'Man in the Dark' by Paul Auster - Book Review

Judge this book by its cover. The dirt silhouette of a man holding an American flag entitled Man in the Dark. Curious? I’ve never read Paul Auster before so I’ve got nothing to compare to his other works. But I found his most recent novel an intriguing read, that while in plot structure, doesn’t travel physical distance very far, does move the reader through the labyrinthine terrain of one man's mind. Meet August Brill, 60-year-old book critic and insomniac trying to make it through one night, holding onto the love of his granddaughter and the memory of his wife to shelter himself as the weird world rolls on.

August Brill can’t sleep. His divorced daughter and suffering granddaughter are with him in the house, but he chooses to lie in bed and make up a story to distract from regrets about his life.

Do you want to work to stick to the story or do you hope the story sticks to you? Paul Auster has effectively given readers two stories to work through in his slim Man in the Dark. Both stories create stirring intrigue and are quite adhesive before ending abruptly with less than satisfying conclusions. But that’s not to say that the metaphysical trip wasn’t worth it before the end turned to murk.

As our story begins, August Brill is "alone in the dark." To keep his mind company, he begins to create a tale of Owen Brick, a man chosen to assassinate the creator of a world at civil war. As with all stories we create, the story August is penning in his head is a reflection in many ways of his own life, conflicted at how he has given in to lesser characteristics about himself while deciding if he still has some things worthwhile to give to the women left in his life after treating his wife less heroically. His stalemate state is wonderfully mirrored in my favorite part of the novel, a discussion between his granddaughter and himself about the use of still objects in three classic films – The Bicycle Thief, The Grand Illusion, and The World of Apu.

This novella is a good one to curl one’s mind up with on a gray, water-soaked day. But don’t expect its conclusion to pull you into the light. Rather, it will bring you to the edge of the storm cloud and tell you to think life is always going to be cloudy. Whether you choose to see life as merely a weird haze or choose to push through the storm to be illuminated by the sun is your decision.