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Moon Palace

3.97 of 5 stars 3.97 · rating details · 7,063 ratings · 311 reviews

Marco Stanley Fogg is an orphan, a child of the sixties, a quester tirelessly seeking the key to his past, the answers to the ultimate riddle of his fate. As Marco journeys from the canyons of Manhattan to the deserts of Utah, he encounters a gallery of characters and a series of events as rich and surprising as any in modern fiction.

Beginning during the summer that men fi...more

Paperback, 320 pages

Published April 1st 1990 by Penguin Books (first published 1989)

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Mar 20, 2012 Duc rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: living-library, the-best

This book is about writing and observations and hardship. This book is my first introduction to Auster. After reading this book, I went to the university library to look up obscure writers. One of the writers is Giordano Bruno who believed that there was a parallel universe back in medieval times. There is the theme of journey, travel and exploration into other worlds. The narrator has a name inspired by Phileas Fogg, the fictional character in Jules Verns ‘Around the World in Eighty Days’.
The...more

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Jun 26, 2007 Paul rated it 5 of 5 stars

Zadie Smith, in an introduction for a Nonrequired Reading Anthology brought a James Joyce quote to my attention
"That ideal reader suffering from an ideal insomnia" -Joyce

"The ideal reader cannot sleep when holding the writer he was meant to be with." - Smith

This is how I feel about Paul Auster, especially concerning Moon Palace. An odd series of events lead me to read this book at the perfect time. I was on a road trip in which the route of my companions and I followed a route traced by the prot...more

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Feb 11, 2013 M. rated it 3 of 5 stars

Това е първата ми среща с Остър, тъй че не мога да правя сравнение с другите му романи. Като цяло ми хареса, но имам и доста негативни наблюдения върху текста.
Някъде до към средата на книгата бях почти очарована от повествованието и стила на писане. Главният герой е млад особняк, който няма как да не ти стане симпатичен. Малко ала този в "Спасителят в ръжта", сирак, на когото се случват невероятни неща. След като изхарчва и последните си пари,остава на улицата, почти умира, но тъкмо тогава го сп...more Това е първата ми среща с Остър, тъй че не мога да правя сравнение с другите му романи. Като цяло ми хареса, но имам и доста негативни наблюдения върху текста.
Някъде до към средата на книгата бях почти очарована от повествованието и стила на писане. Главният герой е млад особняк, който няма как да не ти стане симпатичен. Малко ала този в "Спасителят в ръжта", сирак, на когото се случват невероятни неща. След като изхарчва и последните си пари,остава на улицата, почти умира, но тъкмо тогава го спасява младо момиче, което е виждал веднъж на някакъв купон. Оказва се, че "жената-дракон" (както сама нарича себе си, когато го прелъстява - с китайски произход е) го е издирвала, понеже се влюбила в него. След като е спасен и здравословното му състояние се подобрява, Ем Ес си намира работа като асистент на възрастен болен човек. Жената-дракон, разбира се, му е гадже. Ефинг, болният, се оказва много проклет старец, но нашето момче се привързва към него. Една или две глави от книгата са посветени именно на него - то не са приключения в Дивия Запад, сменяне на самоличността и името, не са чудесии, но както и да е. Старецът умира и Ем Ес се свързва със сина му, с когото стават първи дружки. Прочитаме и историята на Барбър (сина на починалия) с всичките й подробности. И после се оказва, че това бил бащата на нашия Ем Ес и всичко си *ба майката. Такъв сюжет бива за сапунена опера или за латиноамерикански автор. Обаче тук не ми се върза. После прочетох, че случайността била една от любимите теми на Пол Остър и в това няма лошо, стига да е направено добре. Но "Лунен дворец" е като сбирщайн от много различни истории, всяка от които сама по себе си е разказана по интересен начин, но са съшити някак изкуствено, насилствено ако щете. Героите в рамките на отделните истории също са развити чудесно - чичото на Ем Ес,Виктор - музикант, лишен от амбиция, който обича да чете книги и оставя на племенника си цялата си колекция (която служи на последния като мебелировка в продължение на години), Ефинг, Барбър. Изключение прави само Кити Лу, китайката. Може би защото нейната история е разказана надве-натри.
Другото, което ми направи впечатление в книгата, е диалогът. И като захванах темата за разкриването на героите, се замислих, че почти никой от тях няма характерен глас (освен Ефинг, но когато се впуска да разказва историята на живота си,като че ли го губи). И изобщо в "Лунен дворец" диалогът е много оскъден, което само по себе си не е недостатък, но когато и малкото пряка реч не изпълнява една от основните си функции, нещо определено куца.
Иначе има интересни препратки към известни автори, учени (като Тесла, който е епизодичен второстепенен герой всъщност), книгите играят съществена роля в живота и на тримата основни персонажа, а работата на Ем Ес при Ефинг се състои основно в четене, както и в описване на обстановката, предметите, понеже възрастният човек е и сляп.
Също така, "Лунен дворец" изобилства от запомнящи се сцени: Ем Ес, който прекарва месеци сам в квартирата си, хранейки се само с варени яйца докато чете книгите, съставляващи цялата му мебелировка, а след това ги продава; Ем Ес и старецът в инвалидна количка, които раздават 50-доларови банкноти по улиците на Ню Йорк в проливния дъжд; Барбър, който пада в прясно изкопан гроб и поради свръхнаднорменото му тегло, се налага да го извадят от там с кран и много други.
Ако мога да обобщя, струва ми се, че действията и думите на героите са на заден план, а на преден - съдбата и случайността. Може би това е била и целта на автора, или посланието, ако е искал да остави такова. Че всички се люшкаме в морето на живота и нашите действия или бездействия са нищожни в сравнение със стихията на съдбата. Малко клиширано, нали?

P.S. Преводът на Иглика Василева е превъзходен, както винаги - върви гладко, нищо не препъва мисълта и погледа.(less)

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Jan 23, 2011 Javi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Gran novela. Muy bien escrita, sin duda. La sintaxis es estupenda, y el ritmo, también. Las situaciones y los ambientes están muy logrados, yendo a lo esencial y sin regodearse en lo meramente estético. Hay que escribir muy bien para que no se noten las costuras, y para lograr esa sencillez que consigue Auster en este libro. Escribir en inglés ayuda, claro, en castellano o en alemán las frases pueden hacerse interminables como mero recurso, pero el inglés no se presta tanto. El leit-motiv de la...more

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Apr 06, 2010 Candice rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone

Recommended to Candice by: Skud

Shelves: 2009, read-in-french, favorites, 2010, american-litterature, read-in-english, re-read, books-i-own

I loved it. I loved reading this book, but I wish I hadn't read it so fast. I read it because of someone, and I can't thank him enough.

I put myself in M.S's shoes, and I cried, I laughed, I dreamt.

Paul has a poetic use of language, that's sure.

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Jan 25, 2012 Zaki rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Paul Auster is a great, great storyteller.

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Mar 22, 2009 Jimmy rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: male, novel, year-1980s, and-a-half-stars

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

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Sep 20, 2008 Bethany rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Bethany by: "Jackson Publick"

I read this book because it was mentioned as a favorite of one of the creators of my favorite show, "The Venture Brothers."

Paul Auster writes an interesting book, and commits a few of the sins with which I am most disappointed in books. The twists are foreseeable, and only the characters pivotal to the plot are paid any attention to.

However the characters he does pay attention to are very well developed, almost to the point of distraction. Which, to me, made a lot of sense in relation to the nat...more

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Jan 30, 2008 Geoff rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who paint their nails black and write bad poetry

Shelves: overrated-nonsense

What on earth?

This book was recommended to me by a person whose taste in literature I hold in high regard. That's why I was surprised to discover, halfway through the book, that it's a really terrible piece of pretentious writing. I felt no empathy with the main character -- a really spoiled, pretentiously "eccentric" kid with an Asian fetish trying to revel in the black aethetic of his free-fall into poverty. He's saved by Kitty Wu, the sexually precocious daughter of Chinese royalty or some su...more

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Nov 30, 2008 Tara rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Elizabeth Euresti

Auster's poetic use of language and the supremely convincing characterization of his protagonist made this novel one that I remember not so much by plot arches [though the plot is faultless], but in very vivid images of moments or point-surveys of MS Fogg's life.
Living in an apartment furnished only with boxes of books that for his bed, chairs, table, and entertainment.
Living in a shrub-cave in Central Park.
Outlaw cave hideouts in the desert, covered in obscure paintings.
Handing out money to pe...more

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Feb 09, 2012 Kevin E. rated it 2 of 5 stars

Standard-issue Auster novel that explores the same themes as his debut, 'The New York Trilogy', with the same conclusions. The novel isn't particularly good; the protagonist, unambitious and at the will of inertia, steps into a series of coincidences that lead him to a profound universal truth while robbing him of people, money and other beloved things. This is a story as old as the hills that eventually get explored at the novel's conclusion.[return][return]While this is a blip in Auster's cata...more

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Aug 06, 2011 Matthew added it · review of another edition

Toward the end of The Brooklyn Follies, Auster's 2005 novel, he states; "Eventually, we would all die, and when our bodies were carried off and buried in the ground, only our friends and families would know we were gone. Our deaths wouldn't be announced on radio or television. There wouldn't be any obituaries in the New York Times. No books would be written about us. That is an honor reserved for the powerful and famous, for the exceptionally talented, but who bothers to publish biographies of t...more Toward the end of The Brooklyn Follies, Auster's 2005 novel, he states; "Eventually, we would all die, and when our bodies were carried off and buried in the ground, only our friends and families would know we were gone. Our deaths wouldn't be announced on radio or television. There wouldn't be any obituaries in the New York Times. No books would be written about us. That is an honor reserved for the powerful and famous, for the exceptionally talented, but who bothers to publish biographies of the ordinary, the unsung, the workaday people we pass on the street and barely take the trouble to notice?" Auster thereby provides a glimpse of an idea that he develops more fully elsewhere, his Biography Project. Auster's works are always concerned with the relationship between life, existence, identity, writing and narrative, so it is no surprise that biographies, and autobiographies, are an ever present component of his stories. In 2001, Auster edited True Tales of American Life, (later renamed to I Thought My Father Was God) a collection from NPR's National Story Project, which no doubt provided the impetus for the biography project he mentioned in The Brooklyn Follies.

Auster goes on to say, "Most lives vanish. A person dies, and little by little all traces of that life disappear. An inventor survives in his inventions, an architect survives in his buildings, but most people leave behind no monuments or lasting achievements: a shelf of photograph albums, a fifth-grade report card, a bowling trophy, an ashtray filched from a Florida hotel room on the final morning of some dimly remembered vacation. A few objects, a few documents, and a smattering of impressions made on other people." This is a poignant realization that Auster explored touchingly in his early non-fiction work, The Invention of Solitude, particularly in the short story Portrait of an Invisible Man, a description of the aftermath of the death of his father. In sifting through the detritus of his father's home, the old suits, the drawers full of correspondence, the contents of kitchen cabinets, closets and attics, the flotsum of an entire life, Paul discovers much that is true and much that was unknown and surprising.

I bring all this up because in reading both Moon Palace and the Invention of Solitude immediately following The Brooklyn Follies, I was struck by the intertextual nature of all these works. Auster tells you exactly what he is doing, but not always in the same book you're reading. Someone once said that Antonioni only made one film in several installments. I think much the same thing could be said for Paul Auster. In Moon Palace, Auster embarked on his biography project for three characters: Marco Stanley Fogg, Thomas Effing and Solomon Barber, producing for each of them a biography that would "rescue the stories and facts and documents before they disappeared-and shape them into a continuous narrative, the narrative of a life." In Effing's case, he even goes so far as to have the character write his own last testament and his own obituary. To Auster, this is no morbid exercise, but rather an affirmation of life. For many of his characters, the constitution of the self is not a foregone conclusion, but rather a constant process of revision and redrafting. In his biography project, Auster promises to "resurrect that person in words, and once the pages had been printed and the story had been bound between covers, they would have something to hold on to for the rest of their lives. Not only that, but something that would outlive them, that would outlive us all." In Moon Palace, Auster shows us the intertwined nature of all our lives, the startling coincidences, the hidden connections to seeming strangers and casual acquiantances, the shameful family secrets and the anonymous good deeds that bring us all together into the pages of a single story and make us all characters in our own narratives.(less)

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May 09, 2013 Daniel Buitrago rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Estos días, leyendo El Palacio de la Luna, de Paul Auster, he pensado más de una vez que su protagonista tenía mucho que ver con el de El guardián entre el centeno. Ayer murió J. D. Salinger, padre de la criatura, y vuelvo a pensar que las casualidades existen, o que, sin llamarlas necesariamente así, el mundo está hecho de las conexiones entre el sinfín de cosas que nos rodean, los millones de sensaciones que nos asaltan a todos a la vez, y el cruce de nuestros pensamientos y su producción impa...more Estos días, leyendo El Palacio de la Luna, de Paul Auster, he pensado más de una vez que su protagonista tenía mucho que ver con el de El guardián entre el centeno. Ayer murió J. D. Salinger, padre de la criatura, y vuelvo a pensar que las casualidades existen, o que, sin llamarlas necesariamente así, el mundo está hecho de las conexiones entre el sinfín de cosas que nos rodean, los millones de sensaciones que nos asaltan a todos a la vez, y el cruce de nuestros pensamientos y su producción imparable.

