Book Review: The Brooklyn Follies, by Paul Auster
The opening line of the novel seems at odds as to what is about to happen. Instead of finding a quiet place to die in Brooklyn the unreliable narrator Nathan Glass finds his newly adopted suburb is filled with life – and people. Paul Auster’s The Brooklyn Follies is aptly titled as Nathan relates story after story of quirky incidents, chance encounters and coincidences in a novel that is life affirming but also reveals the follies we are all susceptible to. And it slowly comes together once 11-year-old silent Lucy appears, as the various characters and their interconnected stories are neatly tied up by the final few chapters.
Nathan plans to write a book about life and people which is the basis of his narration – but is in reality on a mission to do what he thinks is the right thing in helping people or simply satisfying his own whims in his retirement. Such as buying a necklace for the beautiful waitress Mariana who he self deprecatingly worships which leads to her losing her job after her jealous husband (Mr Trouble) threatens him in the café. He means well in his unlikely neo adoption of secretive but likable and mischievous Lucy who turns up on his doorstep unannounced and his practical help in sorting out the aftermath of the death of Harry who owns a bookshop. Indeed, by the final pages he seems to have fulfilled a role as match maker as Tom and teacher Honey get hitched, he rescues Tom’s sister from her controlling husband so she can hook up with the BPM (Beautiful Perfect Mother) Nancy Mazzucchelli (beloved by Tom) – and Nathan and the BPM’s mum Joyce also become an item despite their differences over life in the 21st century.
The novel is filled with digressions and personal life histories – his friend and nephew Tom for instance and his life as a taxi driver and then a sales assistant at Harry Brightman’s bookshop – and his amourous night with Honey when they are stranded in a hotel after Lucy sabotages Nathan’s attempt to have her fostered. And there’s Harry’s past life as a fraudster of paintings and his later plans to have a manuscript of the lost book The Scarlet Letter forged to make money – which is a mini novel in its own right. And there’s Aurora’s story as singer, porn actress and drug addict with her struggles to survive with her domineering Christian evangelist – and the darkly funny story of how Tom discovered his sister’s adult career when donating sperm at a medical centre. A snapshot of human failings, follies and occasional triumphs in New York – or in the case of Stanley Chowder and The Hotel Existence – out of town – all seen through the eyes of Nathan – all encapsulated in this amusing, engrossing and keeping it real novel.
Harry Mottram
The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster was published in 2005.
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