4 3 2 1: A Novel

by Paul Auster, Paul Auster (Read by)

Overview

**This is an MP3 CD edition**

"...listening to 4 3 2 1 in audio is worth the commitment, thanks to the author’s easy-on-the-ears baritone" — Newsday

This program is narrated by—and includes a bonus interview with—the author.

Paul Auster’s greatest, most heartbreaking and satisfying novel—a sweeping and surprising story of birthright and possibility, of love and of life itself: a masterpiece.

Nearly two weeks early, on March 3, 1947, in the maternity ward of Beth Israel Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, Archibald Isaac Ferguson, the one and only child of Rose and Stanley Ferguson, is born. From that single beginning, Ferguson’s life will take four simultaneous and independent fictional paths. Four identical Fergusons made of the same DNA, four boys who are the same boy, go on to lead four parallel and entirely different lives. Family fortunes diverge. Athletic skills and sex lives and friendships and intellectual passions contrast. Each Ferguson falls under the spell of the magnificent Amy Schneiderman, yet each Amy and each Ferguson have a relationship like no other. Meanwhile, listeners will take in each Ferguson’s pleasures and ache from each Ferguson’s pains, as the mortal plot of each Ferguson’s life rushes on.

As inventive and dexterously constructed as anything Paul Auster has ever written, yet with a passion for realism and a great tenderness and fierce attachment to history and to life itself that listeners have never heard from Auster before. 4 3 2 1 is a marvelous and unforgettably affecting tour de force.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781427282781
Publisher:	Macmillan Audio
Publication date:	01/31/2017
Edition description:	Unabridged
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 6.80(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Paul Auster is the bestselling author of Winter Journal, Sunset Park, Invisible, The Book of Illusions, and The New York Trilogy, among many other works. He has been awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature, the Prix Médicis étranger, an Independent Spirit Award, and the Premio Napoli. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Hometown:

Brooklyn, New York

Date of Birth:

February 3, 1947

Place of Birth:

Newark, New Jersey

Education:

B.A., M.A., Columbia University, 1970

Reading Group Guide

1. The novel opens with a scene of Ferguson’s grandfather at Ellis Island, giving his name to an immigration official and becoming Ichabod Ferguson. What do you think is the significance of this moment and why does Paul Auster begin with it? Who does he return to it later in the novel?

2. Auster announces Ferguson’s birth by declaring, “Thus Ferguson was born, and for several seconds after he emerged from his mother’s body, he was the youngest human being on the face of the earth.” What do you think Auster is attempting to achieve with this statement?

3. The novel is told through the shifting perspective of four different Fergusons. Did you have trouble following the divergent storylines as the novel progressed? Was it important to you to keep all of the details in order as you read? Why or why not?

4. When 3 Brothers Home World burns down in one of the storylines, Ferguson reflects that he feels frightened because he “learn[ed] that his mother was no stronger than he was, that the blows of the world would hurt her as much as they hurt him…” Why is it so alarming when a child comes to this understanding? Do you remember a similar moment in your own life?

5. Anne-Marie is one of Ferguson’s first love interests and Auster describes her as highly emotional, dramatic, and unhappy. However, it is precisely these characteristics that young Ferguson finds attractive. What does Ferguson’s attraction to Anne-Marie tell us about boyhood and adolescence in a general sense? Do you think the other Fergusons would have fallen for Anne-Marie?

6. At several points in the novel, Auster shows his hand and tells us information some writers might opt to show in scene. For example, when one of the Fergusons is killed in a thunderstorm, he writes “The last day of Ferguson’s life, August 10, 1960, began with a brief rain shower…” Why do you think Auster reveals this important event in such a direct, matter-of-fact way?

7. When Rose publishes the Jewish Wedding photos in Aperture, her cousin is incredibly angry with her for doing so against her wishes. Later in the novel, Ferguson decides to remove the unflattering descriptions of his mother from his own novel. What do these two instances say about the balance between creating art and maintaining relationships? Was Rose right to publish her photos? What Ferguson right to edit his novel? Why or why not?

8. Amy Schneiderman appears as a significant character in multiple storylines. What is it about Amy that makes her such an important figure and why do you think Auster chose to make her reappear in so many instances?

9. After Ferguson loses two of his fingers in a car accident, he confesses that he will never forgive his cousin, Francie. Do you think Ferguson is in the right for blaming her?

10. In all of his lives, Ferguson manages to avoid the draft. Do you think this is meaningful? Why or why not? What does it tell you about those who were drafted?

