4321 | 
The New York Trilogy
@BarbaraBB posted about Paul Auster so I dug up a few. His works always seem to have , luck, chance, & wonder. I loved Smoke , the film he worked on and wrote with Wayne Wang . The last one I read was Leviathan. I really like him, I end up talking up his books & if the person is interested, give them to them. I bought 4321 right after it came out, but haven‘t read it yet! I haven‘t read them all , example Baumgartner from 2023. RIP Paul.
So very sad. RIP
https://www.npr.org/2024/05/01/1212212960/paul-auster-dead
Going thru my curious tags on Libby and finding anything that's available for reading now, at this very moment
Looks like it's this one today
panBook 80
2.5 ?s
I happened upon 4321 while browsing in the library. "A rare find", the GoodReads description, intrigued me. Reading it was, initially, very satiating; the writing is meaty, the observations stimulating, and the endless-references to books and authors is titillating. *Review finished in comments.
Great expectations on this one. Grandi speranze su questo librone. Vedremo. In the meantime, Amazon released this new fw that lets see the cover on the standby kindle. Wonderful!
This book is wonderful and I want to re-read it in a different chapter order. I am sure that I will read another brand new book.
I‘m posting one book per day from my ever-increasing TBR. No description. No explanation. Just books to read. Join the fun if you want.
Day 66.
#fromthetbrstacks
pick1st of 21 was this 1070 page saga of archie born in 1947 + his life up to the early 70s. Auster creates 4 lives for archie separated by simple twists + turns ,a great idea but not sure if the bk was a brilliant feat or a literary con trick. I actually love the idea of how life wd change if a certain path is taken & I liked archie but negatives incl too much teenage sex, American youth in Paris, and feeling like I was given a cultural rdg list. 👇
so-so4 3 2 1 follows a man called Ferguson born on March 3, 1947, in Newark, NJ. The book follows four possibilities for one man‘s life. Each chapter is divided into four numbered sections, corresponding with each different version of Ferguson. Each incarnation of this man follows drastically different paths. One dies at 13, struck by a falling tree limb during a thunderstorm; his sections after that are left blank. Great concept but a very slow read.
Started this beauty today. Such a wonderful writing! ❤️ #PaulAuster #currentread
pickWhat a comforting idea when life isn‘t going as planned: You have lived a different life, and you‘ll live another one too. Even more comforting: No matter what happens in this life or the next, in version 4.1 where you‘re rich or 26.1 where you‘re poor, there is always a part of us, our most special aspect, our soul, that finds a way to shine in every iteration. No matter the circumstances, writers find a way to write.
1. Blueberries 2. 4,3,2,1 which was wonderful. 900+ pages. 3. None. 4. In a cottage in a sleepy beach town four blocks from the beach. #wonderouswednesday
pick4321 follows four possible trajectories of the life of Archie Ferguson from his birth in the 1940s to early adulthood. I loved the idea of how things can be different for a person based on small changes or decisions. I thought I would get the narratives confused before starting but didn‘t—I think being able to listen for long stretches helped.
#ReadingUSA2019 #NewJersey (also would work for New York)
NatalieR, LapReader, Pamwurtzler, Kaye, Librarybelle, Laughterhp, squirrelbrain, BarbaraBB, Addison_Reads, jessinikkip, MirrorMask
panLord save me from bildungsromans about artsy pretentious boys with no problem solving skills, particularly sections on how wonderful and spiritually important jerking off is, and rapturous passages about how special you are if you understood Don Quixote.
Rare good lines were overwhelmed by the ‘I‘m so clever‘ vibe, and 4 interchangeable lives of a man who just feels sorry for himself and names a lot of novels wasn‘t as good a frame as I hoped.
Monday morning audiobook commuting again. I‘m trying so hard to like 4321, I enjoyed the New York Trilogy so much, but I‘m mainly finding this one annoying. It feels very eager to inform me of how literary it is, and that‘s a huge pet peeve of mine.
I don‘t give up on books as a general policy but I have turned the speed up considerably...
