Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Penguin (Non-Classics) (1991), Paperback, 224 pages
Description
An "exceptional" (Los Angeles Times) tale of fate, loyalty, responsibility, and the real meaning of freedom, from the author of the forthcoming 4 3 2 1: A Novel A finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award This "rich and dazzling" (Wall Street Journal) novel follows Jim Nashe who, after squandering an unexpected inheritance, picks up a young gambler named Jack Pozzi hoping to con two millionaires. But when their plans backfire, Jim and Jack are indentured by their elusive marks and are forced to build a meaningless wall with bricks gathered from ruins of an Irish castle. Time passes, their debts mount, and anger builds as the two struggle to dig themselves out of their Kafkaesque serfdom. New York Times-bestselling author Paul Auster (The New York Trilogy) brings us back into his strange, shape-shifting world of fiendish bargains and punitive whims, where chance is a powerful yet unpredictable force.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member Eyejaybee
An intriguing story about resilience and endeavour.
The principal character is Jim Nashe, a Boston firefighter who unexpectedly inherits a minor fortune from his hitherto absent father. After making provision for his young daughter Juliette, who is being brought up by his sister, Jim leaves his job
Then, after several months, he chances up Jack Pozzi (known as "Jackpot") who is virtually crawling up the road after a brutal beating. Jim picks him up and is fascinated by his story. It turns out that Jack is a wannabe professional poker player who is hoping to participate in a game with two bizarre multi-millionaires. As the reader has always known he would, Jim offers to stake Jack in the game.
The description of the game is brisk and avoids any technicalities (which is fortunate as they would have meant nothing whatsoever to me), but keeps the reader's attention at full tension. And that is when the fun starts!
There is always a great economy about Auster's writing, with no hint of frill or embellishment (- as you have probably guessed I was trying to avoid the obvious pun of "austerity", though that is perhaps "le mot juste"), and this novel shows no departure from that. As usual, at the most basic level the events depicted are scarcely credible. However, as one reads it one's disbelief is entirely suspended, and the book is utterly beguiling and engrossing - I virtually read it at a single sitting.
The principal character is Jim Nashe, a Boston firefighter who unexpectedly inherits a minor fortune from his hitherto absent father. After making provision for his young daughter Juliette, who is being brought up by his sister, Jim leaves his job
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and decides to go driving around the country, with no particular plan or itinerary in mind. He has several one night stands on the way, and even starts an "occasional" relationship with a former acquaintance whom he meets by chance in a bookstore.Then, after several months, he chances up Jack Pozzi (known as "Jackpot") who is virtually crawling up the road after a brutal beating. Jim picks him up and is fascinated by his story. It turns out that Jack is a wannabe professional poker player who is hoping to participate in a game with two bizarre multi-millionaires. As the reader has always known he would, Jim offers to stake Jack in the game.
The description of the game is brisk and avoids any technicalities (which is fortunate as they would have meant nothing whatsoever to me), but keeps the reader's attention at full tension. And that is when the fun starts!
There is always a great economy about Auster's writing, with no hint of frill or embellishment (- as you have probably guessed I was trying to avoid the obvious pun of "austerity", though that is perhaps "le mot juste"), and this novel shows no departure from that. As usual, at the most basic level the events depicted are scarcely credible. However, as one reads it one's disbelief is entirely suspended, and the book is utterly beguiling and engrossing - I virtually read it at a single sitting.
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LibraryThing member dmarsh451
In the early zeros, when I worked at the village IGA, Georges, one of the older baggers, came back from lunch with a stricken look on his face. He held up a receipt he found crumpled up by the bank machine across the street.
"Hey. Check!" he said, holding it too close to my face. "Balance $200,000
An unhappy bagger can make for a long afternoon, so I examined the paper, clapped a chapped hand on his shoulder and said, "Only an idiot would leave $200,000 in a savings account."
This seemed to cheer him up a bit, and it gave us a good discussion topic for the rest of the day.
When Nashe, in Paul Auster's 'The Music of Chance' plops his $200,000 inheritance into a bank account, I know I'm in for a nervous read about a man who will run out of money somewhere awful. Will it be fast? Will it be painful? Even when he's just driving the roads to nowhere in the beginning of the book, there's a lot of suspense over that money in the bank, and later, the glove box; sort of a fiscal musical chairs where I know from the start, Nashe is going to be 'out' in a big way.
