Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20376 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Jonathan Lethem
'An elegant and enthralling new summit in Paul Auster's art.'

Financial Times
‘A stunning feat of imagination and likely the best book that Auster has written.’

Time Out
'The Book of Illusions is a masterpiece of storytelling.’

Customer Reviews

The Mysterious Twists of Redemption
This novel, a moving allegory of love, loss and the surprising ways in which healing reveals itself, was written in such a way that I was tempted to believe that Hector Mann truly existed. Even though I know Mr. Mann is a fictional character created entirely in the phenomenal mind of Paul Auster, I was vaguely disappointed that I wouldn't be able to seek his films out and fall further in love with him as I have with Buster Keaton and various others. I highly recommend this book to film buffs, to people who enjoy a wonderfully-written story, and to anyone who is tired of the pablum passed off as "literature" as a general rule. You will be turning pages late into the night, and not regret a moment of missed sleep.

A Day in the Life
A man loses all he has got: his beloved wife and two sons in an air crash accident.
The loss is unbearable, overwhelming to David Zimmer, a Literature teacher whose life starts to fall into a big black hole, going down day after day, in a meaningless existence that is leading him to self-destruction. Only until something as pathetic as extraordinary happens, that will bring again something he also has lost: the ability to laugh.
By meeting the work of Hector Mann, a silent movie comic star of the late 20's the life of David Zimmer will know a new direction; his interest on the work and life of this actor goes so far that he ends up publishing a complete biography.
The deep research for the book is the starting point for us to discover not only who this glamorous Hollywood actor was and the work he left, but mainly to know all the strange and tragic personal events behind his life (unknown to the world) that would change and determinate forever the improbable identity of this man.
Once more in a Paul Auster's novel, not necessary the Story of the book is the most interesting, as it is the story inside the Story, in this case the story of Hector Mann. Extraordinary the universe created around this fictional character, is in fact the greatness of this book.
Hector Mann and David Zimmer are two sides of the same coin, projected in the present life of a man that tries to understand, forgive and accept the tragic events that lead him to a dead end. For that, maybe something precious, logic and real still can be found inside him; the capacity of love and to be loved, that somehow will allow Zimmer to forgive himself and accept all the unpredictable gray color zones that shape our lives.

Nearly as good as his best
Like many people, I was very impressed by Auster's early novels, 'The New York Trilogy' and 'Moon Palace' in particular. I found them strange and haunting. I'd say from 'The Music Of Chance' onwards his work for me became rather predictable and I gave up on him as something of a spent force. Now I'm not entirely sure what to think. I read this after I read 'Oracle Night', although 'The Book Of Illusions' was written before 'Oracle Night'(a much less satisfactory novel). For me, 'The Book Of Illusions' was almost as good as his early work, especially if you like novels which are stories within stories with stories. Unlike other reviewers, I found I could not put it down and just had to find out what happened, and even if the ending is somewhat unsatisfactory, it's still a good read.