1. Listening to 4321 (kinda hoping it‘ll end fast tho 😐) and reading Out of the Wreckage
2. Hufflepuff! I have a lot of house pride.
3. I watched part of an episode of queer eye earlier but I was mainly doing my makeup in another room, not a big tv watcher
#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain
We went to the casino for dinner and then we had to get Krispy Kreme, since it‘s right at the entrance! I am loving this book so far - it‘s very quiet and full of minute detail about the characters, and his writing is lovely. Chloe wants to step on the donut box... #catsoflitsy #tuxedokittiesoflitsy @MinDea
Aaaaand I‘m off! #24b4monday @TheReadingMermaid @Andrew65
Audio-ing my way into work with Paul Auster. It‘s raining quite miserably but I‘m wearing a brand new jumper and it‘s Friday so swings and roundabouts ☺️
I‘m enjoying this but it‘s done one of my pet peeves:
I hate when an author tries to describe a character by listing all the great literature they read? ‘She read wuthering heights and Faulkner and house of mirth and the sun also rises and tolstoy and...‘ I don‘t want to read lists of other books! I‘ve read those books! I want to read this book! It reminds me of bad teen novels and ‘she was deep she loved Jane Eyre‘. Does this annoy anyone else?
pickThere‘s a great sense of achievement in finishing a book this size. It may have taken months but I‘ve done it. I really loved Ferguson (all versions of him) as a character, if you didn‘t I don‘t think you could get through this one. I also enjoyed the very long, sweeping sentences and Auster‘s style and humour. But I did think it was too long, long for the sake of being long in parts and I skimmed some of it when the story became bogged down.
I do if the book is good. Seems like I‘ve read quite a few this year. @SilversReviews #tuesdaytidbits.
"Reading was my escape and my comfort, my consolation, my stimulant of choice: reading for the pure pleasure of it, for the beautiful stillness that surrounds you when you hear an author's words reverberating in your head."
- 4 3 2 1
so-soThere is an undeniable literary brilliance about this novel. Paul Auster's writing is beautiful. And the level of detail he maintained while describing the lives of the four Archies is extraordinary. But I am not sure I am a fan of the whole "4 versions of one life" idea. It is very original, and makes the book had to follow (perhaps the audiobook wasn't the best idea) and also, it is harder to care about the character.
#HeyJune Just wanted to give a HUGE shoutout to @GypsyKat for a REALLY AMAZING playlist this month and THANKS to everyone who played along and shared their Beatles love❣️❣️❣️Don‘t forget #HeatofJuly starts Sunday with @BarbaraBB 💥💥 I‘m traveling ALL DAY Sunday and will be offline but #IllBeBack Monday 😁I‘m thinking of taking these 3 for my airplane reads!?! It‘s the chunky that worries me, is it worth lugging?!? 🤨😬🙄
A sweet & fun bday gift from my friend, Deborah! She knows my obsession with coffee nut M&Ms and she knows I fear #chunky books but she‘s convinced I‘m gonna LOVE the Paul Auster. I won‘t lie, it‘s giving me anxiety just looking at its size but I‘ll give it a try at some point 😜 #PageCountPhobiaIsReal
This is my bookclub‘s #chunkster for the year. Due for discussion at our weekend away by the beach in November. Have just started. Gonna take me a while with 36 hours of audio!
Because everyone needs a lunch break right?
Audio update: a skosh under 29 hours to go and this may be the ideal #audiowalk book. Auster takes all his usual moves, multiplies by four, spreads them all out, then starts braiding. 💙📚
pickA huge chunkster of a book!
Incredibly thought provoking, even though I wasn't always sure of detail and facts. There's a massive amount of narrative about Vietnam and American politics which was interesting whilst heavy going at times.
The ending is superb. I keep thinking about it. In fact, the entirety of this book kept me thinking about Fegusson and his life. Definitely worth the ploughing through :)
pick🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟. It‘s not for everyone, but the writing....so beautiful. Great story and should have won some major prize. 36.5 hours in audiobook. I feel as if I ran a marathon. And won! Good night all.
I've been reading this slowly over the last couple of months and still only at 50%. I'm loving the story and reading it this way is like watching a weekly tv series. I can really savour it. I'm going to miss Archie when I'm finished.
Less than 11 hours to go. This book should really be counted as three, ya know.
Only 17 hrs to go! A 36.5 hr audio book is a project. I have to get this back to the library in 6 days. Fingers crossed.
I‘ve been a Paul Auster fan ever since I was reading Moon Palace during a conference in upstate New York and walked into the college art museum and discovered the obscure painting a character had just described. So spooky and so perfectly Austerish.
That said, I‘d been putting off this mammoth, but #audiowalk (and summer!) come to the rescue. Only thirty-five and a half hours to go 😬.
1. 4,3,2,1. 2. I was an early reader and it was just assumed. I have no recollection of not reading. 3. I love late evening. But any will do. 4. To Kill a Mockingbird. Anne of green Gables. Scarlet O‘Hara. All from my childhood. #manicMonday.
