Man in the Dark

A Quick But Heavy Read

I really enjoyed reading this book...as much as one can enjoy reading a melancholy, and at times brutal, commentary on the human costs of war. While the themes may be heavy, the writing is spectacular. The story of Owen Brick is trademark Auster, as the narrator becomes interwoven with the story he is telling. One would expect a number of twists and turns to resolve the predicament of Owen Brick, but the end is abrupt and stunning. Auster then switches gears and allows the narrator's mind to wander among a lifetime of stories and memories. The final 50 pages of this book are incredibly touching and well written, and for such a short book, the author covers a lot of ground. I was impressed with this book, and I will reach for another Paul Auster novel the next time I am looking to escape from escapist fiction and delve into something with more weight and significance.

A very random story....

This book touches on many emotional issues a grandfather has faced and continues to hold on to in his life. Though I expected his imagined and fictitious stories dwelling from the insomnia to be the forefront of this book, this was simply storytelling of his hardships and of his wandering, distressed mind.
Paul Auster is a very creative writer and I enjoyed his elaborate characters. I still felt however, that the scoops of stories he told bounced around excessively with no major point for piecing together. I do consider this book as missing major links for a more put-together, enjoyable read.

A Fantastical Twist of Reality.

I really enjoyed reading MAN IN THE DARK. The whole concept of a writer telling himself a story while he suffers from insomnia to keep his mind off of his late wife is a great idea (I have tried doing that but reality fights back). He creates a story in an alternate reality that includes a main character who is recruited to bump him off. I found this alternate reality, a parallel U.S.A., to be exciting, I always wanted to know what would happen next. The intricacies of this parallel world had my imagination pumping at full volumn. What if I woke up there? What would I do? The whole idea of being in a police state is so alien to my mind that I can not fathom it. But the alternate reality is not what the story is about; the story is about a man dealing with his past. And the past can influence the future. The man finally confronts what his story telling was trying to keep from his mind. The MAN IN THE DARK is a good look into a creative mind. Makes you wonder how many more ideas Shakespeare and Picasso had had. I know that I look forward to reading more of Paul Auster's work. This is a very good book for people who enjoy fantasy and the reality of fiction.

The meaning of telling stories.

I began to read Paul Auster in the eighties. I was captivated by the bleak, mysterious, and inimical atmosphere of his novels. But at the same time his sense of humor, his love for the absurd, and the relentless search for The Father formed a counterpart for the dark side of his novels.

All these things are together again in his latest novel "Man In The Dark". I love this novel because it's the real Paul Auster. He writes without commercial afterthought and he refuses to go easy on us (like in his novel The Brooklyn Follies).

Seventy-two-year-old August Brill is recovering from a car accident in his daughter's house in Vermont. When sleep refuses to come, he lies in bed and tells himself stories, struggling to push back thoughts about things he would prefer to forget - his wife's recent death and the horrific murder of his granddaughters' boyfriend, Titus.

August imagines a parallel world in which America is not at war with Iraq but with itself. In this other America the Twin Towers did not fall, and the 2000 election results led to the secession, as state after state pulled away from the union, and a bloody civil war ensued. As the night progresses, August's story grows increasingly intense, and what he is so desperately trying to avoid insists on being told.

Passionate and shocking, Man in the Dark is a novel of our moment, a book that forces us to confront the darkness of night even as it celebrates the existence of ordinary joys in a world capable of the most grotesque violence.

Trying to Understand

"Man in the Dark" is an interesting little novel which covers one night in a man's life; he lies in bed unable to sleep, and we are in his mind as he remembers his past and as he tries to write a book (in his head). We figure out quickly that he is struggling to understand and overcome some kind of trauma, and thus the title has a double meaning.

The primary drawback to this book is that many of the little stories in it seem to be there as filler; that is, they don't support the theme. Nevertheless, this short, quick read is quite good.

For Paul Auster fans only.

Not his greatest work, but always entertaining. Multiple story lines with a bit of non sense but apealing characters.

Really enjoyed this book

I really liked the style of writing. The ending could have been a little bit better.

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