Books

Man in the Dark
By Paul Auster, Henry Holt & Company, 2008, 192 pp.

August Brill is a man haunted by his past.

Still grieving over the death of his wife, the 72-year-old retired book critic, following a horrific car crash, is forced to move in with his daughter and granddaughter.

It is a house filled with the ghosts of memory and lost love. While August’s daughter comes to grips with the husband who abandoned her, his granddaughter denies the guilt she feels for the boyfriend who was brutally murdered and chooses to waste her days watching old movies.

The sorrow poisons everyone. August cannot sleep, so to avoid falling into the abyss of despair that the darkness brings, he starts making up stories. In the parallel universe of August’s imagined narrative, the World Trade Center did not fall and there was no war in Iraq. Rather, America is at war with itself, and the only way to stop it is to kill its creator.

As the night prolongs and the darkness deepens, August’s story grows increasingly intense. But not even a Civil War can keep his broken heart at bay.

Thus begins Paul Auster’s latest novel, Man in the Dark, a story that is heart-wrenching and hopeful, and as passionate as it is desperate. It’s written with the kind of tender simplicity and devastating brilliance that has allowed Auster (Travels in the Scriptorium, Brooklyn Follies and the New York Trilogy) to become a giant of literary fiction.

But Man in the Dark is far from flawless. With the dueling narratives of the real-life August Brill, versus the story he creates — both sharing equal time — it’s a right brain/left brain wrestling match.

There are times when the trick works beautifully, magically revealing the wounded nature of August Brill’s past. But there are just as many times when it seems as though Auster’s simply trying too hard to forge symbolism where humanity should be. And as with many of Auster’s efforts, the ending for Man in the Dark is disappointing. He cuts the story to an abrupt end, perhaps leaving some to wonder aloud, “What did I just read?”

But for all its paradoxes, Man in the Dark is a joyful journey, even if the destination is anti-climactic. Auster is a writer of unique ability with poignant insight into the strangeness of the human condition.

There are few like him and Man in the Dark ranks amongst his best.