Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Leviathan (Contemporary American Fiction) by Paul Auster ISBN: 0-14-017813-9 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: September, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.3 (50 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Intriguing, but not Auster's best
Comment: Leviathan is a fascinating book, and it clips along at a very quick pace - I read it over the course of a couple of study halls. It cannot, however, hold a candle to a book such as The New York Trilogy (my favorite Auster novel, and the standard to which all others are compared). Leviathan is complex, but ends up feeling rushed, particularly the second half. The characters are well crafted, but are too frequently cast aside as the plot rushes forward. Auster needed to trim the book down, or expand upon it.
Despite the hurried feeling, Levithan is nonetheless a very interesting novel, and does a wonderful job of bringing up questions about America and the American citizen's identity within America. It is fitting that the book is dedicated to Don DeLillo, a writer who frequently confronts this sort of question in his work.
All in all, an excellent read. Despite the adrenaline rush, Leviathan is steeped in a sense of philosophical melancholy. Whether or not there is hope for America, Paul Auster proves there is hope for American literature.
Rating: 4
Summary: Fast Read
Comment: Leviathan has excellent prose and narrative pacing. It is the sort of book you can read in one or two sittings. I would jump from thinking the book was completely ridiculous to sheer absorption. The male characters took themselves too seriously, but sometimes that provided a nice comic effect. I understand that Peter Aaron is roughly based on Paul Auster (P.A., and he ends up marrying Iris, who is the protagonist of "The Blindfold", based on and by his wife Siri Hustvedt), but I was wondering Sachs was based on Delillo, who the book is dedicated too. Delillo's first book is Americana, is that anything like The New Collosus? Sachs' initials also spell BS, who knows if that means anything. What is fun about Leviathan is the great plot twists, and the way the philosophical abstractions add to the suspense. Usually, for me, philosophical digressions weigh down the narrative. Reaing it a second time is fun because Auster foreshadows a lot with symbolism (Aaron's double vision at the bar for example). The female characters are generally weak, except for Maria Turner - who is probably the best character in the book. The male characters are a little charming, but they don't have the self-irony they think they do. They're clever, but not the center of the universe.
Rating: 1
Summary: Artificial Suspense
Comment: The strategy of the story-telling didn't work for me.
I found the first ten pages so annoying and tedious that I couldn't read any further.
What I gather from the first 10 pp is that:
1. The dead guy had a "terrible secret." I need to know up front what this is, to keep reading. I won't read another page to find out.
2. The narrator knew the dead guy but doesn't want to tell FBI. I can't imagine why, and I don't care. This is supposed to be a hook, I guess, but it doesn't work that way for me. Just tell me, right off the bat. At least give me a hint.
3. The dead guy blew himself up for a reason. We don't know what that is. Right now-during the whole 10 pp-I don't give a tinker's damn. I guess this is supposed to be another hook. You have to give me at least a hint. Otherwise I just do a dim-out.
I took a workshop from the novelist John Rechy one time. He said: If you keep saying, in your book, "I have a mystery that I'm going to tell you," and you say it over and over again, it becomes maddening. It will make you put the book down. That is what happened to me here.
Thank God I can just put it down and forget about it.
Whew. What a relief.
 |
Title: The New York Trilogy: City of Glass, Ghosts, the Locked Room (Contemporary American Fiction Series) by Paul Auster ISBN: 0140131558 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: December, 1994 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
 |
Title: Invention of Solitude by Paul Auster ISBN: 0140106286 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: May, 1988 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
 |
Title: The Book of Illusions: A Novel by Paul Auster ISBN: 0312421818 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 01 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
 |
Title: Moon Palace by Paul Auster ISBN: 0140115854 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: April, 1990 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
 |
Title: The Music of Chance by Paul Auster ISBN: 0140154078 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: October, 1993 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