This is my first Paul Auster book, and I thought it was damn clever the way he wove suspense out of something sitting somewhere and running out. Once the money is gone, he continues to build a good story from other things running out on Nashe; strength, energy, clarity of mind, liberty, companionship, until the end where he finds out what he is made of. And the verdict isn't bad. He's lost everything, but Nashe is made of adequate stuff. He also appreciates how:
"All of a sudden, the stones were turning into a wall, and in spite of the pain it had cost him, he could not help admiring it. Whenever he stopped and looked at it now, he felt awed by what he had done."
I've never understood gambling, but the stones turning into a wall is a familiar state of mind, and I like how Auster let it sneak up on me, his lovely voice pulling me along. Does he, perhaps, feel this every time he writes a book?
And how about this:
"As Nashe and Pozzi discovered, it was one thing to lift a sixty-pound stone, but once that stone had been lifted, it was quite another thing to lift a second sixty-pound stone, and still another thing to take on the third stone after lifting the second. No matter how strong they felt while lifting the first, much of that strength would be gone by the time they came to the second... Every time they worked on the wall, Nashe and Pozzi came up against the same bewitching conundrum: all the stones were identical, and yet each stone was heavier than the one before it."
This is the best book I have ever read about art, that's not about art. For what are great works of art, especially novels, made of? Heavy-lifting and geologic patience.
"Hey. Check!" he said, holding it too close to my face. "Balance $200,000
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tabarnak! My life is fucking garbage and always will be fucking garbage." An unhappy bagger can make for a long afternoon, so I examined the paper, clapped a chapped hand on his shoulder and said, "Only an idiot would leave $200,000 in a savings account."
This seemed to cheer him up a bit, and it gave us a good discussion topic for the rest of the day.
When Nashe, in Paul Auster's 'The Music of Chance' plops his $200,000 inheritance into a bank account, I know I'm in for a nervous read about a man who will run out of money somewhere awful. Will it be fast? Will it be painful? Even when he's just driving the roads to nowhere in the beginning of the book, there's a lot of suspense over that money in the bank, and later, the glove box; sort of a fiscal musical chairs where I know from the start, Nashe is going to be 'out' in a big way.
This is my first Paul Auster book, and I thought it was damn clever the way he wove suspense out of something sitting somewhere and running out. Once the money is gone, he continues to build a good story from other things running out on Nashe; strength, energy, clarity of mind, liberty, companionship, until the end where he finds out what he is made of. And the verdict isn't bad. He's lost everything, but Nashe is made of adequate stuff. He also appreciates how:
"All of a sudden, the stones were turning into a wall, and in spite of the pain it had cost him, he could not help admiring it. Whenever he stopped and looked at it now, he felt awed by what he had done."
I've never understood gambling, but the stones turning into a wall is a familiar state of mind, and I like how Auster let it sneak up on me, his lovely voice pulling me along. Does he, perhaps, feel this every time he writes a book?
And how about this:
"As Nashe and Pozzi discovered, it was one thing to lift a sixty-pound stone, but once that stone had been lifted, it was quite another thing to lift a second sixty-pound stone, and still another thing to take on the third stone after lifting the second. No matter how strong they felt while lifting the first, much of that strength would be gone by the time they came to the second... Every time they worked on the wall, Nashe and Pozzi came up against the same bewitching conundrum: all the stones were identical, and yet each stone was heavier than the one before it."
This is the best book I have ever read about art, that's not about art. For what are great works of art, especially novels, made of? Heavy-lifting and geologic patience.
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LibraryThing member iayork
The first half is far better than the second: I have recently read a number of Auster novels and become a fan of his work. This present work starts terrifically and has a great first half. The restless wandering endlessly driving through America former fireman father of a two year old daughter who
In any case the second part of the book is really a kind of crazy prison story which I found largely unbelievable. I have noticed Auster often puts his heroes in dead- end disastrous prison- like situations. I have noticed that he also too often leads them to very cruel endings.
Again and again I find Auster creates very fascinating characters who he develops to a certain point and then abandons.
In any case this work for me anyway had a very good first half, and a mediocre second one.
