The Brooklyn Follies A Novel

by Auster, Paul

• ISBN13: 9780312429003
• ISBN10: 0312429002
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-10-27
• Publisher: Picador

Summary

Nathan Glass has come to Brooklyn to die. Divorced, retired, estranged from his only daughter, the former life insurance salesman seeks only solitude and anonymity. Then Glass encounters his long-lost nephew, Tom Wood, who is working in a local bookstore. Through Tom and his charismatic boss, Harry, Nathan's world gradually broadens to include a new set of acquaintances, which leads him to a reckoning with his past.Paul Austeris the bestselling author ofTravels in the Scriptorium, Oracle Night,andMan in the Dark,among many other works.I Thought My Father Was God, the NPR National Story Project Anthology, which he edited, was also a national bestseller. His work has been translated into more than thirty-five languages. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. Nathan Glass has come to Brooklyn to die. Divorced, retired, estranged from his only daughter, the former life insurance salesman seeks only solitude and anonymity. Then Glass encounters his long-lost nephew, Tom Wood, who is working in a local bookstore. Through Tom and his charismatic boss, Harry, Nathan's world gradually broadens to include a new set of acquaintances, which leads him to a reckoning with his past. "After a 'sad and ridiculous life' in the suburbs, Nathan Glass retires, gets divorced, and moves to Brooklyn to die. To pass the time, he decides to write an account of mishaps and mistakes, beginning with his own--'The Book of Human Folly.' 'The tone would be light and farcical throughout,' he says, 'and my only purpose was to keep myself entertained.' Auster seems to have had a similar intent. A chance encounter with a long-lost nephew leads Nathan into an unlikely second act, involving a longer-lost niece, her runaway daughter, and a host of lively Brooklyn caricatures--a gay used-bookstore owner, a tough widow, an H.I.V.-positive drag queen--all in the midst of unlikely second acts themselves. Nathan narrates increasingly absurd events with persistent cheer, a tone mirrored by the blinkered optimism and liberal conviction of pre-9/11 Park Slope; it's a combination that soon seems less hopeful than hollow, and profoundly disengaged."--The New Yorker "A charming, beguiling story about the terrible beauty of families and the redemptive power of love . . . Auster's writing is packed with surprises."--USAToday "A bighearted, life-affirming, tenderly comic yarn."--The Washington Post "Probably the first authentic attempt to deal with the post-September 11 world . . . It is a multilayered tapestry, with whimsical chapter headings and Dickensian depth."--San Francisco Chronicle "Auster has written a sublime soap opera about the ways in which people abandon and save one another. He captures a historical moment, our twisted America, and he offers a message of hope. Love will save us. We will save each other. Auster employs tough-guy talk and funny, believable stories of folly in his search for wisdom and goodness."--The Boston Globe "Hucksters, people vanishing and reappearing, problems with language, glancing invocation of those stalwarts Hawthorne and Poe and Thoreau and Whitman, whose presence is sprinkled throughout this author's body of work--yes, it's Auster . . . A touching, even warm, story of families in recombination."--The Chicago Tribune "Paul Auster's thirty-year career has been astonishing as well: novels, screenplays, poems, essays, illustrated tales, translations, scholarly editions of French verse. He seems almost a literary decathlete, able to excel in any genre . . . His latest novel,The Brooklyn Follies, is perhaps his most engaging and compelling story . . . A hopeful book, a series of finely crafted interlocking sto

Author Biography

PAUL AUSTER is the bestselling author of Travels in the Scriptorium, Oracle Night, and Man in the Dark, among many other works. I Thought My Father Was God, the NPR National Story Project Anthology, which he edited, was also a national bestseller. His work has been translated into more than thirty-five languages. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Table of Contents

"A charming, beguiling story about the terrible beauty of families and the redemptive power of love . . . Auster's writing is packed with surprises."--USA Today

"A bighearted, life-affirming, tenderly comic yarn."--The Washington Post

"Probably the first authentic attempt to deal with the post--September 11 world . . . It is a multilayered tapestry, with whimsical chapter headings and Dickensian depth."--San Francisco Chronicle

"Auster has written a sublime soap opera about the ways in which people abandon and save one another. He captures a historical moment, our twisted America, and he offers a message of hope. Love will save us. We will save each other. Auster employs tough-guy talk and funny, believable stories of folly in his search for wisdom and goodness."--The Boston Globe

 

“Auster has written a sublime soap opera about the ways in which people abandon and sanother. H

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