S.J. Parris
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Adam Haslett
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The Brooklyn Follies: Summary and book reviews of The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster, plus links to an excerpt from The Brooklyn Follies and a biography of Paul Auster.
The Brooklyn Follies
by
Paul Auster
Hardcover: Dec 2005,
320 pages.
Paperback: Oct 2006,
320 pages.
Through Tom and Harry, Nathan's world gradually broadens to include a new set of
acquaintances - not to mention a stray relative or two - and leads him to a
reckoning with his past.
Among the many twists in the delicious plot are a scam involving a forgery of
the first page of The Scarlet Letter, a disturbing revelation that takes place
in a sperm bank, and an impossible, utopian dream of a rural refuge. Meanwhile,
the wry and acerbic Nathan has undertaken something he calls The Book of Human
Folly, in which he proposes "to set down in the simplest, clearest language
possible an account of every blunder, every pratfall, every embarrassment, every
idiocy, every foible, and every inane act I had committed during my long and
checkered career as a man." But life takes over instead, and Nathan's despair is
swept away as he finds himself more and more implicated in the joys and sorrows
of others.
The Brooklyn Follies is Paul Auster's warmest, most exuberant novel, a moving
and unforgettable hymn to the glories and mysteries of ordinary human life.
Book Reviews
Kirkus Reviews
... it's hard to be ironic and warm and fuzzy simultaneously, and the American novelist who most closely resembles England's Ian McEwan really shouldn't try to be Anne Tyler... An egregious misstep in an otherwise estimable career.
Booklist - Donna Seaman
Starred Review. Auster also takes subtle measure of a time that will live in infamy, the era of the 2000 election and September 11, 2001.
Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Auster's graceful, offhand storytelling carries readers along, with enough shadow to keep the tale this side of schmaltz. The result is an affectionate portrait of the city as the ultimate refuge of the human spirit.
The San Francisco Chronicle
A classical work of American literature in the most traditional 19th century meaning of the phrase. It is a multilayered tapestry, with whimsical chapter headings and Dickensian depth. It is a novel striving for a true sense of community.
Austin American-Statesman The Brooklyn Follies is a valentine to Auster's neighborhood. But it's in the
imagining that he place really comes alive; Auster is every bit as much the bard
of Brooklyn as was Whitman. It is his Yoknapatawpha County and then some.
Bookpage
Another Paul Auster masterpiece...He may, in fact, be America's best writer. The Brooklyn Follies is quite simply a wonderful, lyrical novel, a joyful celebration of life's pleasures and ironies"
The Observer - Toby Lichtig
His preoccupation with chance means that the reader must practise a lot of belief-suspension as the characters start to pinball from one odd encounter to the next.
Kostova's masterful new novel travels from American cities to the coast of Normandy, from the late 19th century to the late 20th, from young love to last love. The Swan Thieves is a story of obsession, history's losses, and the power of art to preserve human hope.
What drives a man to stay in a marriage, in a job? What forces him away? Is love or conscience enough to overcome the darker, stronger urges of the natural world? The Unnamed is a deeply felt, luminous novel about modern life, ancient yearnings, and the power of human understanding.
Someone gives you a dangerous puzzle to solve, one that may kill you or someone else, and you're about to fail... And there is no other option. No one who can help. No one but the Bricklayer.
The tragedy, the sorrow, the loss, is almost too much for me to recommend this; on the other hand Mistry made me believe I knew these characters. I ...
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The challenge of writing a biography on Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis is that everyone knows the basic plot: a love of horses, suffered from her ...
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I can't quite understand the one bad review, as this is absolutely one of the best books I've read lately...and I've read plenty of good books. The ...
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Books overtake games as most numerous iPhone apps(Mar 10 2010) The electronic book passed another milestone this month, with the number of books available on the iTunes App Store passing the number of games for the first...
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The Brooklyn Follies
Kirkus Reviews
Booklist - Donna Seaman
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