Paul Auster, The Brooklyn Follies - Overture (Chap. 1) "It was early" - "were lost forever"

Résumé du document

This text is an extract from the novel The Brooklyn Follies, written by Paul Auster and published in 2005. Earlier in the novel, we discovered the main character, Nathan Glass, a 60 year old man in remission from cancer. He was looking for a quiet place to die. Someone recommended Brooklyn to him. However, after a moment he changed his mind and started thinking in a more optimistic way. In this passage, the narrator is about to get involved with some project. He wants to take a new departure; he wants to take the bull by the horns. We may thus wonder in what way the character is engaged in the process of reinventing a life for him-self.

Extraits

[...] I guess he criticises the Media because nowadays people believe in what they see on TV, they are influenced. Maybe he also criticises the domination of Religion over thought. So the narrator is engaged in the process of rebuild his life with his new activities, his new vision of the world and his new project, that is to say his book. We can suppose that the 3 slips of the tongues reflect the premises of the narrator's critical thought on contemporary America. [...]

[...] That's a strange thing to see the main character of a book writing a book, well in fact, there is a book in the book. But in fact, that book prefigures the coming characters, that is to say Harry Brightman, Tom Wood, Aurora . To finish, we can say something about the 3 slips of the tongue he tells us. First, he says “cinnamon-Reagan” instead of “cinnamon-raisin”. Reagan was an American president, and also an actor. He relies on some traditions. [...]

[...] Paul Auster, The Brooklyn Follies - Overture (Chap. was early” “were lost forever” This text is an extract from the novel The Brooklyn Follies, written by Paul Auster and published in 2005. Earlier in the novel, we discovered the main character, Nathan Glass, a 60 year old man in remission from cancer. He was looking for a quiet place to die. In fact, someone recommended him Brooklyn. However, after a moment he changed his mind and started thinking in a more optimistic way. [...]

[...] I guess Marina permits him to have new sensation, she probably symbolises the rebirth of desire. So, the function of the first twenty lines is to inform the reader of the narrator's daily routine and his new habits. We can also say that Nathan is trying to make an effort, but he still sees his new life as something a bit fake. In effect, he is emphasis on simple pleasures that probably enable him to rebuild his life. From now on, he has a positive opinion of both Brooklyn and the Brooklynites. [...]

[...] We can say that literature is an important theme in the novel, we'll discover that in the next chapters. Then, we can say he has a new awareness of the world, by the way, the period of the year, spring, is not a random idea on the part of the author. Spring is also associated to new meetings and to a new cycle, a new departure. And last but not at least, he says he frequently has lunch at the Cosmic Diner where he met Marina. [...]