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The Music of Chance

by Paul Auster

3.83 · rating details · 2,370 ratings · 123 reviews

From one of America's most original and startlingly imaginative writers, a novel with "all the suspense and pace of a bestselling thriller".--The New York Times. A fireman and a gambler enter a poker game with two rich eccentrics, "risking everything on the single blind turn of a card". What results is the product of a world of fiendish bargains and pun...more

Paperback, 217 pages

Published December 1st 1991 by Penguin Books (first published 1990)

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Jul 28, 2010

K.D. rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to K.D. by: 1001 Must Read Books for Men; 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2006 to 2010)

Shelves: 1001-core

Pennsylvania in the 80's. 33-y/o Jim Nashe is a bum newly divorced dad who inherited almost US$200,000 from his dead dad who he did not see for almost 30 years. He resigned from his work as a fireman, bought an expensive Saab (car), threw a couple of parties, left his 4-y/o daughter Juliette to his sister Donna and drove around aimlessly across the USA. He likes music (he plays the piano) so he has lots of cassette tapes (this is in the 80s) in the car. The long drives while the music is on seem...morePennsylvania in the 80's. 33-y/o Jim Nashe is a bum newly divorced dad who inherited almost US$200,000 from his dead dad who he did not see for almost 30 years. He resigned from his work as a fireman, bought an expensive Saab (car), threw a couple of parties, left his 4-y/o daughter Juliette to his sister Donna and drove around aimlessly across the USA. He likes music (he plays the piano) so he has lots of cassette tapes (this is in the 80s) in the car. The long drives while the music is on seem to bring him to another world. See the cover: it captures everything a child - because that really what he seems to be being a bum and aimless - driving a red sports car. Read the title: The Music of Chance. Music forms the integral mood in this novel. Auster made use of classical music and sounds to heighten emotions to important scenes in this book.

We know that books, unless they are audiobooks, cannot have songs or music. The way Mr. Auster does this is he mentions a song, tune or artist in a particular scene with the character probably listening to it. As I reader, if you are familiar with the song, tune or artist you recall it and as you read, it is as if you are with the character (or maybe you become that character) experiencing the sight and sound of the scene. It is what I then call the magic of literature: being transported straight to a literary fictional world while in reality you are just sitting on the armchair or lying in bed. With music, it is like being in the movie. It is just wonderful.

This is my 3rd book by Paul Auster. Early last year, I read his The New York Trilogy a.k.a. NYT and I was struck by his brilliance in interrelating his characters and plots in those three well-written stories. It was my first time to read a book like that so I gave it a 5-star rating and promised myself to re-read it in the future. A couple of months back, I read his Invisible as it is a newly added book in the 2010 edition of the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. The distinctive Auster style is still there: straightforward, no-frills, no-pretentions, no-philosophical agenda writing is still there but the plot is different from NYT as it deals with incest. So, I have to give it another 5-star rating. Using "3-novel rule": you can tell a writer if he is formulaic by reading 3 of his works. For Auster, he is definitely not formulaic. Music does not have the mistaken identity plot in NYT, no incest plot in Invisible. The same distinctive writing style is there. But the theme, plot and characters are totally different.

His work does not have any of those stream-of-consciousness, roman-a-clef or other literary terminologies. His characters cannot talk to cats, cannot fly, cannot smell all the odors in his surroundings. He does not use big words that will prompt you to open a nearby dictionary in the middle of the night. He does not surprise you with big quotation that will prompt you to fold the corner of the page. He does not make you cry. He does not make you laugh.

Auster is just straightforward storyteller. His characters can be you or me. Easy read but his vivid imagination and believable plot do the trick. You will cry or laugh but you will perhaps dream. No wonder that this 1001 book is also in the 100 Must Read Book for Men.

If there is a new author whose work you may want to sample soon, try Auster. Chances are, you will love him.

