Challenging, cleverly written tale

4321 Paul Auster Loot.co.za (R445) Faber & Faber

REVIEWER: JENNIFER CROCKER

PAUL Auster is known for his rather slim and literary contributions to the world of books.

In this book he presents the reader with 866 pages in one of the heaviest novels I have ever picked up.

4321 tells the story of Archibald Isaac Ferguson. He is the long awaited son of Rose and Stanley Ferguson, and he is born into a family of secular Jews.

Their surname is due to a mix-up at Ellis Island when his grandfather arrived in America.

Right from the beginning we are told that Archie is a wanted and loved child.

His father Stanley owns an appliance store and his mother is a photographer.

If that seems like a simple storyline, you would be both right and wrong. Because there is a road “less travelled” – as the poet Robert Frost would have it – that unfolds with the narrative of 4321.

In this monumentally long novel, Auster puts the quite frankly ordinary Archibald through a number of lives.

In one chapter, Archie’s parents stay together. In another they split up. Archie falls in love with Amy; in another he doesn’t, but they are good friends.

This is cleverly written book, but it also is a book that has the potential to drive the reader a little bit mad.

There is at times in the beautiful language a sense that one is reading a very clever book.

There are times when one feels like putting the book aside, but then an Auster-like moment pulls you back in.

Although the book takes in some mightily important moments in history and reflects them in the story, this is not a book about a place.

In fact, it’s hard to really work out what Auster wants us to take out of the many iterations of Archibald’s life.

A small part of me rather suspects that he expects the reader to just come along for the ride. But then in moments an ordinary life (lived in four different ways) becomes numinous in the telling of the life. 4321 is a large book, filled with small things that make up a story.

Whether we are meant to think that Auster is a brilliant writer seems almost immaterial in the reading of this book.

While it’s well-worth pursuing for the writing, the story is frustrating at times, but Auster almost gets away with it.