11. Auster does an excellent job of incorporating the political and social events of the time into the novel. In all of his lives, Ferguson is sympathetic to the anti-war movement, but largely remains detached from it. What does this tell you about Ferguson? What do you think Auster is trying to show us by giving Ferguson some fixed characteristics throughout the various storylines?

12. New York City is an important character in all of Ferguson’s lives. Why is the city so significant and how does Auster create and establish a sense of the city throughout the novel?

13. In one of Ferguson’s lives, he is bi-sexual. While we live in a time that recognizes the rights of LGBTQ individuals, Ferguson was not as fortunate. What are some of the challenges that he faces and do you think his life would have been different if he had lived in more tolerant times?

14. Why does Vivian take such an interest in Ferguson?

15. When Ferguson is struck by lightning and killed, Auster states that “the gods were silent,” and when another Ferguson is struck by a car in London and killed Auster writes, “The gods looked down from their mountain and shrugged.” What is Auster trying to say here by making the “gods” so indifferent to Ferguson’s deaths?

16. What do you make of the ending of the novel when Nelson Rockefeller is being sworn into office as vice president in 1974? Why do you think Auster chose, “He was married to a woman named Happy,” as the final line of the novel?

Editorial Reviews

"[Paul] Auster's deep understanding of his characters, soothing baritone, and skillful pacing...deliver an immensely satisfying experience overall for listeners"
-AudioFile Magazine

"[Paul] Auster’s compelling, mesmerizing voice so embodies all the Fergusons that “4321” is ...worth an entire week’s worth of listening." -Winston-Salem Journal

"[L]istening to “4 3 2 1” in audio is worth the commitment, thanks to the author’s easy-on-the-ears baritone." -Newsday

",,,[I]nnovative, captivating and brilliantly crafted...Auster's compelling baritone voice." -Inside Jersey

“An epic bildungsroman . . . . Original and complex . . . . It’s impossible not to be impressed – and even a little awed – by what Auster has accomplished. . . . A work of outsize ambition and remarkable craft,a monumental assemblage of competing and complementary fictions, a novel that contains multitudes.”—Tom Perrotta, The New York Times Book Review

“A stunningly ambitious novel, and a pleasure to read. Auster’s writing is joyful even in the book’sdarkest moments, and never ponderous or showy. . . . An incredibly moving, true journey.”—NPR

“Ingenious . . . . Structurally inventive and surprisingly moving. . . . 4 3 2 1 reads like [a] big social drama . . . while also offering the philosophical exploration of oneman’s fate.”—Esquire

“Mesmerizing . . . Continues to push the narrative envelope. . . . Four distinct characters whose lives diverge and intersect in devious, rollicking ways, reminiscent of Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life. . . . Prismatic and rich in period detail, 4 3 2 1 reflects the high spirits of postwar America as well as the despair coiled, asplike, in its shadows.”—O, the Oprah Magazine

“Sharply observed . . . . Reads like a sprawling, 19th-century novel.”—The Wall Street Journal

“Ambitious and sprawling . . . . Immersive . . . . Auster has a startling ability to report the world in novel ways.”—USA Today

“The power of [Auster’s] best work is . . . his faithful pursuit of the mission proposed in The Invention of Solitude, to explore the ‘infinite possibilities of a limited space’ . . . . The effect [of 4 3 2 1] is almost cubist in its multidimensionality—that of a single, exceptionally variegated life displayed in the round. . . . [An] impressively ambitious novel.”—Harper’s Magazine

“Auster’s magnificent new novel is reminiscent ofInvisible in that it deals with the impossibility of containing a lifein a single story . . . . Undeniably intriguing . . . . A mesmerizing chronicle of one character’s four lives . . . The finest—though one hopes, farfrom final—act in one of the mightiest writing careers of the last half century.”—Paste Magazine

“Wonderfully clever . . . . 4 3 2 1 is much more than a pieceof literary gamesmanship . . . . It is a heartfeltand engaging piece of storytelling that unflinchingly explores the 20thcentury American experience in all its honor and ignominy. This is, withoutdoubt, Auster’s magnum opus. . . . A true revelation . . . One can’t help but admit they are in the presence of a genius.”—Toronto Star

“A multitiered examination of the implications of fate . . . in which the structure of the book reminds us of its own conditionality. . . . A signifier of both possibility and its limitations.”—The Washington Post

