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4 3 2 1 A Novel Paul Auster Books

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4 3 2 1 A Novel Paul Auster Books

Let's establish right away that Paul Auster is one of my favorite authors. In fact, I'd consider myself something of a "fanboy." I've read the vast majority of his published work after discovering him about ten years ago. He earned my trust back then, which means I will read anything he releases. Anything.

4 3 2 1 is an ambitious work that absolutely experiments with style and execution. It is extremely well written, meticulously organized, and clearly a labor of love. This is an important novel due to its sheer moxie; it not only challenges well-established conventions in the field of literature, it summarily ignores them.

But, even with all of that being said, it missed the mark for me. At 866 pages, 4 3 2 1 proved too much for this reader. As you know, Auster is an avid baseball fan, and I definitely felt like I needed a scorecard for this epic volume.

Without spoiling too much, this novel imagines the four possible lives of a single man. We follow him from boyhood all the way to death. There are many touchstones that are obviously invariable from life to life, but there are also several deviations that alter one life drastically from another. It's a fascinating premise, one that we've all thought about from time to time. What if my parents had separated? What if I'd chosen a different school? What if I had fallen into that pit and been paralyzed? So many "what ifs" in life ... Auster delves deeply into this notion while leaving no detail unexplored.

But, like Annie Proulx's Barkskins, those nuanced details can overwhelm the reader to the point of provoking disengagement. At least, that's what happened in my case.

Furthermore, if I'm being honest, Ferguson (the main character) is not especially interesting. No matter which life we address, Ferguson is a bit aloof, a bit too precocious, a bit unlikable. Well, perhaps "unlikable" is too strong of a word. I would never describe him as "likable," though. Keep in mind, I don't believe a character has to be "good" in the moral sense to be "likable." There have been plenty of "bad" characters that I thought were incredibly charismatic.

On the subject of morality, be warned ... there is a lot of sex in this book -- more than any Paul Auster book I've ever read. There is straight sex, gay sex, committed sex, casual sex, oral sex, anal sex ... you get the idea. The sex often seemed to me as forced. It never quite struck me as organic to the story.

While I found this to be a relevant addition to the author's library because it broke new ground for an already inventive artist, it did not hold my attention. While the writing is masterful, it failed to capture my imagination. And while the characters are pounding with life, none of them seemed to take hold in my own.


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4 3 2 1 A Novel Paul Auster Books Reviews

This is the first time I'm writing a review of a book. I am a compulsive reader, and often rely on the NY Times and the reviews to determine the next book! I love fiction, I love historical fiction and I love unusual structural conceits. I loved this book on so many levels. I read Kate Atkinson's Life after Life, and adored the story line, the historical aspect as well as the structure of re-writing ones history based upon all of the possible circumstances which could arise in a life. Here in 4321, I was mesmerized from the start with the all too familiar Jewish Ellis Island Joke, which begins this epic and which then bursts with a multitude of stories based upon the "What If" of all of our lives...What if I did this, or what if that happened instead...and then played out by such memorable, thoughtful and engaging characters reinvented depending upon the particular version of "What If". I loved the historical narrative which drives the characters in all of the What If's, because I came of age during the same time period. I had been waiting for a book to capture me the way the long engrossing "The Goldfinch" had several years ago, and 4321 was this for me, the first such engaging, memorable work. I cannot stop thinking about this book....read it...learn and imagine.
I LOVED this book!
It is the story of a boy, Ferguson, told in four different setting. While this family characters remain the same situations change and each version of Ferguson takes a different route. I wondered how Auster could bring this to a successful finale but he did.
I would strongly suggest that anyone reading this tome take notes from the start of 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4 in order to keep the different stages of the different Fergusons straight.
It is a long book and Auster's discriptions can go on and on but, as someone who lived in NYC at the time of the novel, it brought back so many memories. Remember lunch at Horn and Hardarts?
I started another book after 4 3 2 1, one shortlisted for the National Book Award, and found myself missing Auster's hypnotic writing.
My favorite book of 2017 so far.
I love this novel’s ambition to tell four different versions of a boy’s coming of age story. In each version different decisions are made at key points, and the paths diverge from there. The characters are the same across all versions, so their personalities remain consistent (e.g. the protagonist’s love of reading and writing comes through in all four versions, an aspect of the novel I loved). But it’s remarkable how different the endpoints can be, just based on a few pivotal decisions. I had to do quite a lot of work as a reader to keep the four narratives separate in my mind as I was reading because of the way Auster structures the book. We get four versions of a 2-3 year period, and then we get four versions of the next 2-3 years, and so on. I had to take some notes and flip back and forth in the book a lot to keep my bearings straight. The effort was worthwhile, and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I also found the novel to be compelling for the more philosophical questions it raises—i.e. how important are our actions and decisions to the outcomes we experience. Do we really have free agency, or is there a kind of Fate (or God) working in the background, or is it a combination? I give this novel 5 stars for concept and ambition. I’m tempted to deduct a star because some passages in some of the versions became pretty tedious or repetitive, but it just doesn’t seem fair to deduct a star when this is one of the best books I’ve read this year, so I won’t. Highly recommended for those looking for a reading challenge.
Let's establish right away that Paul Auster is one of my favorite authors. In fact, I'd consider myself something of a "fanboy." I've read the vast majority of his published work after discovering him about ten years ago. He earned my trust back then, which means I will read anything he releases. Anything.

4 3 2 1 is an ambitious work that absolutely experiments with style and execution. It is extremely well written, meticulously organized, and clearly a labor of love. This is an important novel due to its sheer moxie; it not only challenges well-established conventions in the field of literature, it summarily ignores them.

But, even with all of that being said, it missed the mark for me. At 866 pages, 4 3 2 1 proved too much for this reader. As you know, Auster is an avid baseball fan, and I definitely felt like I needed a scorecard for this epic volume.

Without spoiling too much, this novel imagines the four possible lives of a single man. We follow him from boyhood all the way to death. There are many touchstones that are obviously invariable from life to life, but there are also several deviations that alter one life drastically from another. It's a fascinating premise, one that we've all thought about from time to time. What if my parents had separated? What if I'd chosen a different school? What if I had fallen into that pit and been paralyzed? So many "what ifs" in life ... Auster delves deeply into this notion while leaving no detail unexplored.

But, like Annie Proulx's Barkskins, those nuanced details can overwhelm the reader to the point of provoking disengagement. At least, that's what happened in my case.

Furthermore, if I'm being honest, Ferguson (the main character) is not especially interesting. No matter which life we address, Ferguson is a bit aloof, a bit too precocious, a bit unlikable. Well, perhaps "unlikable" is too strong of a word. I would never describe him as "likable," though. Keep in mind, I don't believe a character has to be "good" in the moral sense to be "likable." There have been plenty of "bad" characters that I thought were incredibly charismatic.

On the subject of morality, be warned ... there is a lot of sex in this book -- more than any Paul Auster book I've ever read. There is straight sex, gay sex, committed sex, casual sex, oral sex, anal sex ... you get the idea. The sex often seemed to me as forced. It never quite struck me as organic to the story.

While I found this to be a relevant addition to the author's library because it broke new ground for an already inventive artist, it did not hold my attention. While the writing is masterful, it failed to capture my imagination. And while the characters are pounding with life, none of them seemed to take hold in my own.