Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Laughter in the dark, 25 Sep 2006
This is probably the most light-hearted of all Auster's novels, and yet it still begins with a line haunted by darkness and despair: "I was looking for a quiet place to die. Someone recommended Brooklyn....". Absolutely nobody can do those attention grabbing opening lines quite as well as Paul Auster.
Nathan Glass, retired from work, separated from his wife and now retreating from life itself, returns to the area in which he spent the first few years of his existence, looking for nothing more than a quiet time and a few peaceful years before death. Instead he finds himself trying to drag relatives and friends from the very same slough of despond into which he himself has descended. He meets up with his nephew, a once brilliant scholar who has since let himself go, and who spends most of his waking hours dreaming of the Beautiful Perfect Mother (a stunningly attractive unobtainable woman with two children whom he walks past on the way to work every morning), and Harry Brightman, a colourful 'con-man with a heart' who owns a local secondhand bookstore. Later in the novel a young girl appears, Lucy, who refuses to speak but who gives everyone a renewed purpose in life and a focus that drags them away from their own morbid introspection.
If I'm making this sound a dark and gloomy book then I couldn't be further from the truth. It's funny, tender, involving and ultimately life-affirming: look up from your own problems and concerns, look around and take an interest in the people around you, and suddenly you'll find all sorts of beautiful patterns and relationships developing in life. As usual with Auster there are plenty of colouful characters: Honey Chowder, the blousy, bright and fun daughter of a hotel owner; Rufus the transvestite drag act; Nancy the perfect beauty whose tastes don't quite run to the conventional, and David Minor, a religious fanatic who, ultimately, does the right thing in spite of all the odds.
The Brooklyn Follies is, if you like, Auster-lite. If you think you'd prefer the darker works then try The New York Trilogy or Oracle Night, but all of Auster's work is worth reading and in the pages of The Brooklyn Follies you will meet people who will stay with you, and you will come out of it with a renewed faith in mankind. Give it a go. Auster is one of the best writers out there.
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24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Mellowing of Paul Auster, 26 Oct 2005
The Brooklyn Follies is ultimately an optimistic novel, which makes it quite different from the dark early work which made me an Auster fan. Sure, there is sadness and despair, but they are defeated in the end - all but one of the characters manages to regain their lives and to find a kind of happiness. (The one who doesn't dies, but his death is the catalyst for others' redemption.) Auster's native Brooklyn is painted with an affection which manages not to be sentimental, and the characters, despite their quirks and weaknesses, are likeable because they are human and because they can change for the better. The book advocates community and humanity as positive forces. It ends minutes before the attack on the World Trade Centre and one is left with the strong feeling that even this awful event will not undo the transformations and renewed lives we have just read about. New Yorkers (and indeed Americans generally) refused to be cowed by 9/11 and perhaps this book tells us why - because beneath the grime of politics and commerce lies something altogether more worthwhile that can perhaps change America for the better. I liked The Brooklyn Follies, but not for the same reasons that I liked The New York Trilogy or Moon Palace or The Book of Illusions. It's a gentler novel than any of those, without the hard edge, without the dark, slightly surreal veil. Read it to cheer yourself up, or to inspire you to re-engage with the world. It's a book to be enjoyed, so enjoy it.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Remarkable, 10 Jan 2007
Every so often, an author writes a book that touches you deep down inside. They find a note that just sets off a whole torrent of emotion in you. Whether Auster intended to do this for his readers here, but he has the rare honour of having acheived it for me twice - once in his seminal New York Trilogy, and now again in The Brooklyn Follies.
Without wanting to confuse people by completely contradicting the other reviewers here, the character rendition in this book is exemplary. You get a feel for the community that exists around the narrator and his nephew that many people in today's world rarely feel - and you come away from the book wanting to know more about everyone that you met there.
Whereas the New York Trilogy was dark, disturbing and explored the meaning of identity within oneself, The Brooklyn Follies explores how our relationships with others defines our identity beyond what our perceptions of ourselves may be. It does so in a light hearted series of mini-essays which unfold as the characters live out their lives.
The other thing which really stood out for me was the way that it captured life in New York. Not the mythical, movie-and-sitcom New York that the mainstream media pumps you with daily, but the real, plain, ordinary New York that hides beneath the hype, one which you need to have lived or worked there to truly experience (until now!).
Fabulous work, Mr Auster. An entertaining, light hearted journey through the lives of the unsung heroes of one of the world's most famous cities. A remarkable achievement.
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