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Paul Auster - The book Of Illusions

The story is told by a man who lost his wife and two sons in an aircrash. He is suffering hard, drifts almost into alcoholism, but then he finds something to do. He hears of twelve silent movies by an artist, who disappeared in 1930. These movies had been forgotten, and were sent now to different museums – and nobody knew, who had sent them. The man (he is called David Zimmer and is professor of literature) watches the movies in the six museums, and writes a book about this silent movie artist: Hector Mann, actor and director. Afterwards Zimmer still has psychological problems and lives very lonely. An old friend remebers of him and gives hin a book to translate. But while he is working at it, he gets a letter from a woman, who says she ist the wife of the still living Hector Mann (in 1990!). Zimmer does not believe that Mann is alive and wants to see hin, just because he liked the book by him. Zimmer al least writes back. Then one day when he comes home fram town late and is drunken, there is someone waiting for him in his garden, a woman about his age. She is a friend of Hector Mann and his wife, and she wants him to come to New Mexico, and after some dispute they in fact fly to New Mexico the next day (and besides, fall in love). On the journey Zimmer listens to the whole story of Mann. He disappeared because of a crime, and lived from there an under false names, and at different places until he met his present wife. They bought and built a ranch in New Mexico, and started later to make movies again, movies that nobody except themselves should ever see. After his death they should be destroyed. Mann dies one day after Zimmer’s arrival, and so Zimmer gets to know only one movie. The wife of Mann wants him to leave at an instant and the situation is strained. The woman, who fetched Zimmer from his home, kills the wife by mistake and then commits suicied, because her whole life seems to be destroyed. It does not help her, that she and Zimmer had fallen in love. Soon there covered up all traces of Hector Mann and his movies, and only David Zimmer stays is left to tell the story about a genial artist and his strange life.

I have read books before with something strange destroyed during the story, so that there is no evidence of it left. The descriptions of the movies did not interest me very much, so I can say the book is OK, but I have read better ones.

24.06.04