I quite enjoyed this book but nowhere near as much as I enjoyed Brooklyn Follies. There’s a lot of baseball trivia in it which I suppose will go down well in the US but it didn’t do much for me.
After being involved in a traumatic event Miles Heller drops out of college and disappears from his family home in New York to begin again in Florida. He finds work with a team of men who go around clearing houses which have been abandoned due to the dire financial circumstances which the world is in at the moment. He decides to photograph the abandoned contents and it becomes something of an obsession so he has thousands of photos, it’s a way of gaining control I suppose.
Miles has weaned himself off just about all the comforts of life except his camera and books and it’s when he’s re-reading his copy of The Great Gatsby in a local park that he meets Pilar a young high school student who happens to be reading the same book. It’s a life-changing meeting. I suppose the book is about people not being in control of their lives, ‘stuff just happens’.
Or as Robert Burns said ‘ The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley.’
That’s as far as I’m going with it! It’s definitely worth reading but I have to say that I didn’t like the ending much. Has anyone else read it?
I haven’t read it nor any Auster, but I would definitely love the baseball references!
Anbolyn,
I had to look up a couple of names to make sure that the baseball players weren’t fictional, they weren’t. Herb Score is one that I can remember and I think most of the players mentioned are of a fair old vintage but for all I know could be – all time heroes! I think you would enjoy the book. Auster is one of the few contemporary (or should I say alive) writers which I read at the moment.
Haven’t read any Auster, but just wanted to say I loved that James Robertson book I told you about. I got the title a bit wrong last time. It’s “And the Land LAY Still”.
Evee,
I’m going to read the James Robertson book, my husband has read The Fanatic and Joseph Knight and really enjoyed them, we have them but I haven’t got around to reading them yet. I was going to get And the Land Lay Still from the library but Jack wants to buy it – when he can get it cheap!!