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he has left with his sister, abandoned by his wife, Nashe is a typical Auster loner, intellectual, interesting, tough- minded and decent. When he takes into his car and saves a beaten- to- the pulp young Italian man they strike up a scheme for making some money fast. Nashe who started out with a large sum he inherited from the father he never really knew agrees to bankroll Pozzi(Who also grew up with a largely absent father) in a poker- game in which he will play against two weird multi- millionaire Lottery winners. The story of the poker- game itself is told in an interesting and exciting way. But the best thing in the book is the friendship and dialogue between Nashe and Pozzi. In any case the second part of the book is really a kind of crazy prison story which I found largely unbelievable. I have noticed Auster often puts his heroes in dead- end disastrous prison- like situations. I have noticed that he also too often leads them to very cruel endings.
Again and again I find Auster creates very fascinating characters who he develops to a certain point and then abandons.
In any case this work for me anyway had a very good first half, and a mediocre second one.
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LibraryThing member nocto
Like being sucked head first into a deadly whirlwind or something. You keep hoping the characters are going to get out, get away, hoping beyond hope until.... I won't give the story away. Fabulous book, more like one of Aesop's fables than anything else I've read in a long while. Another of
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Darren's picks. I'm lucky to have a bloke with good taste in books! Show Less
LibraryThing member nocto
Like being sucked head first into a deadly whirlwind or something. You keep hoping the characters are going to get out, get away, hoping beyond hope until.... I won't give the story away. Fabulous book, more like one of Aesop's fables than anything else I've read in a long while. Another of
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Darren's picks. I'm lucky to have a bloke with good taste in books! Show Less
LibraryThing member kjain
His best book thus far.
LibraryThing member bibliest
Finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, The Music of Chance follows Jim Nashe who, after squandering an unexpected inheritance, picks up a young gambler named Jack Pozzi hoping to con two millionaires. But when their plans backfire, Jim and Jack are indentured by their elusive marks and
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are forced to build a meaningless wall with bricks gathered from ruins of an Irish castle. Time passes, their debts mount, and anger builds as the two struggle to dig themselves out of their Kafkaesque serfdom. Show Less
LibraryThing member bibliest
Following the death of his father, Jim Nashe takes to the open road in pursuit of a 'life of freedom'. But as the money runs out he finds that his sense of disillusionment has only been compounded by his year on the road. However, after picking up Pozzi, a hitchhiking gambler, Nashe finds himself
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drawn into a dangerous game of high-stakes poker with two eccentric and reclusive millionaires. Show Less
LibraryThing member BooksForDinner
Loved this book, probably even more than Mr. Vertigo, which I read a couple months ago. I guess you'd call Auster a fabulist? His books are realistic, but there is always something just a bit unreal about them. Wonderful stuff.
LibraryThing member Kristelh
A novel written in 1990. It is an absurdest novel. Absurdism is a philosophical school of thought stating that the efforts of humanity to find inherent meaning will ultimately fail (and hence are absurd), because no such meaning exists, at least in relation to the individual. As a philosophy,
In this relatively short and fast reading work, the protagonist, Jim Nashe (I wondered if he named the character Nashe, after the Unfortunate Traveler) loses his wife, takes his daughter to live with his sister quits his job after he inherits money from his absent and disengaged father. Jim drives around in his Saab doing nothing without any destination except to take roads that distance himself from people. He meets Jack and becomes intrigued in laying the rest of his money on a game of chance. He places himself into this absurd situation and feels unable to escape. There is the symbol of music running through the book which I haven't quite worked out.
Some reviews have described this work as a parable and I think that may say it all.
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absurdism also explores the fundamental nature of the Absurd and how individuals, once becoming conscious of the Absurd, should react to it.In this relatively short and fast reading work, the protagonist, Jim Nashe (I wondered if he named the character Nashe, after the Unfortunate Traveler) loses his wife, takes his daughter to live with his sister quits his job after he inherits money from his absent and disengaged father. Jim drives around in his Saab doing nothing without any destination except to take roads that distance himself from people. He meets Jack and becomes intrigued in laying the rest of his money on a game of chance. He places himself into this absurd situation and feels unable to escape. There is the symbol of music running through the book which I haven't quite worked out.
