Leviathan
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Book Description
A compelling, brilliant novel, an astonishingly original work of fiction by one of its accomplished masters.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Product Description
Six days ago, a man blew himself up by the side of a road in northern Wisconsin . . .
The explosion that detonates the narrative of Paul Auster's remarkable novel also ends the life of its hero, Benjamin Sachs, and brings two FBI agents to the home of one of Sachs's oldest friends, the writer Peter Aaron. What follows is Aaron's story, an intricate, subtle and gripping investigation of another man's life in all its richness and complexity.
Leviathan is a compulsive, brilliant novel, an astonishingly original work of fiction by one of its accomplished masters.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I'm a big Auster fan and this is probably my favourite book of his. It grips from the start as the story of Ben Sachs told through the eyes of his friend Peter Aaron. Its a great story and the characters are well drawn. The terrorism theme is unusual for him, and has echoes of American Pastoral by Philip Roth- both books have friends and family struggling to come to terms with a radical acquaintance.
Auster uses the statue of liberty as a fitting allegory for the establishment and for the way people settle for less, in a world bereft of truth, meaning or ideology. Ben Sachs is an unforgettable character, but what lingers is the compromised muddied relationship between Aaron and Sachs, and the things left unsaid and undone.
Auster uses the statue of liberty as a fitting allegory for the establishment and for the way people settle for less, in a world bereft of truth, meaning or ideology. Ben Sachs is an unforgettable character, but what lingers is the compromised muddied relationship between Aaron and Sachs, and the things left unsaid and undone.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Benjamin Sachs story is "conveyed through the eyes of his friend Peter Aaron, a novelist who discovers in the book's opening pages that Sachs has died in a mysterious bomb explosion. Aaron sets out to write the definitive version of Sachs's story before the FBI can formulate theirs." Benjamin Sachs is a writer, a philosopher, a man with loyalties and passions. But more than that Benjamin Sachs is a questioner - he questions his own nature and psychosocial make up, he tests himself and probes deeper to understand who he is and also the nature of humanity, fate, destiny and chance. He is willing to give up his wife, career and practical reason in his search. Many incidents in this book can be criticised as unreal - the seemingly simple triggering of Sachs "series of fateful events" and the many coincidence that pop up to escalate these events, however far from building a sense of unreality I feel they render a state of hyper reality - how many times have you said "if I told you, you wouldn't believe it". Here Auster has told it and in a manner in which we can see this mans wrenching search into himself. Indeed many of the events are based autobiographically on Auster's own life. I particularly love the passages outlining Sachs efforts to alienate his wife - to get her to leave him rather than the other way around, Sachs attempts to "innocently" touch Maria and the deepening of Aaron's friendship with Sachs to the extent that he wishes to slip into his skin - to sleep with Sachs wife, oh these and many more threads I found wonderfully and unnervingly real.
This book has been much read due to its "anti-establishment" content, yet I feel this book is less to do with the macrocosm of the American nation and more to do with the microcosm of mans struggle with his self and of the freedom imparted by the near death experience. Auster himself has quoted the Greek saying. `Judge no man's happiness until he is dead' in relation to this work. Sachs bombings of Statue of Liberty replicas can be on the surface seen as anti-establishment statements but what is more then can be seen as Sachs blowing up fear - stultifying fear, as first witnessed in his mothers experience on climbing the stature of liberty. 'The Phantom of Liberty' being less a terrorist of the state and more a man in search of his own liberation.
This book should also be read by fans of contemporary art in particular the Artist Sophie Calle - whose works Auster weaves into the story through the character of Maria.
In my reading so far I find this book to be a rare gem - a psychological narrative with action. I'm off to buy the rest of his works.
The Artist
This book has been much read due to its "anti-establishment" content, yet I feel this book is less to do with the macrocosm of the American nation and more to do with the microcosm of mans struggle with his self and of the freedom imparted by the near death experience. Auster himself has quoted the Greek saying. `Judge no man's happiness until he is dead' in relation to this work. Sachs bombings of Statue of Liberty replicas can be on the surface seen as anti-establishment statements but what is more then can be seen as Sachs blowing up fear - stultifying fear, as first witnessed in his mothers experience on climbing the stature of liberty. 'The Phantom of Liberty' being less a terrorist of the state and more a man in search of his own liberation.
This book should also be read by fans of contemporary art in particular the Artist Sophie Calle - whose works Auster weaves into the story through the character of Maria.
In my reading so far I find this book to be a rare gem - a psychological narrative with action. I'm off to buy the rest of his works.
The Artist
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I picked up this book on the strength of Paul Auster's reputation as a writer. I was genuinely baffled to discover how trite, unengaging, and, in places, badly written it was. Some awful lines in particular will never leave me - "a dense Eden of tingling pubes" might just be the worst sentence ever committed to paper, and the book is peppered with many such awful howlers. It reads like a first novel, and an actively bad one at that. I think the plan was to use a Unabomber-style archetype to explore the complexities of modern day America, a pompous project that ultimately does nothing and goes nowhere.
I made myself finish the damn thing on the condition that I could throw it across the room when I had done so. If I were reviewing the book solely on its qualities as a projectile, I would give it an unhesitating A+.
I made myself finish the damn thing on the condition that I could throw it across the room when I had done so. If I were reviewing the book solely on its qualities as a projectile, I would give it an unhesitating A+.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Auster at his best
The best Auster. A portrait of contemporary America and the disillusion of a whole generation. Auster's prose is rich and seducing and leaves the reader asking for more. Read more
Published 6 months ago by I. Martinez Almeida Fl
Masterly, compellingly readable.
For lack of a better superlative I'll say that this book is brilliant, like most of Paul Auster's books. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Mark Dene
Well written social history of New York
Auster's book is written from the point of view of Peter Aaron, writer, and is his biography of his friend, political writer turned activist, Benjamin Sachs. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Jo Bennie
Technically flawed and empty...
Having read the New York Trilogy, I came to this with high hopes. I left wondering quite what I had read. Read more
Published 21 months ago by bloodsimple
American nightmare
This is the second Paul Auster novel I've read. I forget the title of the first which I thought was decent, but later discovered was generally regarded as disappointing. Read more
Published 22 months ago by D. J. H. Thorn
A Mixed Bag
Having recently read Leviathan and The Music of Chance, I can't help but fear that anything Auster has done or will do after 1987 will always be dwarfed by The New York Trilogy. Read more
Published on 20 Nov 2006 by Adam Kelly
One of Paul Auster's best
This was the second book by Auster that I read, having read "The New York Trilogy" first and being suitably impressed. Read more
Published on 26 Jan 2005 by A reader
A ponderous bore
I couldn't wait to get into this; the first twenty pages were captivating and promised the musings on identity and life that Auster is so expert at. Read more
Published on 3 Jun 2004 by M. Crowder
Explosive - literally
From the opening page to the final word, this novel grips you like a half nelson by Hulk Hogan in his pomp. Read more
Published on 20 Jan 2004 by "jimconnor9"
Unconvincing, eminently forgettable novel
Eminently forgettable and useless; pointless and superfluous. A waste of writing talent. Based on this novel alone, Auster comes across as a man who writes well but to no purpose. Read more
Published on 18 Oct 2001 by Nina Davis
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
