In the Country of Last Things

Rating:
Summary: Hell On Earth?; Or Purgatory?
Review:

Auster creates for us a truly horrible reality; but a reality that is in fact imaginable. One where the central government is no longer in touch with the needs of the people, where local government is unable to raise enough money to keep basic services working and where each person `fends for themselves' in the streets, where ever they can find what they need to stay alive.

The description is beautifully constructed and while Auster never states this, the city has a feel of Manhattan, which would not be odd, as Auster lives in NYC and is intimately familiar with the City and all its nooks and crannies. But in this book, Auster leads the reader through the most terrible and heart rending human conditions; physical, emotional and psychological. And the descriptions of these pains are precise and concise.

Auster uses his usual tremendous power with words to convey the depth of all the darkest of the dark. But he does make a point of stating that these people are Alive! This is not some type of "Hell" but if anything: Purgatory! Here on Earth!

With truly artful metaphor, the story of Paul Auster is clear:

Man will try to go on, not matter how horrible his surroundings, no matter how painful it is to continue to live; until he is just no longer able to do so.

The book is high quality and uniquely created modern literature. It is an experience that all serious literary readers should not miss.


Rating:
Summary: Rawster
Review: Although this may not be Auster's best book, it still provides many Austerisms to satisfy and hold you for the short amount of time it will take you to read this novel. This well told journey of a woman in a strange place does start off a little slow but once Auster's slanted supporting cast is introduced, it rolls from there. Auster's use of these slightly skewed characters is once again genius when splintered in with his trademark "coincidences". Auster has an unusual talent that translates into unusual stories with unusual characters that vice grip you into submission. This is an earlier, rawer example of Paul Auster, which only shows how his style has developed and matured into the force it is now. Like I said, this may not be his best, but Auster's worst is still better than half the junk that's printed today.

Rating:
Summary: A Masterwork
Review: I'm a great fan of Paul Auster and read this book in two sittings over the weekend (Fri/Sat here in Israel). At a crossroads in the book I took a nap and dreamed of all the possible resolutions of that particular chapter. When I awoke and continued I found that Auster resolved the situation in a totally unexpected way. He always surprises the reader.

Wonderful from many viewpoints: existential, post-holocaust, futuristic. I also think that his spare writing style was very capable indeed of painting a visual and emotional landscape.

Rating:
Summary: Mixed Feelings
Review: In The Country Of Last Things tells the story of a disintegrating, post apocalyptic unnamed city, as seen through the eyes of the protagonist, Anna Blume. Anna comes to the City in search of her brother, but soon realizes the hopelessness of her quest. Leaving the City appears to be impossible, and Anna finds herself in a day-to-day struggle for survival.

Generally speaking, this is a haunting and depressing novel, made even more so by the calm and unemotional style of narration Auster uses in describing the most horrifying situations.

The book reminds me of Orwell's 1984. But whereas the bleak future (or past) described by Orwell is a manmade oppressive government which takes over the lives of its citizens, the City's condition is one of irreversible and inescapable chaos. Whatever government exists in the City seems to have no power at all. Thus, while 1984 seems to offer some meager hope for political salvation, the City can only continue to disintegrate and things can only get worse.

Throughout the book Anna seems grow, improve and evolve as a human being, although she believes that the opposite is true. The letter she is writing to an unnamed friend or lover is the only successful act of creation in the entire book, and this single act of creation stands in marked contrast to the ubiquitous collapse of everyone and everything else in the book. When considered in this light, the book is about Anna's unintended and unnoticed triumph over the City.

I don't quite know how to feel about this book, but I know that it will stay with me for a long time to come. This is why Paul Auster is one of my favorite authors - regardless of whether you like his books, they always leave you with something to think about.

Rating:
Summary: The Last Leap
Review: Inherent in "In the Country of Last Things" is this: "Our lives are no more than the sum of manifold contingencies, and no matter how diverse they might be in their details, they all share an essential randomness in their design"(143-4). One such contingency occurs when the protagonist Anna Blume rediscovers a forgotten blue notebook accompanied by six yellow pencils. This is the catalyst for a letter that may as well be called "In the Country of Last Things". The letter comes across as an exaggerated account, an apocalyptic depiction of a city stripped of its humanity. Old laws that once held the society together have been supplanted by newer laws that will again be replaced by even more corrupt and venal ones.