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Mar 05, 2009

Carlos Bennett rated it

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Cuando era muy chico y en la televisión me dedicaba principalmente a ver el cartoon network, un día en la tarde puse HBO mientas comía pan con palta y empecé a ver una pelicula muy extraña. Habia dos tipos que viajaban hasta una mansión my tétrica para jugar poker con otros dos tipos mas tétricos aún que (por alguna razón) tenían una ciudad en miniatura construida dentro de su casa, y que entre otras extrencidades habían importado un castillo desde Europa (piedra por piedra: en el cesped enorme ...moreCuando era muy chico y en la televisión me dedicaba principalmente a ver el cartoon network, un día en la tarde puse HBO mientas comía pan con palta y empecé a ver una pelicula muy extraña. Habia dos tipos que viajaban hasta una mansión my tétrica para jugar poker con otros dos tipos mas tétricos aún que (por alguna razón) tenían una ciudad en miniatura construida dentro de su casa, y que entre otras extrencidades habían importado un castillo desde Europa (piedra por piedra: en el cesped enorme de su mansión estaban amontonadas las piedras). Los dos tipos (los protagonistas) pierden la apuesta en el poker, y como no tienen tanto dinero para pagar tienen que quedarse trabajando como casi-esclavos, construyendo con las piedras del castillo una pared que cruzara el enorme campo de pasto verde en las afueras de la mansión.
Creo que fue la primera pelicula que vi con escenas de sexo implicito (era HBO a las 14:00 hrs no mas), con algo de violencia moderada pero sobre todo con un trasfondo super fuerte. La pelicula era rara. Me quedo pegadisima para siempre la escena en que Pozzi (el protagonista mas joven), después de que hubieran terminado parte del muro, caminaba por sobre él, feliz.

Tiempo después, cuando ya me gustaba mucho Auster y me había leído casi todos sus libros, uno de los últimos que agarré fue este, y ahi recién me di cuenta de que estaba leyendo esa película (Doh).

Este para mi es el mejor Auster. No soy un fanático de la primera época, la de la trilogia de Nueva York, cuando esta demasiado precocupado por existencialismos (a mi parecer) un poco baratos, con muchos artefactos literarios que parecen sacados de un libro de castellano. Tampoco me gusta la ultima época, desde Oracle Night (y sobre todo "Travels in the scriptorium"), en que lo unico que hace es mirarse el ombligo, escribir sobre-escritores-que-escriben-sobre-escribir y usar lugares comunes.

Pero para mi tiene un periodo dorado, principalmente: La Musica del Azar, Leviathan y El palacio de la luna (este ultimo, ocasionalmente lo considero como mi libro favorito. En la historia). Y podriamos colocar a lo mejor Mr vertigo. Estos son los libros en que pareciera que deja que las imagenes que tiene dentro fluyan, sin ponerse a interferir él. Imagenes como la ciudad miniatura de la pareja bizarra en La Musica del Azar, o Pozzi feliz corriendo sobre el muro. O el viaje de M.S. Fogg a pie a través de l desierto americano en el Palacio de la Luna. O las estatuas explotando en Leviatán. O las 36 pruebas a las que es sometido el protagonista de Mr Vertigo por el maestro Yehudi.

Auster tiene muchos detractores, y creo que muchas de las cosas que se dicen son ciertas. Los personajes son a veces increiblemente similares en todos los libros, y es cierto que su existencialismo a veces puede ser un poco adolescente y reiterativo, y que incluso a veces apela a la mistificación, sin realmente crear misticismo. Pero a mi en lo personal, que no leo los libros de literatura como ensayos, me parece que es el es escritor mas talentoso de su generación (teniendo en cuenta que el mas talentoso no siempre es el mejor). Un "natural".

El mayor argumento que puedo dar es que ya pasaron varios años desde que me leí el libro, he leído desde entonces varios libros de Philip Roth, de McEwan y otros que supuestamente estan dos o tres pasos mas arriba en el canon oficial... y todavia me acuerdo mucho más de Pozzi corriendo sobre su muro.