Some reviews have described this work as a parable and I think that may say it all.
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LibraryThing member amerynth
This was my first time reading a book by Paul Auster (though I apparently have a lot more in store as he has about a zillion on the 1,001 Books To Read Before You Die list) and I hope his others are as enjoyable as "The Music of Chance."
The story centers on Jim Nashe, who inherits a whole pile of
Yes, the story is absurd, but it's also pretty entertaining. Auster pulls the story along at a good pace and while I often thought I knew where the story was headed, he changed it up so that the plot always had an unexpected element or two. It was a pretty straight forward story that made for an easy yet compelling read.
The story centers on Jim Nashe, who inherits a whole pile of
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money and wanders about the country. As his money starts to run out, he has a chance meeting with a hitchhiker named Pozzi. Nashe puts the remainder of his fortune into this gambler's hands and leaves his life to a bit of chance.Yes, the story is absurd, but it's also pretty entertaining. Auster pulls the story along at a good pace and while I often thought I knew where the story was headed, he changed it up so that the plot always had an unexpected element or two. It was a pretty straight forward story that made for an easy yet compelling read.
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LibraryThing member eclecticheart
There is a rhythm to The Music of Chance that suits its title. I saw the movie before I realized the book existed and both excel in their own right. It is by no means the feel good book of the year, but it is a great read none-the-less. For the most part, Paul Auster's works depend on twists,
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surprises, and coincidences, but despite this, they hold up for multiple reads. I feel very close to Jim and Jack and will certainly read this again. Show Less
LibraryThing member thorold
This turned out to be an engagingly offbeat novel about the pleasures of going with the flow of random events, which manages to convey a counterintuitively positive, upbeat message, even as we see the main character engaged in behaviour that any sensible outside observer would call
Nashe is a bookish, musical, college dropout who took up a career as a firefighter on a whim, worked at it for seven years, then gave it up when his family fell apart and an inheritance dropped into his lap. Since then he's been driving around randomly, using up his money; as the book opens he finds himself taking a crazy chance by investing the last chunk of it in a promising young poker player, Jack. By all the logic of the Great American Narrative, the young man should turn out to be Robert Redford and make Nashe's fortune for him, but apparently it doesn't work like that in Austerland, and instead Jack and Nashe find themselves trapped in a Pinteresque situation, living in a caravan in a field cut off from the rest of the world and building a useless wall for a couple of millionaires.
This obviously isn't a book that's meant to be taken too literally - Auster doesn't seem to have thought much about what it would actually be like to work for seven years as a fireman, and what that would do to your tastes and social attitudes, for instance, nor would it be very wise to follow his advice on the building of stone walls. But that sort of thing obviously isn't the point - this is a kind of anti-fable, a complete inversion of the social and economic rules of life in American society. And maybe a little dig at Robert Frost's elevation of the stone wall to mythical status at the same time?
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self-destructive. Nashe is a bookish, musical, college dropout who took up a career as a firefighter on a whim, worked at it for seven years, then gave it up when his family fell apart and an inheritance dropped into his lap. Since then he's been driving around randomly, using up his money; as the book opens he finds himself taking a crazy chance by investing the last chunk of it in a promising young poker player, Jack. By all the logic of the Great American Narrative, the young man should turn out to be Robert Redford and make Nashe's fortune for him, but apparently it doesn't work like that in Austerland, and instead Jack and Nashe find themselves trapped in a Pinteresque situation, living in a caravan in a field cut off from the rest of the world and building a useless wall for a couple of millionaires.
This obviously isn't a book that's meant to be taken too literally - Auster doesn't seem to have thought much about what it would actually be like to work for seven years as a fireman, and what that would do to your tastes and social attitudes, for instance, nor would it be very wise to follow his advice on the building of stone walls. But that sort of thing obviously isn't the point - this is a kind of anti-fable, a complete inversion of the social and economic rules of life in American society. And maybe a little dig at Robert Frost's elevation of the stone wall to mythical status at the same time?
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LibraryThing member brakketh
Many unresolved story lines and a slow journey of discovery for the protagonist
Awards
PEN/Faulkner Award (Finalist — 1991)
Language
Original publication date
1990
Physical description
224 p.; 7.88 inches
ISBN
0140154078 / 9780140154078