The Music of Chance

by Paul Auster

Book Overview

An "exceptional" (Los Angeles Times) novel of fate, loyalty, responsibility, and the real meaning of freedom with "all the suspense and pace of a bestselling thriller" (The New York Times), from renowned author Paul Auster

"A rich, dazzling performance . . . a tour de force about freedom and imprisonment, motion and stasis, order and randomness . . . its story beautifully paced and shaped, its tone powerfully ominous."--The...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140154078
• ISBN13: 9780140154078
• Release Date: December 1991
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 7.9"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Paul Auster's best novel

Since there are many detailed reviews of this novel, I will keep mine brief. If you have not read any novels by Paul Auster and are wondering where to start, I would recommend this one, what I consider his best. If you have read other novels of his but not this one, this will not disappoint.

Fantastic

This is a great book - definitely my favorite by Auster. I was surprsed by all the negative reviews. This is not a simple book and it is not for the simple-minded. As with all Auster books - the reader is compelled to participate by thinking - there are no simple answers. You are left to speculate. Nashe, the "play by the rules - leave it to fate" hero trusts the system. His desire to play by the rules gets challenged by fate, the rich and powerful, brute force, and the cynical characters around him. It's a mystery without a simple answer - read it and think.

Brilliantly enthralling

An excellent read. At first, the book seemed simplistic and rushed, but once the plot began to unravel, I felt strangely befriended to Nashe in his fantasy world. Note the resemblances of Nashe and Pozzi's destiny to Stone's model city. The ending adds the last piece to the endless puzzle: maybe he just dreamt it all.

sometimes it's just the same: driving a car and being driven

Don't you think that all, that really happens has to do with movement? The moment you meet a wall, that stops you, the moment is very likely to be one of your last ones. I really loved the book, it's rush in the beginnung and it's slowing down in the last gear in the end. I loved that man, lacking of self-pity, just doing, just moving... until he had to stop, until he had to pay, until he had to build his wall.

Casualidad versus Causalidad

Uno de mis libros de cabecera. Esa mezcla tan particular entre la libertad y la prision, esa frontera invisible con la que jugamos dia a dia, hace del personaje una especie de antiheroe. Por momentos se lo ve feliz, a veces triste, derrumbado pero siempre perdido, siempre en esa busqueda infinita del amor que no volvera, que no llegara. Para tener muy en cuenta