In the Country of Last Things (Paperback)

We never get details about the city, we never know for sure how the setting of the novella came to be as stricken and destroyed as it appears. There are vague references to war and famine and natural disaster, but no confirmation of the actual events. It is a smart move on Auster's part, because it focuses the story on the level of rather than documentation or causal concerns. What matters is how life is currently being lived in the world of The City.

Our main character, Anna Blume, is a literate and compassionate young Jewess trying to find her brother after he is lost in the urban wasteland. Once a fortunate and elite member of a high-standing family, Anna must come to terms with her previous wealth (in the broad sense of the word) and hardens herself a bit in order to deal with the life she must adapt to in order to find her brother. But find her brother she does not.

In and out of third person limited omniscient and first person epistolary accounts of her attempt to survive in The City, we come upon rare acts of both charity and crime. Surely the atmosphere of want brings out the very extremes in human behavior. The capacities for pain and kindness are quite moving to say the least.

The message of this text, though it doesn't hit you over the head repeatedly, could be summed up in this quote: "The sky is ruled by chance, by forces so complex and obscure that no one can fully explain it...The rain makes no distinctions...it falls on everyone, and when it falls, everyone is equal to everyone else- no one better, no one worse, everyone equal and the same (28)."

This book would be a perfect addition to any history or literature unit dealing with the Holocaust, ethnic cleansing, genocide, xenophobia or any other light-hearted topics in this arena. But this novel is not without hope or humanity. It exists in a state of resignation and redemption at the very same time. Worth owning. But try it for yourself. Pick up a copy! Another book I need to recommend -- completely unrelated to Auster, but very much on my mind since I purchased a "used" copy off Amazon is "The Losers' Club: Complete Restored Edition," a much lighter, highly entertaining little novel I can't stop thinking about.

At first sight this book has some things in common with a SF novel. Something very bad happened, civilization is almost gone. But is Paul Auster really a writer to use science-fiction ? He writes about coincidence, about the intertwining of fiction and reality and about individuals in relation to their relatives ( as is the case with Anna Blume ). The ( coincidental ) meeting with the father is one of the most returning subjects.
Why would such a writer use science fiction ?

Who knows better than Paul Auster himself ? In an interview with L.McCaffery and S.Gregory ( The Red Notebook and other writings - edition Faber & Faber - London ) he says (about The Country of Last Things) that there are specific references to the Warsaw ghetto but also to events taking place in the Third World today and that New York is turning into a Third World city ( again: according to Paul Auster ).

As far as I'm concerned I think that everyone has the right to interpret this novel as he/she wants.
I like this novel because Anna Blume is a brave and touching character in search for her brother.