My friend, JC, lend me this book to read while I was recovering from surgery. Since I don't read too much U.S. fiction, I was looking forward to trying some. I also heard about Paul Auster from Reading Matters.
Nathan Glass, a divorced and lonely man, returns to his childhood neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY. He meets up with his nephew,Tom Wood, by acccident. Tom quit a PhD program and works as a taxi driver and later in a bookstore.
The Brooklyn that Nathan encounters is not the same as in his memories, but he and Tom manage to build a new "family" with people in the neighborhood.
Nathan and Tom also become parents, when Tom's niece shows up on his doorstep one day from North Carolina. It's funny to read how these two bachelors are trying to relate to a little girl who refuses to talk.
The Brooklyn of this novel seems small, more like a small town, instead of being part of the NY metropolis.
I like the interactions among the new "family" that Nathan and Tom form. It's interesting to read how people utilize different buildings for homes and businesses!
Some of the early parts of the book are depressing, especially when Nathan first moves back to Brooklyn, but as the novel unfolds things become better, even if there is a death later on.
This is a great book to get a taste of US life in this century.
P.S. The setting is pre-9/11, but barely.
2 comments:
This is one of those authors I keep meaning to read but just haven't yet. Glad you enjoyed the book.
I don't know about his other books, but it's worth a try!
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