Purchase
Henry Holt
December 2005
320 pages
ISBN: 0805077146
Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Fiction
Nathan Glass has come to Brooklyn to die. Divorced,
estranged from his only daughter, the retired life insurance
salesman seeks only solitude and anonymity. Then Nathan
finds his long-lost nephew, Tom Wood, working in a local
bookstore—a far cry from the brilliant academic career he'd
begun when Nathan saw him last. Tom's boss is the
charismatic Harry Brightman, whom fate has also brought to
the "ancient kingdom of Brooklyn, New York." Through Tom and
Harry, Nathan's world gradually broadens to include a new
set of acquaintances—not to mention a stray relative or
two—and leads him to a reckoning with his past. Among the many twists in the delicious plot are a scam
involving a forgery of the first page of The Scarlet Letter,
a disturbing revelation that takes place in a sperm bank,
and an impossible, utopian dream of a rural refuge.
Meanwhile, the wry and acerbic Nathan has undertaken
something he calls The Book of Human Folly, in which he
proposes "to set down in the simplest, clearest language
possible an account of every blunder, every pratfall, every
embarrassment, every idiocy, every foible, and every inane
act I had committed during my long and checkered career as a
man." But life takes over instead, and Nathan's despair is
swept away as he finds himself more and more implicated in
the joys and sorrows of others. The Brooklyn Follies is Paul Auster's warmest, most
exuberant novel, a moving and unforgettable hymn to the
glories and mysteries of ordinary human life.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
| 
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy