Freedom Is a Lot to Lose

Once again, I am taking a page from another blog rather than review. I'm immersed in reading short stories right now - the fantastic final selected works of E. L. Doctorow of special note - and Refugees, a new collection by the amazing Viet Nguyen, among others, so I will not have a novel to review for a while, but there are oh so many of the past worth revisiting, particularly those of political import.

Pulitzer Prize Winner Viet Nguyen

I've not read all of these. And I've only just read The Sympathizer, which is a hard read, dense and brilliant and with a protagonist difficult to relate to, but certainly worthy of the Pulitzer.  I will be reading those on the list I've not read because this is the time to revisit freedom in the words and stories of great novelists.

James Baldwin

Of special note is James Baldwin, whose poetry I've been rereading because of the amazing new documentary, I am Not Your Negro, a painful, profoundly troubling reminder that America has a shameful past that keep returning to haunt us. See the film, read his work, check in with your own racial pulse and consider what sort of world you want to live in. And when the Facebook posts and Twitter feed and broadcast news is just too hard to bear, read, read, read...

A great selection of important political books not 1984. Cheers.
http://lithub.com/10-great-novels-on-freedom-of-expression-that-arent-1984/

Paul Auster's Masterpiece: "4 3 2 1"

I have been reading Paul Auster for 30+ years. He fascinates with his meditative, metaphysical view of humanity. He is also one of the great fiction craftsmen – never an extraneous word. Rich descriptive language. And some of the quirkiest characters and plot lines you will ever encounter. Some have called him the abstract expressionist of the written word. Perhaps a Cubist.

In this masterpiece, and I don’t use the term loosely, Dickens meets Tolstoy meets Philip Roth. The intricate eccentric characterizations you find in Dickens, the grand scope of history and political intrigue in Tolstoy, and the neurotic loves and losses of the great Philip Roth, and all fall into the universal Homeric journey. Seriously fascinating, I was riveted.

If you haven’t read Auster, start with Moon Palace or The Music of Chance. I cherish my signed hardcover edition of New York Stories, which is what first put him on the map. His substantial collection – both fiction and memoir – tends to revolve around a set of themes. Coincidence versus destiny. The loss of a parent or important loved one. The inability to live up to expectations. And, the every present confluence of political history with personal trajectories.

In this very expansive novel – all 862 pages of it – we find all his themes expounded to the full and a cast of characters you will not soon forget. Michael Dirda, writing about Auster in the Washington Post years ago, said, "His plots - drawing on elements from suspense stories, existential recit and autobiography - keep readers during the pages, but sometimes end by leaving them uncertain what they've just been through."

Imagine this: One child born in 1947 [the same year Auster was born] but four lives lived, concurrently. Not a decision tree – the fork in the road approach – rather the unpredictable happenstance that alters destiny, and in this case, usually what happens to the parents. Thus, an examination of nature vs nurture. The life of this endearing boy, Archie Ferguson, whom we follow through his 21st year, plays out in different ways, despite the same DNA and the same starting line.

Auster brilliantly makes it possible for the reader to follow along by posting chapters of each boy’s life during the same time period, and marketing them 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, etc. And he also makes sure to drop reminders into the text so you know which version you are with. However, I recommend you read chapters in their entirety. I picked up one in the middle and had to go back to the beginning to be reminded which life I was in.

Auster is also often concerned with young men coming of age, trying to navigate the strange worlds of love and sex and an elusive sense of identity. I marked likely a hundred different passages to quote, but here’s just one that makes the point. Oh, and did I mention the novel also includes a love story with each of the Archie’s enamored in some way with one girl.

So there was Ferguson after Amy flew off to Madison, Wisconsin, a senior in high school with his whole life in front of him, as he was informed by his teachers, his relatives, and every adult he crossed paths with, but he had just lost the love of his life, and the word future had been erased from every dictionary in the world.

“4 3 2 1” has just published. A great big brilliant novel to cozy up with on these wet wintry nights.