Recomiendo mucho este libro; es realmente hermoso. (less)

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Feb 18, 2009

Craven rated it

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This book left with so much thinking to do and had so many philosophical metaphors that I ended up pushing it on my friends, fully thinking that I had their best interest in mind. But when I actually, thought about it I realized that what I really wanted was someone to discuss the book with. I wanted to talk about the characters and the metaphor and what it was all really trying to say.
Yeah, this is a fabulous book. It deals with existentialism, freedom and captivity, chance and coinciden...more

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Jul 24, 2007

Joe rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: paul auster fans, obviously.

auster has a tendency for ambiguous, detached endings that leave you with several questions unanswered.. and for the stories in the ny trilogy i think it works perfectly, but for this book it kind of left me a might disappointed. he starts to tell a real straight forward story, and it almost seems as though he ran out of ideas towards the end, left a lot of really important questions unanswered, and frantically put together a closing chapter. besides that... it was an entertaining read. the char...more

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Nov 28, 2008

Chris rated it

· review of another edition

A high school friend, Joe, suggested this to me when I mentioned that I was reading another Paul Auster novel ( In The Country Of Last Things). Looks... different. Half-price Books also had a ridiculously beautiful copy of The New York Trilogy that I wanted, a lot, but it was sixty dollars. I instead almost settled for an action figure called Bibleman, but decided to wait. I'll probably buy a few for gag gifts around Christmas time... I've got nerdy friends who paint miniatures and whatnot who...more

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Feb 07, 2012

Travis rated it

· review of another edition

A man inherits an amount of money amounting to a few years salary, buys a new car, and sets off on a year long road trip. When he's about to run out of money, he meets a young poker player. The man stakes him for a big game. They lose, end up with a debt, and pay it off by building a wall in a meadow.

That's about it for the plot in this one. The pacing zips along at the beginning, but once they get to the meadow and start building the wall, it drags, perhaps necessarily.

Of ...more

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Jan 03, 2012

Scott Foley rated it

· review of another edition

In The Music of Chance, Auster provides an utterly unpredictable story focusing upon Jim Nashe, a firefighter who inherits an unexpected sum of money and begins driving cross-country for no real reason. As chance would have it, he happens across a self-proclaimed poker savant just as Nashe is in danger of running out of funds. The poker aficionado, Jack Pozzi, guarantees Nashe he can multiply Nashe's capital if only Nashe will back him in a big, upcoming game with a couple of millionaire dunderh...more

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Jan 05, 2011

Lesliemae rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Lesliemae by: Sara Cohan via Paul Van Gerresten

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. A quick read. Auster is a very good story-teller, but throughout the story I kept having visions of Kafka. In fact, I've mentally judged The Music of Chance as very Kafkaesque. Not Kafkaesque in the superficial sense of uncanny bureaucratic entanglements but in the Kierkegaardian sense of a divine order that eludes human comprehension. There is this major difference: where Kafka and Kierkegaard hypothesize a deity essentially separate from humankind, Auster posits a kind of cosmic current with ...moreA quick read. Auster is a very good story-teller, but throughout the story I kept having visions of Kafka. In fact, I've mentally judged The Music of Chance as very Kafkaesque. Not Kafkaesque in the superficial sense of uncanny bureaucratic entanglements but in the Kierkegaardian sense of a divine order that eludes human comprehension. There is this major difference: where Kafka and Kierkegaard hypothesize a deity essentially separate from humankind, Auster posits a kind of cosmic current with which human beings could conceivably flow - the flow of music, the flow of riding a winning streak, driving the open roads the flow of just staying on building a brick wall, the flow of fate. This is reiterated with stultifying clarity over and over through the character of Pozzi, a professional card hustler, that believes "Once your luck starts to roll, there's not a damn thing that can stop it".

The interesting intersection in this novel is the space between which belief and chance create a tension that mirrors the tension surrounding doom and violence. At the heart of the book is a growing sense of chaos, and that is what Jim Nashe is trying to avoid while flirting with what it means to be free. Jim Nashe takes to the road, and for three months explores his need to continue driving, listening to music, and ultimately flowing from one moment into the next. Jim is without anchor when in a "chance encounter" he meets Pozzi. Throughout their conversations, transactions and final decisions about going to a poker match, Nashe seems desperate to find some reason to stop driving and settle down. His winning ticket seems to Pozzi - and in a sense it is. With the loss of the match, Nashe and Pozzi become indentured labourers. Their single task is to build a wall and pay their debt. However, as time passes - each senses that what they are actually prisoners of Flower and Stone (the eccentric millionaire gamblers to whom they lost $30,000).