No es que Holden Caulfield, el hijo de Salinger, sea primo hermano de Marco Stanley Fogg, el de Auster. Cada uno vive en un momento diferente y los Estados Unidos han cambiado también lo suyo entre los años cincuenta y los sesenta. Lo que sí ocurre es que en las dos novelas hay unos cuantos puntos comunes, aparte del gran escenario en el que las dos se desarrollan: Nueva York.

Tanto Holden Caulfield como Fogg son dos jóvenes en plena búsqueda de sí mismos. Muchos, cuando leen El guardián entre el centeno a eso de los quince años, acaban identificados con su protagonista, reconociéndose en su actitud y en su rebeldía. Les entiendo, aunque es posible que hoy nuestro modo de vida les separe de esas pulsiones algo más básicas de Caulfield, distintas de otras más "tecnológicas" que hoy les asaltan. Quizás porque lo leí con el doble de la edad que se le supone a su lector ideal, no tuve la sensación de que debía estar entre mis libros de cabecera (¿los tengo?). Tal vez también rechacé ese tesón autodestructivo del protagonista, algo en lo que coincide con Fogg, al menos en una buena parte de la novela.

Otros personajes también me recuerdan los unos a los otros. Sunny, la prostituta de El guardián, aparece casi de la misma forma que Kitty Woo, la amante y después novia de Fogg. Otros individuos con un toque redentor surgen para dar un poco de esperanza (no tanto a los protagonistas como al propio lector). Son el señor Spencer, ex-profesor de Holden, y Effing, viejo excéntrico que sirve a Fogg para centrarse y asumir alguna responsabilidad.

Fogg acaba tocando fondo cuando pasa una temporada viviendo en Central Park. Allí mismo se produce uno de los hitos de El guardián: la conversación surrealista que Holden mantiene una noche con un taxista, preocupado por saber dónde van los patos del lago de Central Park cuando éste se congela cada invierno. En El Palacio hay otro encuentro nocturno: un encuentro con la imaginación más pura, la de un joven negro que juega con un paraguas roto. Esto traerá alguna consecuencia; la noche cumple su papel motor en ambas novelas.(less)

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Jul 31, 2012 Aaber Rinstad rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

I'd give this book one star only, but I feel maybe (though I'm not thoroughly convinced) that somewhere under all the awful, pretentious drivel there's a kernel of something interesting. I mean - by itself - the plot elements have the makings of something to pique the interest of even a casual reader; curious characters, strange happenings, wordplay and symbolism. And maybe I'm missing something others can see in this book. Apparently it's pretty well received overall. I feel, however, that this...more I'd give this book one star only, but I feel maybe (though I'm not thoroughly convinced) that somewhere under all the awful, pretentious drivel there's a kernel of something interesting. I mean - by itself - the plot elements have the makings of something to pique the interest of even a casual reader; curious characters, strange happenings, wordplay and symbolism. And maybe I'm missing something others can see in this book. Apparently it's pretty well received overall. I feel, however, that this book is flawed, if not just outright bad.

One problem is that despite Auster's attempts to imbue his characters with interesting characteristics, he fails miserably at expounding on these qualities in the actual narrative. Let me elaborate: he doesn't describe people through their actions or interactions. Not even through dialogue. He just whips up an adjective and expects you to buy it. Sol has great "wit and charm", Auster (or rather, Fogg) informs us, but I cannot recall a single instance of this wit or charm actually occurring in the book. It feels stumblingly awkward, and on several occasions exasperatingly lazy.

Halfway through the book I actually threw up my head and groaned loudly at the quality of the writing. I think it was during introduction of Kitty - a character and plot line so weak you could use it to dilute water. She's probably the least believable female stereotype I've ever had the misfortune to encounter. And also so obviously the writers personal fantasy that's it's embarrassing. At one point Auster (oops, I mean Fogg) candidly tells us "I pulled down Kitty's jeans and panties and brought her to orgasm with my tounge". I would have winced but for the sad inadequacy of the text at producing arousal of any kind.

