Ratings11
Average rating3.6
When his closest friend, Benjamin Sachs, accidentally blows himself up on a Wisconsin road, Peter Aaron attempts to piece together the events that led to Ben's tragic demise and determine the reason for his death
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One sentence synopsis... After his estranged friend and fellow writer Ben blows himself up with a bomb, Peter attempts to reconstruct his life and discover what led him to that end.
Read it if you like... post modern narrative techniques or Historiographic metafiction. There are some strong Ted Kaczynski vibes from Ben in the later half of the book. Auster is taking liberties with history - think Quentin Tarantino but actually good.
Dream casting... too many good options for this one. I need a Joseph Gordon-Levitt/Tom Hiddleston type for the straight man/try-hard Peter Aaron and someone who can do descent-into-madness like Jake Gyllenhaal or potentially Ryan Gosling as charming, provocative, unhinged Ben Sachs.
I loved the writing but the story left me unmoved, unconcerned and, perhaps, even uninterested.
Same thematic elements present in The New York Trilogy but with a developed story. Enjoyed the ambiguous nature of the narrative but wish it went a bit further.