WIthout getting into all the nuances of the plot and how the tension builds (aka: the City of the world model, the barbed wire, the gun, the (fatal?) beating), it seems as though the wall as a central metaphor is actually the wall that Nashe observes in Stone's City of the World model. The wall is located in the model within the jail. The jail is highlighted as a work/reform centre that organizes and regulates the utopic values of the world. Against this wall are two men who are about to be shot. Are Nashe and Pozzi building their own demise? In fact, there is also an oblique reference to the labour of building the wall as "the work will set them free" - which is the slogan above the gates of Auschwitz. This is where I think that I reading of Kafka's The Trial might be useful for this book.

On his thirtieth birthday, a senior bank clerk, Josef K., who lives in lodgings, is unexpectedly arrested by two unidentified agents for an unspecified crime. The agents do not name the authority for which they are acting. He is not taken away, however, but left at home to await instructions from the Committee of Affairs. After numerous bureaucratic entanglements and diversions - K has to show an important client from Italy around the Cathedral. The client doesn't show up, but just as K is leaving the Cathedral, the priest calls out K's name, although K has never known the priest. The priest works for the court, and tells K a fable, (which has been published separately as Before the Law) that is meant to explain his situation, but instead causes confusion, and implies that K's fate is hopeless. Before the Law begins as a parable, then continues with several pages of interpretation between the Priest and Josef K. The gravity of the priest's words prepares the reader for an unpleasant ending.

On the last day of Josef K's thirtieth year, two men arrive to execute him. He offers little resistance, suggesting that he has realised this as being inevitable for some time. They lead him to a quarry where he is expected to kill himself, but he cannot. The two men then execute him. His last words describe his own death: "Like a dog!"

It seems by the end of The Music of Chance, Nashe is in a similar predicament as Josef K. Will he survive, will he be killed by Floyd and Murks (as he believes Pozzi was), or does he simply need to say, "I've had enough it's time to stop this." and leave the estate? The underlying message seems to be one of what it means to have free will and what that will means when one either is incarcerated (Pozzi sense of the situation) or believes himself to be (Josef and Nashe).

These are just my first disjointed thoughts about the novel - there are still many unanswered questions and thoughts.

My reaction is one of preference. Having read both Kafka and Auster - I prefer Kafka.

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Dec 23, 2010

R. rated it

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J'étais de mauvaise humeur et je ne trouvais rien à lire. Après avoir ouvert plusieurs livres, lu les premières pages et aussitôt reposé le livre, j'ai décidé de revenir aux fondamentaux. Direction l'étagère réservée aux romans de Paul Auster et sélection d'un roman au titre évocateur sans être pompeux ni aguicheur — comme l'on en voit malheureusement de plus en plus — La musique du hasard. Comme le laisse supposer le titre, le hasard joue un rôle central dans ce roman. Vous savez, celui qui vou...more

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Nov 11, 2010

Tyler Jones rated it

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Shelves: poker

My favourite Paul Aster novel - and not just because it has poker in it.

Jim Nashe, a Boston firefighter, is as solid a guy as there is. But when he unexpectedly comes into a fair sized inheritance the routine of his life is overturned by the possibilities of what he can now do. He quits his job, buys a nice car and drives all over America, leaving his fate to chance and his decisions to the whim of the moment. When the money starts to run out however, Jim can't bring himself to retur...more

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Sep 16, 2010

Parksy rated it

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4.5

Very cool. Very good psychological thriller with thoughts of justice and revenge.

From Publishers Weekly
Compulsive traveler Jim Nashe finances an epic poker match for a self-proclaimed jackpot winner. "In his lucid, captivating yarn, Auster quietly raises disturbing questions of servants and masters, of loyalty, freedom and the inexplicable urge to kill," said PW .
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
T...more

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May 05, 2010

Bob rated it

· review of another edition

My Paul Auster marathon (involving much sacrificed sleep) continues. This one opens "For one whole year, he did nothing but drive, traveling back and forth across America as he waited for the money to run out" which is characteristic; sometimes the characters are sitting in their apartments without moving for a year until the money runs out, sometimes they are driving aimlessly across the country, sometimes they are driving purposefully, blowing up small patriotic emblems as they go, b...more