And it's not just the ennui of the sex scenes or the morbidly one-dimensional characters either. The way he writes dialogue is just astoundingly bad. Not a single one of his characters has a unique voice, they all sound like the same person when they speak. He might as well have skipped the dialogue all together, as it only functions to forward plot, and often only in only the most rudimentary way.

Another huge problem is that the protagonist is not only a shallow, self absorbed sociopath with no redeeming qualities whatsoever, he's not even interesting. I had absolutely no interest in finding out anything about his intentions or plans, motives or history. I didn't care one way or another about whether he starved or got laid or found out who his father was. He leaves this Kitty character and then wallows in misery like it's somehow not his own fault. He shows no empathy or interest towards anyone apart from himself.

Apart from these things Auster writes OK. He's never brilliant, often adequate, sometimes quite awful. There's a lot of symbolism, mainly revolving (ha!) around the moon. But it doesn't feel significant to the story, and it fails to deliver anything more than shallow connections and musings on the themes of the book - much like the characters, the setting and the dialogue. I had no idea what this book was trying to tell me, and I would venture to say that neither does Auster.

I finished Moon Palace on principle, because I don't like to judge a book unless I've read the whole thing. And for sure, there are some qualities in this book, particularly the story about Effing in the desert and the cave. But the qualities of the main story are sadly buried underneath a heap of purple prose, anemic characterization and bland dialogue. I was recommended this book, but I will sadly not be recommending it to anyone, ever.(less)

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Jun 08, 2012 Carlos rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: papel

Después de acabar la universidad Marco Stanley Fogg va dejándose caer, sin ningún motivo especial, en una especie de apatía absoluta quelo lleva a perder el contacto con todos sus amigos ya no intentar tansiquiera encontrar un trabajo que le permita vivir, por lo que pronto termina desahuciado y viviendo en Central Park de lo que encuentra y delo que le da alguna gente que se apiada de él.
Gravemente enfermo, lo encuentran y lo salvan de la muerte y de su estado de apatía su antiguo compañero de

...more

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Feb 09, 2012 Paul Shirley rated it 4 of 5 stars

I made a mistake with this book - not a theoretical mistake, a concrete mistake. After finishing a third of Moon Palace, I accidentally left it in my brother's apartment (in New York, fittingly). The mistake, though, turned out to be a blessing because, when I finished MP, I had to go back and skim that first third in order to figure out what I'd forgotten.

A lot, as it turns out. Auster pretty well sets out what he's going to do in the beginning - he's going to tell the story of how his protagon...more

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Jan 06, 2012 Corey Pung rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorite

According to Auster, as a starving artist fresh out of college he dashed off a few formulaic mystery novels under a nom-de plume to bring in cash. I have reason to believe this, considering what Auster’s pictures looked like from when he was in his twenties. His face had a sunken and brooding quality to it, as if he’d not only learned how to skip a meal, but also how to get by on little sleep. To this day, Auster won’t reveal what those early books were called, nor what his pen name was.

When he...more

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Jul 21, 2011 Molly rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, fiction

I stumbled upon this book in my senior or junior year of high school and reread it about one year......and to my pleasant surprise it help up beautiful.

I do not want to give away the plot but I will say that when I read it for the 1st time 20 years ago, I felt it was a modern day Great Expectations. Now, I would say that it is a great example of metafiction. There is the story of Marco Stanley Fogg (the main character) and then there is the story of the man he winds up being caretaker for (Thoma...more

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Jul 01, 2009 R. rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009

This was a Friends of the Library book purchase - only a dime; and I'm writing in it. Underlining sentences, circling words. Auster has the authorial voice I need to hear right now - a zen melancholy.

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Jun 10, 2009 Nathan Hobby rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adolescence, literary-fiction, read-in-2009, read-in-2000

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Why I love this book
The youthful quest for identity and meaning is literalised into the quest for survival and in doing so perhaps it resonates with my own romantic visions of being young and feeling alone in the world. The threat of starvation, living in a cave in Central Park, surviving by selling off secondhand books, the determination to do nothing all to save oneself – all exaggerated literalisations of my own early twenties, of being a student and then being unemployed for a time.

In relyi...more

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Aug 17, 2012 Gijs Grob rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, novels, english, 20th-century, american-literature, 20th-century-1980s

Fantastische, in de eerste persoon vertelde roman over een jongen, die opgroeit bij zijn vreemde oom, al diens boeken erft, daar zijn meubels van maakt tot al zijn geld op is. (view spoiler)...more

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Apr 03, 2009 Mcruz rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: sólo para acérrimos seguidores de Auster

Sinceramente, me esperaba mucho más de este libro. Hay demasiadas casualidades imposibles y creo que al final tanto forzar las cosas termina provocando en el lector la sensación de que, más que una novela coherente, hay tres o cuatro relatos cortos (el joven universitario-mendigo, el excéntrico millonario, la historia del obeso profesor de universidad...) unidos por un débil (debilísimo) hilo narrativo (se supone que la búsqueda de los orígenes familiares de M.S., tema que, dicho sea de paso, a...more

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Feb 24, 2013 Prowisorio rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Auster is een van de weinige schrijvers die het voor elkaar krijgt om me met de eerste zinnen al direct een boek 'in te zuigen'. Normaal gesproken heb ik wat tijd nodig om in het verhaal te komen; soms geef ik me zelfs pas aan het eind gewonnen. Maar niet bij Auster, ook nu weer niet:
"It was the summer that men first walked on the moon. I was very young back then, but I did not believe there would be a future."

Twee zinnen en ik ben verloren. Ik kan niet uitleggen waarom dat zo is; het gebeurt. H...more Auster is een van de weinige schrijvers die het voor elkaar krijgt om me met de eerste zinnen al direct een boek 'in te zuigen'. Normaal gesproken heb ik wat tijd nodig om in het verhaal te komen; soms geef ik me zelfs pas aan het eind gewonnen. Maar niet bij Auster, ook nu weer niet:
"It was the summer that men first walked on the moon. I was very young back then, but I did not believe there would be a future."

Twee zinnen en ik ben verloren. Ik kan niet uitleggen waarom dat zo is; het gebeurt. Het levensverhaal van de jonge Fogg sleurt me mee: zijn jeugd, het overlijden van zijn moeder, zijn tijd bij uncle Victor, zijn afglijden tijdens het laatste collegejaar, de redding door zijn vrienden, zijn tijd bij de vreselijke Effing, zijn relatie met Kitty Wu en met zijn verloren gewaande vader. Ik word meegezogen, Fogg's verhaal laat me niet meer los.

Wie kan zich niet verplaatsen in de jonge Fogg, als hij door geldgebrek gedwongen wordt de boeken die hij ge��rfd heeft van zijn oom te verkopen aan Chandler, eigenaar van een tweedehands boekwinkel: "For me, books were not the containers of words so much as the words themselves, and the value of a given book was determined by its spiritual quality rather than its fysical condition. A dog-eared Homer was worth more than a sparkling Virgil, for example; three volumes of Descartes were worth less than one by Pascal. These were essential distinctions for me, but for Chandler they did not exist. A book was no more than a object to him, a thing that belonged to the world of things, and as such it was not radically different from a shoebox, a toilet plunger, of a coffeepot."

Wie herkent niet het plezier en de voldoening die je krijgt, als kunstenaar of 'gewoon mens', als je je niets meer hoeft aan te trekken van andermans meningen, niet meer hoeft te letten op 'de verkoopwaarde' van wat je produceert en zonder jezelf te beperken iets kunt maken alleen omdat jij dat zo wil maken? Zoals Effing in zijn grot, zijn paleis in de woestijn van Utah: "For the first time in his life, he stopped worrying about results, and as a consequence the terms 'success' and 'failure' had suddenly lost their meaning for him. The true purpose of art was not to create beautiful objects, he discovered. It was a method of understanding, a way of penetrating the world and finding one's own place in it, and whatever aesthetic qualities an individual canvas might have were almost an incidental by-product of the effort to engage oneself in this struggle, to enter into the thick of things."

Het is niet alleen het verhaal van Fogg dat dit boek zo speciaal maakt. Het zijn de dingen die gebeuren, de personages en dat wat ze doen, zeggen en denken die zo direct bij me binnen komen, dat ik onderdeel van het verhaal lijk uit te maken. Eventjes maar, helaas.

