The return of a cult author as is Paul auster, always arouses enormous expectations in the most demanding fans of literature worldwide. The unique title refers to the four possible lives that the character in the novel may have gone through. And of course, for as much life as possible a few pages are needed, 960 to be exact ...
In this book 4 3 2 1, the brilliant author lavishes on his unique aesthetics plagued with metaphors of the everyday, capable of elevating the routine to take it to hell the next moment. In my opinion he is a different author, maybe not entirely conventional, but if you are able to get into his wavelength, you enjoy like a dwarf.
The generational narrative through his characters is something already seen in some of his previous works, although the approach on this occasion is quite far. In this case, the coming of age resource that is usually used to guide us in the temporal evolution of a character is fragmented in different planes, with all those possibilities that vital decisions can offer. I do not dare to say that this is about fantasy, Auster being a 100% realistic writer. But yes, at least, it moves in an imaginative world about existence, alternatives, destiny and everything that ends up shaping our present or another present that we consider we could have touched.
The story starts from Newark, New Jersey, that shadow of Manhattan whose 8 miles away seems like an abyss. That's where Archibald Isaac Ferguson, the protagonist of the novel, a lucky protagonist who was born on March 3, 1947 and who has 4 shots in which to develop his life. The options multiply as Archibald grows, and only the love for Amy Scheniderman is repeated on all levels, although under different conditions.
However, neither the boy from the Ferguson 1, nor the 2 nor the 3 nor the 4 can escape the same outcome for his story, and the reader becomes fully aware of that as the reading progresses.
A story to take off your hat to, for its masterful conduction and for that kind of changing scenery through which the same central character passes, different at each new moment. Paul Auster is that writer capable of presenting his stories to us as a theater where the lives of his characters pass, a stage that we can almost go up to to transmute as we read and read.
You can now buy book 4321, the latest novel by Paul Auster, here: