Paul Auster is the bestselling author of Winter Journal, Sunset Park, Invisible, The Book of Illusions, and The New York Trilogy, among many other works. He has been awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature, the Prix M�dicis �tranger, an Independent Spirit Award, and the Premio Napoli. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
"An epic bildungsroman . . . . Original and complex . . . . It's
impossible not to be impressed - and even a little awed - by what
Auster has accomplished. . . . A work of outsize ambition and
remarkable craft, a monumental assemblage of competing and
complementary fictions, a novel that contains multitudes."--Tom
Perrotta, The New York Times Book Review "Ambitious and sprawling .
. . . Immersive . . . . Auster has a startling ability to report
the world in novel ways."--USA Today "A stunningly ambitious novel,
and a pleasure to read. Auster's writing is joyful even in the
book's darkest moments, and never ponderous or showy. . . . An
incredibly moving, true journey."--NPR "Sharply observed . . . .
Reads like a sprawling, 19th-century novel."--The Wall Street
Journal "Ingenious . . . . Structurally inventive and surprisingly
moving. . . . 4 3 2 1 reads like [a] big social drama . . . while
also offering the philosophical exploration of one man's
fate."--Esquire "Mesmerizing . . . Continues to push the narrative
envelope. . . . Four distinct characters whose lives diverge and
intersect in devious, rollicking ways, reminiscent of Kate
Atkinson's Life After Life. . . . Prismatic and rich in period
detail, 4 3 2 1 reflects the high spirits of postwar America as
well as the despair coiled, asplike, in its shadows."--O, the Oprah
Magazine "The power of [Auster's] best work is . . . his faithful
pursuit of the mission proposed in The Invention of Solitude, to
explore the 'infinite possibilities of a limited space' . . . . The
effect [of 4 3 2 1] is almost cubist in its
multidimensionality--that of a single, exceptionally variegated
life displayed in the round. . . . [An] impressively ambitious
novel."--Harper's Magazine
"Auster's magnificent new novel is reminiscent of Invisible in that
it deals with the impossibility of containing a life in a single
story . . . . Undeniably intriguing . . . . A mesmerizing chronicle
of one character's four lives . . . The finest--though one hopes,
far from final--act in one of the mightiest writing careers of the
last half century."--Paste Magazine "Wonderfully clever . . . . 4 3
2 1 is much more than a piece of literary gamesmanship . . . . It
is a heartfelt and engaging piece of storytelling that
unflinchingly explores the 20thcentury American experience in all
its honor and ignominy. This is, without doubt, Auster's magnum
opus. . . . A true revelation . . . One can't help but admit they
are in the presence of a genius."--Toronto Star "A multitiered
examination of the implications of fate . . . in which the
structure of the book reminds us of its own conditionality. . . . A
signifier of both possibility and its limitations."--The Washington
Post
"At the heart of this novel is a provocative question: What would
have happened if your life had taken a different turn at a critical
moment? . . . Ingenious."--Pittsburgh Post-Gazette "Auster presents
four lovingly detailed portrayals of the intensity of youth - of
awkwardness and frustration, but also of passion for books, films,
sport, politics and sex. . . . [Trying] to think of comparisons [to
the novel] . . . [nothing] is exactly right . . . . What he is
driving at is not only the role of contingency and the unexpected,
but the 'what-ifs' that haunt us, the imaginary lives we hold in
our minds that run parallel to our actual existence."--The Guardian
"Draws the reader in from the very first sentence and does not let
go until the very end. . . . An absorbing, detailed account - four
accounts! - of growing up in the decades following World War II. .
. . Auster's prose is never less than arresting . . . "--San
Francisco Chronicle "Leaves readers feeling they know every minute
detail of [Ferguson's] inner life, as if they were lifelong
companions and daily confidants. . . . It's like an epic game of
MASH: Will Ferguson grow up in Montclair or Manhattan? Excel in
baseball or basketball? Date girls or love boys too? Live or die? .
. . A detailed landscape . . . for readers who like taking the
scenic route."--TIME Magazine "Auster pays tribute to what Rose
Ferguson thinks of as a 'dear, dirty, devouring New York, the
capital of human faces, the horizontal Babel of human tongues.'. .
. Sprawling . . . occasionally splendid."--The New Yorker "43 2 1
is that rarest of books - a masterpiece by a genius. . .. Auster's
first novel in seven years is nothing short of true literature. It
is why we read."--Newark Star Ledger ?"Magnificently conceived . .
. . Auster is a peerless storyteller . . . .4 3 2 1 is also a
brilliant compendium of the tumultuous 1960s . . . . Impressively
smooth . . . . The development and mingling of four versions of
Archie Ferguson not only illuminate and enhance his character, it
gives the storytelling the power of enchantment that sustains the
reader through the length of the book."--Seattle Times "A bona fide
epic . . . both accessible and formally daring."--Minneapolis Star
Tribune "Inventive, engrossing."--St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"Arresting .. . . A hugely accomplished work, a novel unlike any
other."--The National (UAE) "Brilliantly rendered, intricately
plotted . . . a magnum opus."--Columbia Magazine "Auster's first
novel in seven years is . . . . an ingenious move . . . . Auster's
sense of possibility, his understanding of what all his Fergusons
have in common, with us and one another, is a kind of quiet
intensity, a striving to discover who they are. . . . [He] reminds
us that not just life, but also narrative is always conditional,
that it only appears inevitable after the fact."--Kirkus (starred
review) "Auster has been turning readers' heads for three decades,
bending the conventions of storytelling . . . . He now presents his
most capacious, demanding, eventful, suspenseful, erotic,
structurally audacious, funny, and soulful novel to date . . . [a]
ravishing opus."--Booklist (starred review) "Rich and detailed.
It's about accidents of fate, and the people and works of art and
experiences that shape our lives even before our birth--what reader
doesn't vibrate at that frequency?"--Lydia Kiesling, Slate "Auster
illuminates how the discrete moments in one's life form the plot
points of a sprawling narrative, rife with possibility."--Library
Journal (starred review) "Mesmerizing . . . . A wonderful work of
realist fiction and well worth the time."--Read it Forward "Frisky
and sinuous . . . energetic. . . . A portrait of a cultural era
coming into being . . . the era that is our own."--Tablet magazine
"Almost everything about Auster's new novel is big. . .
Satisfyingly rich in detail . . . . A significant and immersive
entry to a genre that stretches back centuries and includes Augie
March and Tristram Shandy."--Publishers Weekly
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
