PAUL AUSTER - LEVIATHAN

Image: Statue of Liberty

It’s hard for me to decide whether I prefer Paul Auster’s novels of scope (e.g. 4, 3, 2, 1) over his novels of economy (e.g. The Music of Chance). Leviathan belongs to the latter category. No place nor event is exhaustively described, many questions are allowed to hang, the reader is allowed to fill in many blanks — all this seems intentional. I take it as a sign that Auster respects his reader immensely. Leviathan concerns a promising author’s reinventions; he ends up a maker of bombs. Paul Auster seems satisfied at how he’s taken the character from A to B. I too am satisfied. The winds of chance blew through my hair along the way. I’m not saying anything new by saying Auster’s novels are about chance. But Auster seems to know more about chance than many other authors who have tried to write about it. Usually playing a game gives one a different kind of thrill than reading a book. Read, February 2020.