"Reading was my escape, my comfort, my consolation, my stimulant of choice: reading for the pure pleasure of it, for the beautiful stillness that surrounds you when you hear an author's words reverberating in your head," writes Auster in The Brooklyn Follies. What I realized about Auster is that you ever know what to expect in his stories from one page to the next, or whose backstory he will choose to focus on as he tends to shift protagonists. This is what makes his books nearly impossible to put down. There are so many interesting characters and subplots in this book. So as not to give anything away, I'll just say that this is a story about an ordinary man named Nathan Glass who decides to live out his retirement years in Brooklyn. Yet, everything that happens to Nathan once he makes this decision is far from ordinary, from the people he meets, to the places he travels, to the range of emotions he feels and the memories he conjures up. I highly recommend Auster, and The Brooklyn Follies in particular.
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