Review of BAUMGARTNER
A great writer writes a short book about age, love and memories ... what's not to love?
This is a book written by an adult for adults. What does it mean to get older? To get to the place where middle age is in the rearview mirror and OLD age is visible on the horizon on certain types of days? Paul Auster, the auteur of post-modern writing, has begun to get there, leaving behind the brilliant and audacious literary feats of his youth - most spectacularly evidenced in The New York trilogy (at least read the first one). While this short novel’s structure and in particular its ending has a bit of Auster’s signature post-modern uncertainty to it, the heart of the book is filled with the sensibilities derived from a life fully observed. The eponymous central character is trying to figure out how to live after losing a wife that was every bit his partner in life. It is a beguiling love story told through windows of remembrance with the musical score of the clickety clack of a typewriter. There are no children. There is modest fame as a writer and academic. And there are his memories. Part of the genius of a post-modern novel is its refusal to tow the plot line. A plot is a construct first and foremost. It is there to provide us comfort from truths embedded in the unknowable. Thus, the books charm comes from the internal journey of Baumgarten from a basement floor to the pine barrens of New Jersey. It is a literate “everyman” journey and I am grateful to Auster for the invitation and, frankly, the brevity.
Baumgartner
By Paul Auster
2023 208 page
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