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Aug 06, 2011

Matthew added it

A friend spoke to me once of "concretizing the metaphor" when trying to write evocative and symbolically pregnant prose. Auster manages to do that very effectively in almost all of his works, and The Music of Chance is no exception. No one reading this work could help but be struck by the three cases of concrete metaphor on display here. The first is Stone's City of the World. The second is Flower's museum of unwanted objects, but the third and most compelling is surely The Wall. Willi...more

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Nov 15, 2011

Alice rated it

· review of another edition

Having read and loved Invisible, also Paul Auster, I was excited about reading his other works. This was the next one I happened to see at the library. I did not like it nearly as much as Invisible. I can see how Auster's style and mastery of character deepened by the time he wrote Invisible, a much more recent book than The Music of Chance. This did have an intriguing story: how one's life can turn on a dime -- or a poker game. I did, though, find some of this novel not quite believable, and b...more

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Aug 30, 2010

Linawings rated it

· review of another edition

I was interested to get to know Paul Auster because I quite like the style of "What I loved" by Siri Hustvedt, who is his wife. I was told by the old lady owner of a small bookshop where I like to buy books, that the wife although not that famous, can really compete the husband. Well, the "Music of chance" may not be his best book, and although well written, I didn't like at all the main thesis! I was even angry and furious after I read it. The topic of chance always interest...more

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Oct 05, 2011

Sunsethours rated it

· review of another edition

So far i like it. Auster succeeded in his experiment with the writing. It pleases me to read and live with his character, to understand his feelings throughout his acts not by direct description of the feelings themseleves.
Predictable ending.
But still great book

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Aug 14, 2009

Jason rated it

I picked this up at the library after spotting it randomly on a shelf. I had seen the movie a while back and enjoyed immensely. It was far enough back however that I did not remember all of it. So it seemed a like a good idea the book. I'm glad I did. I'm pretty sure I'll have to get a copy for myself sometime in the future.

All that being said this is not a book to read if you are looking for something uplifting. As the title states it's about chance and the role it plays in our live...more

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Nov 10, 2011

Ben rated it

· review of another edition

This is a super fun, smart, and ultimately powerful story about chance and money. The tone is both strange and familiar. Much of the dialogue is ripped right out of the experimental crime novels of the 1930s and 40s. The characters are fascinating creeps and lost lovers, and the setting is just bizarre enough to seem both very real and eerily prophetic. It felt timely - re: occupy movement - and timeless - re: chance. A fun roller coaster ride of a plot. Wow... talk about texture. This books is ...more

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Jan 11, 2010

Steve rated it

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A dark tale which highlights the vagaries of fortune as the lead character Nashe appears to have fallen on his feet when he embarks on a roadtrip laden with a windfall from his late father's estate. Determined to celebrate his new-found freedom from a failed marriage he will discover that fate plays a bad deal which will lead him to a far worse form of incarceration. Encountering Jack Pozzi, an unreformed gambler, Nashe agrees to lend the capital for a high stakes poker game against two eecentri...more

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May 18, 2009

Arne rated it

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A perfect gem of weirdness by the master of biographical synchronicities.

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Dec 03, 2010

abo rated it

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Shelves: fiction

Superata la soglia dei 30 anni, la vita di Jim Nashe viene sconvolta da una sorprendente serie di eventi. Prima un avvocato gli consegna 200 mila dollari, eredità lasciatagli dal padre con cui Jim non ha nessun rapporto da anni. Poi la moglie, ignara dell’eredità, lascia lui e la figlia.
Stordito dalle novità, Jim fa una scelta di libertà: lascia la figlia dagli zii, si licenzia dal lavoro di vigile del fuoco, compra una SAAB e si mette in viagggio. Vaga per gli Stati Uniti senza una meta precisa...more

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Nov 18, 2011

Landslide rated it

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Shelves: not-owned, fiction

conta-nos a história de Jim Nashe que, após ter recebido uma herança, resolve vender tudo o que tem, despacha a filha para casa da irmã, compra um carro e decide percorrer o país no carro enquanto o dinheiro durar. Este desprendimento, para mim, só seria justificado se o protagonista tivesse vivido uma experiência traumatizante (a morte de um ente querido ou uma experiência de quase morte, por exemplo) ou se esta viagem coincidisse com uma viagem de auto-descoberta, em que percebesse quem é e o ...more