"The sun is the past, the earth is the present, the moon is the future."
(Nicolas Tesla, uit The problem of increasing human energy, juni 1900)(less)

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Nov 28, 2007 Deborah Katz rated it 5 of 5 stars

I love everything this man writes. Sometimes I take a break, thinking he's redundant.

Maybe he is. I don't give a damn. His characters are real inside their heads and inside the reader's heads. They are everyone's most heartbreaking anti-social impulses come to dream-life.

Like Grace Paley...only harder where she's soft, and softer where she's hard. Manhattan where she's Brooklyn. Brooklyn when she's Manhattan. And, of course, y'know, about dudes.

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Dec 31, 2009 Tim Lepczyk rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, fading-sports-star-good-not-great

Moon Palace is about a young man who orphaned at a young age. Throughout the novel, Marco Stanley Fogg, tries to find himself in the world. The events largely take place in the late 60's early 70's, but as the narrative bounces around the story expands to the early and mid 1900's. Much of the early novel is spent building Fogg up to be an unreliable narrator, so it's hard to say what happens and doesn't happen in this novel. If you believe, Fogg, then you buy into the entire convoluted story inv...more Moon Palace is about a young man who orphaned at a young age. Throughout the novel, Marco Stanley Fogg, tries to find himself in the world. The events largely take place in the late 60's early 70's, but as the narrative bounces around the story expands to the early and mid 1900's. Much of the early novel is spent building Fogg up to be an unreliable narrator, so it's hard to say what happens and doesn't happen in this novel. If you believe, Fogg, then you buy into the entire convoluted story involving Thomas Effing and Solomon Barber. If you don't, you begin to doubt everything that Fogg has said.

The stories of Effing, Barber, and Fogg all bear some similar resemblances. All of the men go through periods of transition physically where their bodies define them. Fogg becomes disastrously skinny, his body morphing into something skeletal and gaunt. Effing is trapped in his body by the loss of his legs and sight. Barber, has the opposite problem of Fogg and has ballooned to 350 pounds. These changes in appearance end up defining the men and their relationships with those around them. This further plays into the moon motif; however, it might be seen as a little heavy handed.

Another thing the men share in common is that they are all on their own near their early twenties. Effing's father dies while he's young. Barber's father disappears before he's born. And for Fogg, he has no idea who his father is.

In the end, no matter what you believe, this is all Fogg's story. For me, I believe he's invented the entire thing or embelished events to provide a greater context for his own life. All of the men's stories are too similar to be original, and while Auster asks us to push coincidence to the side and believe that things happen for a reason, he also contradicts this request with lines such as, "never take anything for granted. Especially when you're dealing with a person like me," spoken by Thomas Effing.

The entire relationship between Effing and Fogg is so full of lies and half truths that it permeates everything. That said, Auster's writing is compelling. It reads fast. The characters are memorable. The only downside of that is the sparseness of setting and descriptions of what characters are feeling. Auster glides over descriptions choosing to narrate page after page in a way that tells the reader what's happened but doesn't show it. Perhaps, if he choose to show more the book would have stretched well beyond 300 pages.

Overall, this is an interesting novel. I almost want to page through it again, because it's hard to tell if there is a lot of depth to it, or whether the number of thin narratives overlapping each gives the illusion of complexity.(less)

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Dec 26, 2012 Eileen rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone

Recommended to Eileen by: Richard

Shelves: own, recommended-by-friends, made-makes-me-cry

"Then the waitress came back and told me they were out of chicken pot pies. It was nothing at all, of course. In the large scheme of things, it was a mere speck of dust, an infinitesimal crumb of antimatter, and yet I suddenly felt as though the roof had caved in on me. There were no more chicken pot pies."

Moon Palace is so terribly elegant in its heartbreaking, humorous obscurity. I'm stuck in an emotional flux of enamourment, devastation, awe and horror. Art and reality, imagination and fictio...more

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Sep 07, 2009 Anne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Here's a solid, old-school novel. A good writerly read. Funny how elements (even the fact) of this author's maturity and skill strike me as anachronisms. Auster showcases some great story-telling & long exposition, with relatively little dialogue (which dominates so much contemporary fiction & screenplay-influenced writing).