Anna Blume is a girl who comes to the city in search of her brother, but, instead, finds disintegration, desperation, and hopelessness. She is really no different, only her story, from the other inhabitants of the city. In the city, everyone is searching for something or someone that has disappeared. For "nothing lasts, you see, not even the thoughts inside you. And you mustn't waste your time looking for them. Once a thing is gone, that is the end of it" (2). The immediate and never-ending concern is hunger: hunger in the literal sense, as food like everything else in the city, is in short supply; and hunger in the abstract, wherein people crave friendship, love, connection, and a shared understanding of language and meaning. The constant struggle is not to give up or lose hope, and thereby your life.

In the "Last Things," Paul Auster fills the pages with vivid accounts of a city in ruin, on the verge of complete collapse. It is an unnamed city, therefore, one may recognize it as his own, or what one day may be his own. But through the narrator of Anna, and the people she befriends and loves, the reader is offered hope in a world of hopelessness, a reason for optimism even though it seems baseless. Precarious is life, subject to coincidences, and the important thing, the vital thing, is to connect and be hopeful. A person, a city, may just depend on it.

"In the Country of Last Things" is an imperfect novel. Too often the reader is introduced to words or ideas that seem to come out of nowhere and then just disappear before achieving full understanding, but this, too, may serve to add to the impermanence of ideas and objects that are so often lost, or in danger of being lost, to a civilization. Sometimes we do lose thoughts or objects or people before we ever learn to understand and appreciate them. On a personal note, if I may, as it applies, I thank one person, a nameless one, for introducing me to the world of Paul Auster. My gratitude, always!

Rating:
Summary: Gran lectura para un dia de vacaciones
Review: Lei este libro en tan solo un dia, no puede dejarlo desde que empece. Cuanta la historia de Ana que va en busca de su hermano William a un lejano pais (Probablemente un pais africano)debastado por la ignoracia de sus gobernantes (Venezuela va en esa direccion).

Las dificultades que tiene Ana para adaptarce a su nuevo entorno son facinantes y reales, sobre todo lo que hace por sobrevivir y no perder la fe de encontrar a su hermano, ademas de tener otro final triste de los que tanto le gustan a Auster.

Rating:
Summary: A harrowing account
Review: Paul Auster's novel offers a haunting picture of a devastated society with all its miseries and struggles for survival. It is highly reminiscent of George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four" and although Paul Auster's novel is also set in the future, it is a chilling reflection of contemporary social reality. It is a short, sustained masterpiece, truly unforgettable.

Rating:
Summary: A harrowing account
Review: Paul Auster's novel offers a haunting picture of a devastated society with all its miseries and struggles for survival. It is highly reminiscent of George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four" and although Paul Auster's novel is also set in the future, it is a chilling reflection of contemporary social reality. It is a short, sustained masterpiece, truly unforgettable.

Rating:
Summary: A reality thats not too far away!
Review: This book is an example of how our lives can be derailed. It is a staggering depiction of a futuristic, post-war urban horror that grips the minds of readers. The sudden twists of chance that the story unravels are a trait of the author that manages to glue the reader to the book.

Rating:
Summary: A Very Average Book.
Review: This book isn't fantastic, but it isn't horrible either--it is very average. It's interesting to read about a reality so different from the current one; where people think only about how to survive from day to day, and can't even consider pursuing happiness or frivolity. But by the same token, while it's interesting to see how this destitute society functions, it's hard to really feel connected to any of the characters (even Anna, the protagonist), so the climax doesn't really feel like one, and the ending seems rather ho-hum. But it's short, and some of the more subtle ideas about how people work in society are compelling enough to merit taking a look through this book. But read Auster's Music of Chance or something else first, or else you might get turned off of a very good author because of this very average book.