The Book of Illusions

The Book of Illusions
Author: Paul Auster
Genre: Fiction

I actually don’t like Paul Auster’s books too much. Acclaimed literary wunderkind or not, I generally find his writing overly artificial (this impression based on having read the New York Trilogy and The Music of Chance, which may be too small a sample to judge him). Frankly speaking, in these books, I feel that he sometimes drops the ball in the quest to produce intellectual writing.

However, I really liked The Book of Illusions, which is both beautifully written and – unlike the above books – actually has a real ending, as Auster tells the story of an author who goes in search of a lost actor from the silent-movie days. He definitely has a way with words, and in this book, his abilities are not hampered by a plot that is too contrived. I’d be happy to hear of other Auster titles in the same vein.