Paul Auster - 4321 - Comment.

Comments on Great Books.

After four long years of unavoidable procrastination, pulled Paul Auster's novel 4321 from the shelf and now realize the reading experience was worth the wait. I've read Auster since the early '90s, beginning with The New York Trilogy. To be certain, 4321 is a reading experience that reaches out and retrieves the reader into the world of a single character, Archibald Ferguson. The reader is introduced to 4 different Ferguson- life- trajectories based on choice, influence, and circumstances.

What is extraordinary, really, is the author (Auster) is speaking through the author in the tale, Ferguson, using quantum multi-universe theory, more so, a literary device to explore alternative life paths.

The book is a comment on 60's America. What was achieved? Was anything accomplished? (war, assassinations, political corruption) How does each young Ferguson character deal with the violence and tumultuous change in the country? We see the civil rights movement, the assassination of Martin Luther King, and JFK. We see the pro-Vietnam-war Americans cheerleading our troops to win against communism. We see the anti-war protesters beaten, shot, and murdered by the riot police. We see public opinion against the war rise once thousands of young men return in body bags.

All the Fergusons except one is more so an observer and chronicler of these times. He feels guilty because his love for literature, writing, and film precedes a social conscience and activism against a corrupt establishment.

One of the Fergusons ends up living in Paris with his father's beautiful, old friend from the war.. The young man receives an intense education in the classics and the great literature of the world. He's tutored by his father's beautiful friend, whom he lives with in a tiny attic above her apartments. No more than a small bed and desk, it's here he reads and writes a novella about the film; Laurel and Hardy and the comedy duo's effect on his life as a little boy. This learning situation would be a dream for any “romantic' young person in love with culture and literature.

One aspect that all four Ferguson characters have in common is the unconditional love of their mother. Rose Ferguson never changes her common goodness and love. I found Rose an admirable human being in the novel. Despite her beauty and society’s 50's conservative mores on women, generally, she's an independent woman seeking a personal career in portrait photography and later working for a newspaper, ending as a nationally known artist. Rose's temperament never wavers. All 4 Roses are Ferguson's rock in good times and in life's disasters.

Ferguson's main focus (apart from writing) is sex and true love. Sex plays a huge role in all the Fergusons, yet the constant search for 'real' love is always utmost in his mind.

As we see Ferguson grow, we come to understand as readers, that a small choice, acts of “God,” accidents, uncontrollable circumstances and the influence of the people around us, effects our lives in profound ways. The what ifs; the coulda- shoulda- woulda's when reflecting on one's life can be instructive. To actually have the cosmic opportunity to see life's different trajectories based on our choices, basic timing (timing is important) and circumstances, again, can reveal many aspects about ourselves.

Paul Auster is a wonderful writer. All his novels, essays, etc., give his readers many things to ponder. 4321, personally, is my #1 novel for 2022.