I can admit when I have no idea what’s going on in a book. Like now: TRAVELS IN THE SCRIPTORIUM really threw me for a loop, since author Paul Auster gives us a story that seem to repeat daily for the main character of Mr. Blank.
Blank is an old man who wakes up in a room where items are all labeled. On first reading, I thought maybe the character had Alzheimer’s or something, since he can’t remember anything from the day before, or can’t recognize the people who come and visit him.
This book is not an Auster book to go out and recommend to your friends, because it’s just too metaphysical for its own good. He has characters from some of his other books pop up, just to offer clues as to who Mr. Blank might really be.
Then there is the matter of a manuscript that is left on the desk of this room. When Mr. Blank reads it, it’s some bizarre alternate history story of a man living in a cell much like his own who is trying to show his innocence in some government plot. It later turns out – spoiler? – that the author of the manuscript is Mr. Blank himself, who can’t seem to finish writing it.
On the plus side, the thinly spined TRAVELS flies at such a fast clip that you won’t regret reading it. But if this is your first exposure to Auster’s writing style, I recommend starting somewhere else. Because otherwise, you’ll feel like someone is playing a joke on you. –Bruce Grossman
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Can’t agree more about it not being the first Auster to run out and buy. I had no idea what it was about and just picked it up, having only read Oracle Night previously. Once I’d spotted some references to that I soon realised that the novel was never going to be satisfying, at least on first read.