4 3 2 1: Paul Auster (A book with unusual, strange, or unconventional chapter headings)

I was absolutely fascinated by the premise of this book: four different possible lives of the same person. I was so excited to dig in and get going on this adventure. I wasn't disappointed, but it was very difficult for me to make it through the book. This was my first Paul Auster book, and I've heard good things about his writing, but now that I know what his writing is like, I'm not sure how I feel.

It definitely isn't the light-hearted read I imagined nor was it an easy read. The density was overpowering in many places. It was such a huge book; at several points, I thought it would never end.

Part of what helped, was that a lot of the book consisted of political going-ons and people, about which I couldn't care less. I'm sure that I missed out on a lot of the depth and meaning behind the book, but I skimmed over a majority of that. I don't feel like this ruined the book for me; I enjoyed it immensely. I'm sure if I were to do a real review or write an article or essay on it, I'd have to go back and reread those sections to connect them with the rest of the book. Especially when the last few pages are solely about the politics, I'm sure politics plays a bigger role than I assigned them.

Another issue that I had, which I again solved by skimming, were Auster's long sentences. They were Dickensian in style, but most of them I found to be longer than the average Dickens' sentence. They were just massive sentences, which makes sense considering how massive this novel was.

As to the story itself, I found it really interesting to consider the multitude of different paths a person could take. This book only had four different lives, but in each of those lives, Ferguson made many choices, and those four lives could have gone in any which direction. Where he goes to college, who his friends are, his relationship with his parents, his sexuality, his pen name, his death are just a few of the differences he faces in his four different lives.

And yet, some of the big things remain the same. For Ferguson, no matter which way his life went, he was destined to be a writer. No matter where he went to school (if he went to school), who he dated, where he lived, he had to write. I think that's an interesting thing to consider. Are we all born with these innate desires that won't change no matter what decisions we make in life?

I also enjoyed that in each story, the same people are central to his life. The same girlfriends or boyfriends, the same friends, the same relatives, they all play a role in his life, no matter his choice. The same people entered his life in different ways, times, and places, but they entered his life.

Overall, this was a good read. I have to take a break from Auster now, though, because I don't think I could handle another book like this for a few weeks, at least. I don't mind a challenge, but this book wasn't interesting enough to make me enjoy the challenge. Maybe his other books are different, but I need a break.

I'm using this as my strange chapter headings even though I might be stretching it to make it fit. Each chapter was numbered according to the life it was about. For example, 1.1 was about the first life, 1.2 was about the second life, 1.3 about the third, and 1.4 about the fourth. Then you got into 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, and 2.4, and so on. I really enjoyed this because it helped me to keep track of which Ferguson I was reading about. It was also really sad that even after there was a death, there was still the chapter heading listed, but nothing was written in the chapter, which was a sad reminder of what had happened. Instead of completely erasing that character, he still took up space in the book.