Book of the Month - By Kathleen Thorne
The Brooklyn Follies
By Paul Auster
Published by Faber and Faber
Cost €16.50
The protagonist and narrator of this novel begins by telling us that he is dying and has chosen to live out his final days in Brooklyn. On top of this, Nathan Glass is separated from his wife, at loggerheads with his daughter and is 60 years old. Yet despite this depressing scenario, he manages to pack a huge amount of living into a short space of time, and becomes involved in the lives of some classic American characters. Initially Glass embarks on a project to keep himself occupied.
He starts a book of stories based on his own life experiences. Then, one day, whilst visiting a favourite bookshop, he runs into his nephew Tom. Tom is the son of Nathan's dead sister. As a boy, Tom had shown great promise and was expected to pursue a successful academic career. Then, to Nathan's dismay, he finds him working in a badly organised second-hand book shop. He has gained weight and clearly is not living up to his earlier promise.
However, this meeting between uncle and nephew provides the catalyst for the many subsequent events, which compel Nathan to live his life to the full and become involved in the lives of people he scarcely knows. One of these people is Harry Brightman, the owner of the bookshop where Nathan works. He is a homosexual with a colourful past which he tries to hide. Then, one day, his insane daughter comes into the shop and she reveals to Tom some of the details of Harry's history. Harry feels obliged to divulge all to Tom. In itself this is a dramatic and interesting story.
Eventually Harry's past catches up with him and it becomes Nathan's task to help shape events, which lead to an unhappy conclusion for Harry, but a happy one for Tom and Harry's lover, Rufus. Then there is the "glorious Marina." She is a waitress at the Cosmic Diner. Nathan has a crush on her. He buys her a wonderful gift which causes her Puerto Rican husband to become enraged. The jealous husband accosts his wife's admirer, and that's the end of that.
Tom has a sister, Aurora, who gets herself into certain predicaments. Tom is her ally, but it falls to Nathan to extricate her from a potentially dangerous marriage situation. In the meantime, Lucy, Aurora's eightyear- old daughter, has come into their lives. One day she simply turns up at Tom's door, offering no explanation for her presence. She refuses to speak. Nathan adopts her. She stubbornly remains mute, will divulge no information as to her mother's whereabouts, thus landing Nathan with some serious detective work. Tom falls for a woman whom he sees occasionally on the street.
Nathan falls for her mother, who is a feisty, free-spirited woman. Her response to Nathan's marriage proposal is funny and perhaps indicative of some of the changes in modern Western culture. The story is set against the background of George Bush's administration and ends on the morning of 9/11. Nathan is not an admirer of Bush. In fact his comments on Bush can be scathing.
Two hours before the Twin Towers disaster, Nathan describes himself as "happy as any man who has ever lived." Not bad for someone who began by announcing his imminent death.
This novel takes us to the heart of contemporary American life. Against the background of political shenanigans and ugly historical events, ordinary people get on with living their ordinary but sometimes extraordinary lives.