“At the heart of this novel is a provocative question: What would have happened if your life hadtaken a different turn at a critical moment? . . . Ingenious.”—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“Auster presents four lovingly detailed portrayals ofthe intensity of youth – of awkwardness and frustration, but also of passion forbooks, films, sport, politics and sex. . . . [Trying] to think of comparisons [to the novel] . . . [nothing] is exactly right . . . . What he is driving at is not only the role of contingency and the unexpected, but the ‘what-ifs’ that haunt us, the imaginary lives we hold in our minds that run parallel to our actual existence.”—The Guardian

“Draws the reader in from the very first sentence and does not let go until the very end. . . . An absorbing, detailed account – four accounts! – of growing up in the decades following World War II. . . . Auster’s prose is never less than arresting . . . ”—San Francisco Chronicle

“Leaves readers feeling they know every minute detail of [Ferguson’s] inner life, as if they were lifelong companions and daily confidants. . . . It’s like an epic game of MASH: Will Ferguson grow up in Montclair or Manhattan? Excel in baseball or basketball? Date girls or love boys too? Live or die? . . . A detailed landscape . . . for readers who like taking the scenic route.”—TIME Magazine

“Auster pays tribute to what Rose Ferguson thinks of as a ‘dear, dirty, devouring New York, the capital of human faces, the horizontal Babel of human tongues.’. . . Sprawling . . . occasionally splendid.”—The New Yorker

“A bona fide epic . . . both accessible and formally daring.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Inventive, engrossing.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Arresting .. . . A hugely accomplished work, a novel unlike any other.”—The National (UAE)

“Brilliantly rendered,intricately plotted . . . a magnum opus.”—Columbia Magazine

“Auster’s first novel inseven years is . . . . an ingenious move . . . . Auster’s sense of possibility, his understanding of what all his Fergusons have in common, with us and one another, is a kind of quiet intensity, a striving to discover who they are. . . . [He] reminds us that not just life, but also narrative is always conditional, that it only appears inevitable after the fact.”—Kirkus (starred review)

“Auster has been turning readers’ heads for three decades, bending the conventions of storytelling . . . . He now presents his most capacious, demanding, eventful, suspenseful, erotic, structurally audacious, funny, and soulful novel to date . . . [a] ravishing opus.”—Booklist (starred review)

“Rich and detailed. It’s about accidents of fate, and the people and works of art and experiences that shape our lives even before our birth—what reader doesn't vibrate at that frequency?”—Lydia Kiesling, Slate

“Auster illuminates how the discrete moments in one’s life form the plot points of a sprawling narrative, rife with possibility.”—Library Journal (starred review)

“Mesmerizing . . . . A wonderful work of realist fiction and well worth the time.”—Read it Forward

“Frisky and sinuous . . . energetic. . . . A portrait of a cultural era coming into being . . . the era that is our own.”—Tablet magazine

“Almost everything about Auster's new novel is big. . . Satisfyingly rich in detail . . . . A significant and immersive entry to a genre that stretches back centuriesand includes Augie March and Tristram Shandy.”—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

05/15/2017
Auster (The Brooklyn Follies) offers four possible renderings of the life of Archibald Isaac Ferguson, born March 3, 1947, in Newark, NJ. In rotating narratives, Archie tells the listener of his coming of age in New York, New Jersey, and Paris. Characters recur, often taking differing roles in the four narratives: sometimes lovers, sometimes relatives, for example. Archie, too, is a different person in each piece. These complex tales are told with much humor and much insight into the tumult of the 1960s: the assassinations of JFK, MLK, and RFK; the Vietnam War; college life and activism; race riots; the arts; young love and sexuality; and writing and publishing. This long novel is ably read by the author. Those who wish to revisit previous narratives for clarification as the work progresses should also consider hard copy. VERDICT Highly recommended for adult audio collections. Listeners who also came of age in the 1960s may most enjoy this work. ["Auster illuminates how the discrete moments in one's life form the plot points of a sprawling narrative, rife with possibility": LJ 1/17 starred review of the Holt hc.]—Cliff Glaviano, formerly with Bowling Green State Univ. Libs., OH

Library Journal - Audio

Paul Auster’s latest audiobook is a strikingly intimate exploration of childhood, growing up, and paths both taken and not taken. Archibald Isaac Ferguson is born on March 3, 1947, and from there his story splits into four narratives, four parallel but entirely separate lives that Archie lives in mid-century America. Auster’s narration of his own work is a double-edged sword. His reading is a bit too underplayed: With few flourishes to his voice, the exhaustive details, dialogues, and inner monologues of Archie’s four lives are sometimes difficult to follow. However, Auster’s deep understanding of his characters, soothing baritone, and skillful pacing outweigh the flaws and deliver an immensely satisfying experience overall for listeners. A.T.N. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

JANUARY 2017 - AudioFile

…original and dauntingly complex…it's impossible not to be impressed—and even a little awed—by what Auster has accomplished. 4 3 2 1 is a work of outsize ambition and remarkable craft, a monumental assemblage of competing and complementary fictions, a novel that contains multitudes.

