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Leviathon (Paperback)

by Paul Auster (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 14.11
Price: CDN$ 13.71 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details
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Product Details

Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Auster ( The Music of Chance ) captivatingly renews a theme central to his acclaimed New York Trilogy and Moon Palace --that of the other, the shadow self whose parallel life somehow jumps the track and threatens the more sober protagonist. After his valued friend and fellow writer Ben Sachs blows himself up with a bomb, