Leviathan

I'm not interested in literary criticism or inside info about the characters in Leviathan or their relationship to real people. To me, this is just an interesting journey of a book. Introspective, but also a genuine action story, this is a book about the unravelling of the character Benjamin Sachs. There is a moment in Auster's books when a character reaches an internal crisis that derails their life. It isn't exactly a psychological portrait but to me his brilliance is the ability to reveal the fault line that exists beneath the surface of human lives. There is a common theme in his books. An event that cracks the surface of a person's life and which causes that character to slide into darkness, self destruction and despair. Something about that rings true, an understanding of the fragility of existence and personality. I haven't read many contemporary authors who can portray that lurking weakness like Auster. And the fact that he doesn't have all the answers makes his portraits more believable. There's always doubt. The mystery isn't the plot, it's the psychology of the character.

Paul Auster has to be one of the cleverest writers around, and one of the most rewarding. "Leviathan" tells the story of Peter Aaron's 15-year friendship with Benjamin Sachs - a wunderkind novelist and conscientious objector who, ultimately through violent protest, makes his political convictions a part of his everyday life. Running from the mid-seventies to 1990, this is a tour through Reagan's America and its somnambulistic abandonment of every value that makes America great. Once again, Auster usefully blurs the boundaries of autobiography and fiction, making his unlikely tale feel real. And his choice of a "mystery story" setup and personal tone are perfect: with its largely undramatized sequences presented in the casual, reflective style of a memoir, it never gets preachy despite its political intent; and our desire to uncover the mystery of just how and why Ben died pulls us effortlessly through the labyrinth to the end. For me, the final scene was remarkably touching. Compulsively readable, perfectly pitched, and ultimately about something important - novels don't get much better than this.

Even though I've enjoyed Paul Auster's more recent screenplays, and the movies that came from them, it's a shame he abandoned novel writing as his primary mode of expression. He reached a real peak with LEVIATHAN, one that he's never matched since. The visual image in this novel is the Statue of Liberty. It's theme is how terrifying REAL freedom is, and how desperately each of us will conspire to avoid facing it in our lives. It's a brilliant piece of writing, and the best of Auster's line of truly interesting and unsettling stories.If you're just starting out with Auster, though, you should take the time to read his novels from the beginning. You'll notice a couple of interesting things, if you do. First, Auster has said that he tried to start each of his novels where the last one left off. For instance, MOON PALACE ends with a man driving across the USA, and THE MUSIC OF CHANCE begins with a man doing just that. Then, a quirky touch by Auster, there is an umbrella that appears at some point in each of his novels, and you'll watch it go through a kind of evolution as the novels go by. And, anyway, these books contain some really fine writing.Auster probably won't be remembered as one of the GREAT American authors (though I think Don Delillo [to whom LEVIATHAN is dedicated] very well might!). But Auster is very much in touch with the Zeitgeist of the times. HIGHLY recommended!

If they can handle a load of criticism of course... I am notone, but still it impressed me on how quickly we empty the meanings ofsymbols, and how long it takes to refill them... A lot better than the triology, a lot more down-to-earth. Great writer and great characters...

After reading The New York Trilogy, I immediately had to buy this book. Auster continues obsessing over certain ideas clearly weaving much of his own life into his novels. The mind of Auster had already grabbed me by the time I read this book and continues to interest me after reading it.However, much of the criticism of Leviathan leveled by other reviewers is warranted. He does seem to make the book a tad Hollywood in its action at times. Auster is constantly left piecing together tangent stories, for example when he describes the artistic experiments of one of the narrator's lovers. He attempts to piece these stories together under the guise of style, a "music of chance" type thing that brings the thousand stories of the naked city into one novel. In retrospect, this seems a little forced and contrived to possibly meet publishing deadlines for his next novel. Perhaps he should have broke this book up into three related novellas like The New York Trilogy.One cannot escape, however, his haunting narrative and interesting scenes. The bits and pieces of the plot are so interesting in and of themselves (if not as a whole) that this book is well worth reading. This sit-tradgety forces the reader into eccentric circumstance, closes out each quandrum for the protagonist without true resolution, and leaves the reader disturbed. However, the peculiar thing is the sense of beauty Auster always seems to convey in his somewhat dark prose. He makes the view of the world as an uncertain place filled with vague human purposes enchanting.Leviathan probably will not go down as Auster's greatest book, nor as his best introductory reading. However, this work is worth reading because it is very Auster. For lack of a better conclusion, a mediocre book by him is ten times better than most of what's written today (except maybe Don DeLillo whom the book was devoted to).