Paul Auster
4321
Faber & Faber
City Of Glass ― which make up the first part of Paul Auster’s New York Trilogy ― tells the story of Daniel Quinn, the author of detective novels whose writing under a pseudonym to avoid attention. Quinn becomes by chance called by a man called Peter Stillman who is asking for the private detective Paul Auster. Quinn ― a bit annoyed by the call ― tell the man as it is, that he must have got the wrong number and that he himself not is Paul Auster. When the man for the third evening in a row calls and insists that Daniel Quinn is the private detective Paul Auster, he brings with him, lies and states that he, in fact, is the Paul Auster the man is searching for. This starts a real detective work for Daniel Quinn.
In Paul Auster’s new novel 4321, he once again discusses the probability in a metaphysical aspect, in the form of a bildungsroman.
What hits one at first glance is the size of the book and its range, in fact, it is by far Austers longest novel to date. There are several explanations for this, where the most obvious one is that this isn’t one book, it’s four novels combined. The book depicts the life of Archie Ferguson — born March 3, 1947, son of Stanley whose runs a furniture store in New Jersey, and his mother Rose
who is working as a photographer — from early childhood to his 20th. What then follows is four stories, parallel told about Archie that tells imaginary, potentially turn-out in his life. This narrative is enabled by chapters divided in four (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4).
The four different Fergusons obtain the same body, genetic heredity, and the same parents, but the outcomes of the events in their lives differ and therefore, also their individual fates. Two of the four versions of Ferguson will die, and what then follows in their episode in each chapter is blank pages. Beyond their common body composition, there are several similarities Ferguson and their lives between ― all grow up in a suburb of New Jersey (Montclair, West Orange, Millburn and Maplewood) ― to it at first may be hard for the reader to orientate themselves between a change of characters. There is intrinsically nothing extraordinary with Ferguson that separates him from others peers. 4321 tells four childhood stories which include sex, alcohol, future dreams and school. Through all the four Ferguson’s there is aspiration writer dreams and a dedicated interest in baseball and basketball. A few bi roles recur in all four different stories, where one of them is Amy Schneiderman. Amy holds the role in relation to Ferguson as a stepsister, cousin, but also the love of his life.
4321 is a complex and idiosyncratic novel, both looked at what Auster earlier been writing but also what literature earlier been offering. Previously we have been able to read minimalistic books by Auster, that circles around a big event and discusses the metaphysical questions. In 4321 there is no overlying issue that drives the action forward, instead is it made up of small fragment out of Archie Ferguson’s life, where some of them seem extremely trivial and ignorant. This is something that also can be found in the language. The minimalism that Auster earlier was known for is now abandoned for anything but minimalistic language. Several times, long passages are found as for the book’s course of the event, does not found its purpose at all. An example is a rendering of two youngsters kissing each other “…a delicious slobber of flailing tongues and clanking teeth, instant arousal in the rambunctious nether zones of their post-pubescent bodies…”. even though these detailed depictions do not contribute to the course of the events, it consolidates the Fergusons persona as a bookworm and lover of the written word. And not least, it shows on which skillfully author Paul Auster is.
An interesting idea is the novels (potential) self-biographical. elements. Ferguson in the book is born March 3, 1947, and Auster himself were born one month earlier the same year, February 3, as if he would like to say that Ferguson is he himself, but at the same time not. Furthermore, there are several events that occur in the novel, similar to self-perceived events he previously told in interviews and diaries. In a recent interview, he was asked about if the book were self-biographical, whereon he responded that no author can avoid writing from their own experiences.
4321 is really an artistic show, but for the untrue Auster reader, it seems to be a big book without any significant substance.
Jonathan Persson 