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Jul 31, 2008

Zen rated it

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Shelves: dudebooks, literaryquoteunquote

Ooooh, I think I am done with Paul Auster for a while. It is very unfair of him to build up this thing that looks like a plot and add lots of atmosphere (protagonist picking up things and feeling mysteriously that it was the right thing to do! and so much weight attached to the moment that you think it must be important to the plot. And then he never mentions it again) and Foreboding and what not, and then to fail to DO anything with all that. I mean, he does literary things. There is a lot of ...more

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Oct 17, 2007

Anne rated it

It is difficult for me to read anything by Paul Auster and not feeling a complete sense of impending doom. Even when things appear to be going well, you know some random tragic unfortunate event is just around the corner. That being said, I think he's an incredible writer and I hope someday to have read all of his novels. In The Music of Chance, the main character Nashe inherits a bunch of money from his estranged father. He uses it to travel aimlessly around the country (reminded me of On the Road ...more

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Jun 01, 2010

Valeriane rated it

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Shelves: roman

James Nashe s'est fait plaquer, avec sa jeune fille, par sa femme Thérèse. Étant pompier, il confie la gamine à sa soeur, car il peut être appelé à tout moment par la caserne. Sa vie va prendre une autre tournure le jour où il reçoit un courrier le prévenant de la mort de son père, qu'il n'avait jamais connu, et dont il hérite d'une petite fortune. Il va alors quitter son boulot, s'acheter une voiture, et partir... Il va rouler pendant des kilomètres et des kilomètres, ne se lassant jamais du p...more

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Jan 05, 2012

Christopher Ryan rated it

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The worst part about this books was that the cover art and blurb conspired to spoil the entire plot by revealing too many details. The plot never quite gelled, and the ending is a huge let down, and the dialogue is hackneyed and forcefully colloquial, but the plot and setting are intriguing. It drives forward with all the fury of the man hurtling across the country, and at times it was impossible to put down. But only at times. It is a fun but ultimately unfulfilling novel.

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Oct 03, 2011

Darrel rated it

Pitch perfect Auster novel. It's the best book I've read since Cormac McCarthy's 'Blood Meridian'. This book is a brilliant piece of nihilistic/absurdest literature that I found to be completely absorbing - almost like reading a suspense thriller really. Auster strikes a great balance and harmony in juxtaposing the often quirky nature of fate against the false sense of freedom his characters typically assume to be present in their lives.

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Sep 26, 2007

Amanda rated it

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Probably my least favorite of the Auster that I've read. I've noticed I give it more stars then Timbuktu, and that's actually fair. A negative reaction deserves more stars I think than a neutral reaction. I can't say why I didn't like it except that the ending left me so baffled and defeated that it soured the overall experience. The two main characters become imprisoned by two old rich guys when they lose a bunch of money to them in a poker game. In payment of the debt they essentially are...more

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Jul 23, 2011

Daniel G Taylor rated it

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Shelves: books-read-in-2011

This novel finishes with the same pulsating intensity with which it begins. Jim Nashe is drifting along after a life change. On his aimless road trip across America he meets poker player Jack Pozzi. Nashe puts up all the money he has, and more, to fund Pozzi's showdown with a couple of eccentric multimillionaires. A game that ends with the two of them taking on an unexpected project to redeem themselves. This novel is the second Paul Auster I've read, and it establishes him as one of my favorite...more

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Oct 14, 2009

Lowell Dennis rated it

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This book was a complete waste of time. The main character meanders around aimlessly making associations that are never resolved. At the end of the story, I ended up scratching my head and exclaiming "I spent all this time reading this book for this crappy ending".

The only thing good I can say about the book is that the author was very skilled in the art of description ... to bad the story stunk.

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About Paul Auster

After a year spent traveling in Europe, he enrolled at Columbia University and spent a year in Paris on an exchange. Returning to Columbia in 1968, he wrote articles and reviews while anti-Vietnam protests and riots raged around him. After publishing a crime novel pastiche, Squeeze Play, written under the pseudonym Paul Benjamin (who would later appear as a blocked writer in his screenplay for the...more

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/453.The_Music_of_Chance?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1298411441m/453.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/453.The_Music_of_Chance?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Music of Chance by Paul Auster[/url]

The Music of Chance

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