that, but it follows the same "folly" structure. I found the characters to be colorful and charming, and the plot for the most part surprising and witty.

As the novel wears on, things became predictable and a bit sappy, but never so much that I didnt want to see what happened next. Given the rigid folly structure (bad stuff, things get better, possibility for happiness, really bad stuff), predictability was clearly a hurdle Auster decided he could overcome through interesting characters and an engaging plot. In my opinion, he falls short, but it's a good effort. All in all, Auster does a good job highlighting the vibrancy and charm of everyday life -- a vibrancy, he points out, that must be enjoyed while it can.(less)

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Jun 28, 2010 Taylor Kate Brown rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Nov 14, 2009 Sara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 12th-grade

This was a very entertaining and interesting book with many twists in it. The book was full of irony because so many unexpected things happened. Paul Auster incorporated many different styles and techniques of writing in his novel such as a scene with a long monologue to a chapter that was structured like a skit.

This book told a story of each character, each story telling a truth about life. For example, one of the character was named Tom. Tom was a academically successful in school and attende...more

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Oct 24, 2009 Elizabeth K. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2007-new-reads

I confess I waited a long time to pick this up because Paul Auster was getting hyped up one side and down the other and I was fed up with it. My loss, it seems, as this was very good, the kind of book where I liked it more with every page. It's a character-driven novel about a somewhat unlikely assortment of people who are thrown together, and spends most of its time looking at how their various backgrounds impact how they develop relationships (all sorts) with each other. The characters were ma...more

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About Paul Auster

Paul Auster is the bestselling author of Sunset Park, Invisible, Man in the Dark, The Book of Illusions, The Brooklyn Follies, and The New York Triology, among many other works. His books have been translated into forty-three languages. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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“Reading was my escape and my comfort, my consolation, my stimulant of choice: reading for the pure pleasure of it, for the beautiful stillness that surrounds you when you hear an author's words reverberating in your head.” — 143 people liked it

“When a person is lucky enough to live inside a story, to live inside an imaginary world, the pains of this world disappear. For as long as the story goes on, reality no longer exists.” — 117 people liked it

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