The Week's Best Stories From NPR Books Paul Auster Tackles Homelessness And Broken HeartsĪuster's novel is never boring, but it can get confusing, especially at the beginning of the book - readers will likely find themselves flipping back: Is this the Ferguson whose father was killed in a fire, or the one whose father expands his store into an empire and thrives? But the differences become more clear as the book progresses and the Fergusons start making drastically different choices from one another.ĭespite its publication date, 4 3 2 1 is very much a novel of the 20th century. One dies at 13, struck by a falling tree limb during a thunderstorm his sections after that are left blank. They're the same person, in a way, but their lives follow dramatically different paths. (Auster himself was born in the same city, exactly one month earlier.) Each chapter is divided into four numbered sections, corresponding with each different version of Ferguson. The Ferguson quoting Voltaire to his girlfriend is just one of four Fergusons: 'Identical but different, meaning four boys with the same parents, the same bodies, and the same genetic material, but each one living in a different house in a different town with his own set of circumstances.'Ĥ 3 2 1 follows all four Fergusons from their births to a Jewish family on March 3, 1947, in Newark, N.J. And he shares this belief with the three other iterations of him that make up Auster's bold, remarkable novel. It's hard for Ferguson to believe that he's living in the best of all possible worlds. 'Everything always happens for the best - in this, the best of all possible worlds.'

Toward the middle of Paul Auster's new novel, 4 3 2 1, young Archie Ferguson, recovering from a car accident that could have killed him, quotes the satire Candide to his optimistic girlfriend. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title 4 3 2 1 Author Paul Auster

4321 paul auster review