He likes foretelling events as a kind of hook--starting out, say, revealing for nothing that the NYC-based protagonist eventually crosses the Utah & Nevada wilde...more

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Jun 05, 2011 Violet Yates rated it 5 of 5 stars

SPOILER ALERT
I loved this novel. Paul Auster has done it again, with remarkable depth and brilliance. As always, Auster's ideas are amazing, and make for an entertaining read as well as a study on identity.
Marco Stanley Fogg, or M.S. Fogg, is an orphan who seems to be spending the entire story searching for his identity, mostly, it appears, indirectly. The novel starts out in New York City, when M.S. is finishing up college at Columbia University. He begins by explaining about his relationship w...more SPOILER ALERT
I loved this novel. Paul Auster has done it again, with remarkable depth and brilliance. As always, Auster's ideas are amazing, and make for an entertaining read as well as a study on identity.
Marco Stanley Fogg, or M.S. Fogg, is an orphan who seems to be spending the entire story searching for his identity, mostly, it appears, indirectly. The novel starts out in New York City, when M.S. is finishing up college at Columbia University. He begins by explaining about his relationship with his Uncle Victor, and how Victor had gifted his entire collection of books to M.S. M.S. uses the novels, packed into boxes, as furniture at first. But when his Uncle dies, he slowly begins to dismantle his furniture, and thus his identity, by reading the novels and selling them off as he finishes. Prior to this, he had been dubbed Phileas, a character from Around the World in 80 Days, a movie that Uncle Victor had taken him to see as a child. Upon his uncle's death, he has no choice but to slough off this identity. There is no one left to M.S. in the entire world, so he allows a financial dilemma to literally consume him until his life is at stake. Then he meets Kitty, and a new identity is formed, that of 'Kitty's Twin.'
When M.S. becomes destitute, homeless and sick, it seems as if the end is near. But he is rescued by Kitty and his friend Zimmer. Zimmer brings him home and nurses him back to health. He narrowly escapes being drafted into the army because the doctors think he is crazy. He begins to rally and offers to repay Zimmer for helping him by translating a French manuscript into English. Then he takes a job with Thomas Effing, an elderly, well-to-do gentleman in need of a companion. Effing had to replace his former companion, Pavel Shum, after Pavel was hit by a car, as was M.S.' mother. Thus M.S. takes on a new identity; he became Pavel's ghost.
While working for Effing, he learns of how Effing used to be Julian Barber, until Barber faked his own death, became a hermit named Tom, then dubbed himself Thomas Effing. Effing turns out to have a son named Solomon Barber, who in turn is the father of someone else. Solomon had initiated his own search for his identity as a child, for he was also an orphan, just like Kitty and M.S.
This entire story involves people and their attempt to find their identities, to discover who they truly are. This is not just a physical journey, but a spiritual one. Finding one's place in the world… It's not just about names but about who we are as human beings, and our place in the universe, about how the world is a large place, but at the same time, we are all related to a certain extent.
I have enjoyed Paul Auster's novels since college. Although it isn't an easy, light read, its weight causes the reader to ponder the deeper meaning of life and our place in it. The interconnectedness of the characters in this story shows us how truly small our world really is.
(less)

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Apr 17, 2007 Maura rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was the first Paul Auster book I read, before I realized that he basically just writes variations of the same book. It's a good book, though, so I read all of the variations. He's got a couple of main themes--randomness, chance, coincidence, obsession--and some of the books play more strongly on some themes than on others. I think of this as the "coincidence" book.

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Oct 17, 2011 Nathan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Moon Palace follows the life of the narrator, Marco Stanley Fogg, through events in his life. His Uncle Victor died while Marco was in college, and his death led to a series of downfalls. Marco looses his apartment, coming close to death if not for the woman Kitty Wu whom he found by chance. He received a job from an old man, Thomas Effing, who turns out to be Marco's grandfather. Marco's father is also discovered, however shortly after he passes away. The book ends with Marco walking across the...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.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/paulau...

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Quotes from Moon Palace

“I had jumped off the edge, and then, at the very last moment, something reached out and caught me in midair. That something is what I define as love. It is the one thing that can stop a man from falling, powerful enough to negate the laws of gravity.” — 289 people liked it

“No one was to blame for what happened, but that does not make it any less difficult to accept. It was all a matter of missed connections, bad timing, blundering in the dark. We were always in the right place at the wrong time, the wrong place at the right time, always just missing each other, always just a few inches from figuring the whole thing out. That's what the story boils down to, I think. A series of lost chances. All the pieces were there from the beginning, but no one knew how to put them together.” — 55 people liked it

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