Marco Stanley Fogg is een wees, een kind van de jaren zestig, een speurder, eeuwig op zoek naar de sleutel tot zijn verleden, naar het antwoord op het raadsel van het lot. Terwijl Marco van Manhattan naar de woestijnen van Utah reist, ontmoet hij vele verschillende personen en beleeft hij een reeks rijke en verrassende gebeurtenissen.
Het boek begint in de zomer van 1969, waarin de mens zijn eerste stap op de maan zette. Het gaat in tijd zowel voor- als achteruit en vertelt het verhaal van drie generaties. Maanpaleis wordt voortgestuwd door het toeval en het geheugen, getekend door tragedie en verlossing en verlicht door lyrische en scherpzinnige taal.

Mag een andere lezer blij maken op de meeting.

Meegenomen op het einde van deze toffe meeting.

Veel leesplezier!

Dit boek stond op mijn mtbr maar ivm verhuizing doe ik nu een aantal boeken weg helaas.

Meegenomen van de gezellige boekenweek meeting in Oss omdat het op de tafel bleef liggen. De kans dat ik het zelf ga lezen is klein.

Gelezen in het Nederlands maar mijn review is in het Engels. Ik wil wel even zeggen dat ik het geweldig vond. Het lijkt een beetje op John Irving en voor mij is dat een aanrader!

For some reason I had expected Paul Auster to be difficult to read. I was completely wrong! Although I have to add the caveat that I read it in Dutch translation, so I can’t comment on Auster’s style or word choice. Moon Palace is a veritable pageturner that reminded me of one of my favourite authors, John Irving. In fact, I was surprised to discover that Moon Palace and A Prayer for Owen Meany were published within a month of each other.

Moon Palace is difficult to review without giving spoilers. Or rather, it is difficult not to give spoilers if you want to talk about the plot of the book. Suffice it to say, the main theme is a search for identity for three different men, two of whom tell their stories to the narrator, a young man by the name of Marco Stanley Fogg, MS to his friends. It is also a tale of squandered talent, failed relationships and wasted opportunities. After his single mother’s untimely death, Fogg is brought up by her brother, Uncle Victor, an accomplished but unsuccessful clarinet player in bands called The Moonbeams, then the Moon Men. The moon is a regular reference in the book, but no great conclusions are drawn; the title derives from a Chinese restaurant MS can see from his student apartment.

Continuing the family tradition of promising but unsuccessful men with failed relationships, Fogg inherits his uncle’s clarinet and 1492 books. Rather than support himself by working, Fogg barely survives the rest of his time as a student at Columbia University by selling off the books, after he has read them. After starving himself, he is eventually destitute and goes to live in Central Park. Rescued by a woman who is mysteriously attracted to this ghost of a man, he goes to live with his friend David Zimmer. Once he has regained his strength, he undertakes some translation work so that he can pay him back.

In the next phase in his life, Fogg takes a job as companion to an eccentric and cantankerous old man, Thomas Effing, with the added advantage that the job includes room and board. Effing claims to be blind and paralysed, but Fogg is never completely sure of either claim. After spending months reading out loud from books, Effing asks him to read out the newspaper, eventually focussing only on the obituaries. Now he wants to dictate his life story to be published in the papers after his death, which he assures Fogg will be on a specific date. The story he tells is fascinating and cruel. As a young man, he had inherited a fortune, pursued his dream of becoming an artist and gone on an expedition in the wilds of Utah to paint, leaving a wife and child behind. After tragedy hits, he spends time as a hermit in a cave he finds full of furniture and food. When he returns to civilisation, he invents the name of Effing and assumes a new identity. He asks Fogg to send this confession to the papers as an obituary, but also to find his son, who still believes that he died in the wilderness. He also wants to redistribute part of his wealth to random strangers.

After Effing’s death, Fogg contacts the son, Solomon Barber, now a morbidly obese university lecturer who has spent his life moving around between various mid-western universities. He too has squandered his promise and let his one love escape. Barber is keen to meet Fogg in person and, like Effing, tells him his life story. He was the child left behind when his father disappeared, presumed dead. His mother had never recovered. He wrote his own unpublished account of what might have happened, incorporating a sci-fi and fantasy twist, imagining him being saved by an indigenous tribe descending from moon men. This seems like one of Paul Auster’s own short stories inserted incongruously into the main narrative; perhaps he couldn’t get it published elsewhere. When Barber’s mother died, he too made radical decisions, abandoning the life he could have lived to remain in obscurity. Both linked to Effing, one as his estranged son, one as his former confidante, the two men decide to travel to the wilderness of Utah to search for the cave where the artist Julian Barber went into hiding and emerged as the ineffable Thomas Effing. The trip does not end well, but revelations are made.

There are further twists to this torturous tale, but you will have to read the novel to find out. It’s well worth it and one of the more populist books on the 1001 list. I will be looking out for more Auster, next time preferably in English.

Meegenomen naar de Nieuwjaarsmeeting in Eindhoven.

Dit boek is losgelaten voor de volgende BookCrossing challenges:
- The Ultimate Challenge - boeken lezen en loslaten, met bonuspunten voor een maandelijkse thema.
- Reduce Mount TBR (To Be Read) - lezen en loslaten van TBR boeken die al voor het eind van het vorige op de plank stonden.
- 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die Challenge. Doel 2023: 15 boeken.

Meegenomen op de gezellige nieuwjaarsmeeting in Eindhoven.

Voor Meerloop

Goede reis, boek! En laat je nog iets van je horen?
Veel leesplezier voor de gelukkige vinder.

Farewell, book! Find pastures new! And please tell me about your travels...

Adieu, cher livre! Bon voyage! N'oublie pas de me raconter où tu vas!

Machs gut, liebes Buch, und melde Dich mal wieder!

bedankt kwatje

In transit!

Goeie reis, boek!
Maak maar veel nieuwe vrienden...