Rating: 
Summary: Disappointment
Review: I've heard a lot about author Paul Auster, who is sometimes the toast of NPR and has also written one or two literate screenplays for movies I never got around to watching. But this is the first novel of his that I've read, and after anticipating a worthwhile read, I found it to be a disappointment.
The first problem was Auster's writing style. Auster doesn't write in scenes or even snippets of action, as I prefer stories to be told. Rather, he rambles, forming gigantic paragraphs and incessant chapters (this 275-page novel only had five chapters). The events of the story didn't seem to move along as to be dragged, and the characters were not people we got to know, but rather people that someone else was telling us about, if you grasp the distinction.
The second problem was with the plot. The book didn't seem to have much of one, although there were many hints of a dire, fated outcome, which kept me turning pages looking for it. All the buildup contributed to the final letdown, as well. By the end of the book, I wasn't convinced that anything was motivating the characters, much less understand what their motivations could possibly be. And I was disappointed, because I can glimpse the great writer that Auster could be and certainly has a reputation for being. He has a literate style and a knack for description. I just wish he could tell a better story.
Rating: 
Summary: Auster's Most Underrated
Review: I've read all of Auster's fiction and, though his material surveys a wide variety of styles and subject matter, this novel is my favourite. I hesitate to call it his most intelligent, but the issues it explores are highly contemporary and provocative. The characters are very among his most original. You leave feeling very close to them and the issues they are dealing with.
Rating:
Summary: too small for that much content?
Review: if it were Thomas Mann, I thought, I'd have to deal with about 1000 Pages more. Thank God, it was Auster! My very first and now, about one year later, I nearly made it through his whole work. With Leviathan I learned a lot about that small bridge between people: words. His figures, did they lie? Or did they just state their points of view? was there any right or wrong? Anyway: I'm listening more carefully since then.
Rating:
Summary: All American citizens should read...
Review: If they can handle a load of criticism of course... I am notone, but still it impressed me on how quickly we empty the meanings ofsymbols, and how long it takes to refill them... A lot better than the triology, a lot more down-to-earth. Great writer and great characters...
Rating:
Summary: amazing
Review: is seems to me one of the most deep massages i ever read. about lonlyness ,frienship,and life.
Rating:
Summary: Auster's best story
Review: It's 2 o'clock in the morning, and I just can't stop reading this book. The story of those guys is so clear and so ambiguous at the same time... I follow them somewhere in their lives, in their minds, and now I'm lost. This book is simply great.
Rating: 
Summary: Fast Read
Review: Leviathan has excellent prose and narrative pacing. It is the sort of book you can read in one or two sittings. I would jump from thinking the book was completely ridiculous to sheer absorption. The male characters took themselves too seriously, but sometimes that provided a nice comic effect. I understand that Peter Aaron is roughly based on Paul Auster (P.A., and he ends up marrying Iris, who is the protagonist of "The Blindfold", based on and by his wife Siri Hustvedt), but I was wondering Sachs was based on Delillo, who the book is dedicated too. Delillo's first book is Americana, is that anything like The New Collosus? Sachs' initials also spell BS, who knows if that means anything. What is fun about Leviathan is the great plot twists, and the way the philosophical abstractions add to the suspense. Usually, for me, philosophical digressions weigh down the narrative. Reaing it a second time is fun because Auster foreshadows a lot with symbolism (Aaron's double vision at the bar for example). The female characters are generally weak, except for Maria Turner - who is probably the best character in the book. The male characters are a little charming, but they don't have the self-irony they think they do. They're clever, but not the center of the universe.
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing, but not Auster's best
Review: Leviathan is a fascinating book, and it clips along at a very quick pace - I read it over the course of a couple of study halls. It cannot, however, hold a candle to a book such as The New York Trilogy (my favorite Auster novel, and the standard to which all others are compared). Leviathan is complex, but ends up feeling rushed, particularly the second half. The characters are well crafted, but are too frequently cast aside as the plot rushes forward. Auster needed to trim the book down, or expand upon it. Despite the hurried feeling, Levithan is nonetheless a very interesting novel, and does a wonderful job of bringing up questions about America and the American citizen's identity within America. It is fitting that the book is dedicated to Don DeLillo, a writer who frequently confronts this sort of question in his work. All in all, an excellent read. Despite the adrenaline rush, Leviathan is steeped in a sense of philosophical melancholy. Whether or not there is hope for America, Paul Auster proves there is hope for American literature.
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing, but not Auster's best
Review: Leviathan is a fascinating book, and it clips along at a very quick pace - I read it over the course of a couple of study halls. It cannot, however, hold a candle to a book such as The New York Trilogy (my favorite Auster novel, and the standard to which all others are compared). Leviathan is complex, but ends up feeling rushed, particularly the second half. The characters are well crafted, but are too frequently cast aside as the plot rushes forward. Auster needed to trim the book down, or expand upon it. Despite the hurried feeling, Levithan is nonetheless a very interesting novel, and does a wonderful job of bringing up questions about America and the American citizen's identity within America. It is fitting that the book is dedicated to Don DeLillo, a writer who frequently confronts this sort of question in his work. All in all, an excellent read. Despite the adrenaline rush, Leviathan is steeped in a sense of philosophical melancholy. Whether or not there is hope for America, Paul Auster proves there is hope for American literature.
Rating:
Summary: Leviathan has human touch
Review: Leviathan is a great book, Auster's most emotionally moving novel to date. Also less experimental than NY trilogy, but that's okay; Auster has shown that he can excel with experimental narratives as well as traditional stories (he wrote the script for the film Smoke). Do the characters represent real-life people? Well, the narrator's initials are P.A., just like Paul Auster. There are a couple of facts that link Benjamin Sachs with Don Delillo. Delillo, like the Sachs character, wrote a political novel--Libra. He was also in negotiations to turn it into a movie, but a film version was never made--just as Sachs' novel was never filmed. Interestin', eh?
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