Group Read, September 2016: The Music of Chance

Our September Group Read is Paul Auster's The Music of Chance. Please join us and put any thoughts and comments on this thread.

I'm in!

Halfway and I am really enjoying it. I have no idea where the story is leading to but Auster pulls me in as usually. The fact that I don't know anything about poker, is not a problem.
Is anyone else reading?

>3 Simone2: Next up for me after I've finished the somewhat dense Foucault's Pendulum. Should be with you mid week.

Well, I finished it. Almost in one read, because I wanted to know what on earth was going to happen and where it would end.
It ended as it should and it left me with a lot of questions as well - as Auster always does.
I am looking forward to anyone's ideas and interpretations of this novel!

Auster isn't my type of author. I've read three of his books now and I decided that I would need a looong break before I read anything of his again. He might be one writer that I swap a few of his books out for different ones as he has just so many on the list and I can't seem to stand him.

Not enjoying this as much as Auster's New York Trilogy but the reference to Rousseau'sConfessions was so gratifying!

>7 annamorphic: Yes that fragment was very good, although I haven't read Rousseau yet!

> 5 I've made a start on this and agree that it is quite a compelling read - you can imagine a number of ways the story could develop (though being a "List Book" the chances are that there won't be a happy ending!)

M1nks, I would say that Music is his most accessible work... well of the five or so that I've read. It's very readable and has strong characters in a bit of a predicament...

>10 arukiyomi: Agreed. This is my fifth Auster and while none of them are "difficult" this is a pretty straightforward "old fashioned" story which I'm enjoying.

>6 M1nks: I am always intrigued by Auster's books. He seems to be rather good at creating a story that in summary/re-telling is absurd, yet keeps it perfectly balanced between unbelievable/"weird" fiction and realism.

I'm still trying to sort out the addition of the boy to the story and that late plot twist....

Am almost done and I didn't find this a straightforward story at all. In fact, the only way I could keep reading it was to think in terms of his other books, which are more obviously strange and estranging. This one lulls you into more of a sense of the ordinary but it's not ordinary at all, which is creepy.

>13 annamorphic: I'm now half way through and things have taken a creepy and unreal turn so I withdraw the "straightforward old-fashioned" comment above! I am still finding it very readable though, but maybe it will become less so as I progress (shades of The Collector which we did as a group read a while ago). I suspect the miniature that Nashe souvenired will be critical at some point.

>13 annamorphic: "This one lulls you into more of a sense of the ordinary but it's not ordinary at all, which is creepy."

Exactly!

I ended up regarding this as my favourite Auster so far (out of 5). This one keeps you guessing right to the end, and beyond as the outcomes for many of the major players are left unresolved. Hard to say what the underlying theme/parable is about - something about what motivates us, and how what "freedom" means I suspect. Anyway I enjoyed it.

Just finished the book - my very first Auster! - this afternoon. I enjoyed it a lot, and still think it is a pretty straightforward read. I think Auster plays with a lot of horror clichées (the seemingly ordinary which turns out to be something else, the miniature which seems to be of magical importance but doesn't really matter much in the end) but also manage to discuss how we deceive ourselves endlessly. Nashe constantly believe everything hinges on this or that moment as he looks for some meaning and cohesiveness, which just isn't there.

The Rousseau paraphrase seems very central to me. Like Rousseau Nashe keeps repeating gestures which is supposed to somehow magically turn his life around, but it never does. It is most visible at the end of the poker game, but also in his relationship with Fiona and how he approaches his work on the wall.

The book left me guessing a lot and left me with lots of questions, which this time is a good thing.