The New York Times Book Review - Tom Perrotta

09/26/2016
Almost everything about Auster’s new novel is big. The sentences are long and sinuous; the paragraphs are huge, often running more than a page; and the book comes in at nearly 900 pages. In its telling, however, the book is far from epic, though it is satisfyingly rich in detail. It’s a bildungsroman spanning protagonist Archie Ferguson’s birth in 1947 to a consequential U.S. presidential election in 1974. Some warm opening pages are dedicated to the romance of the parents of Ferguson (as the third-person narrator refers to him throughout), Rose and Stanley. In its depiction of the everyday life of its hero, the book also gives a full history of America during this period through the eyes of Ferguson who, not coincidentally, is roughly the same age as Auster. He roots for the nascent Kennedy administration, sees Martin Luther King’s peaceful resistance, and recognizes both the greatness and the iniquity in L.B.J.’s actions as president. These national events are juxtaposed against Ferguson’s coming-of-age: he goes to summer camp, has a sad first love with a girl named Anne-Marie, and gets an education via his beloved aunt Mildred. One of the many pleasures of the book is Ferguson’s vibrant recounting of his reading experiences, such as Emma Goldman’s Living My Life, Voltaire’s Candide, and Theodore White’s The Making of the President, 1960. Auster adds a significant and immersive entry to a genre that stretches back centuries and includes Augie March and Tristram Shandy. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

★ 01/01/2017
Critics were quick to describe Autser's Invisible, a quaternary tale that told a contiguous narrative across a multitude of voices and authors, as a mere exercise in textual irony, lacking readability and substance. Here, the author has greater success as he returns to the four-part literary form with the coming-of-age story of Archibald Ferguson. Set in the 20th century, this novel chronicles Archibald's maturation through four possible, yet divergent, life paths. Family fortunes, careers, and hometowns shift and change as Archibald's life unfolds across each metaphorical fork in the road. However, one constant remains: his love for Amy Schneiderman. By interweaving each chapter into a single narrative and playing with metafiction, Auster winks at the multitude of universes contained within a single story and slyly presents the reader with essentially four drafts of a novel in progress. VERDICT Fusing the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics with the bildungsroman literary genre, Auster illuminates how the discrete moments in one's life form the plot points of a sprawling narrative, rife with possibility. [See Prepub Alert, 7/22/26.]—Joshua Finnell, Los Alamos National Lab., NM

Library Journal

★ 2016-12-06
Four versions of an ordinary life. Auster's first novel in seven years is nothing if not ambitious: a four-part invention, more than 800 pages, that follows the life (or lives) of Archie Ferguson, despite his name a child of Jewish Newark, born in the 1940s. If such a territory seems well-traveled (Philip Roth, anyone?), Auster, as he often does, has something more complex in mind. Indeed, his subject in these pages is identity: not how it gets fixed but rather all the ways it can unfurl. To that end, he develops the book as four distinct narratives, each imagining a different life for Archie depending on the circumstances faced by himself and his family. It's an ingenious move, and when it works, which is often, it gives a sense of breadth and scope, of unpredictability, to the novel as a whole. This is underscored by Auster's decision to keep the rest of the book naturalistic, taking place in an identifiable world. Thus, once young Ferguson discovers baseball, he watches Game 1 of the 1954 World Series, Giants versus Indians, in which Willie Mays made his legendary catch. Later, he will end up in Europe as an aesthete, or as a student transferring to Brooklyn College, or in Rochester, New York, as a journalist reporting on the aftermath of the 1960s and the bombing of Cambodia. The history helps to keep us rooted, both because it's recognizable and also because it remains consistent across the novel's narratives, its variations on this single life. So, too, Auster's sense of possibility, his understanding that what all his Fergusons have in common, with us and with one another, is a kind of quiet intensity, a striving to discover who they are. "It could never end," he writes about one incarnation of the character. "The sun was stuck in the sky, a page had gone missing from the book, and it would always be summer as long as they didn't breathe too hard or ask for too much, always the summer when they were nineteen and were finally, finally almost, finally perhaps almost on the brink of saying good-bye to the moment when everything was still in front of them." With this novel, Auster reminds us that not just life, but also narrative is always conditional, that it only appears inevitable after the fact.

Kirkus Reviews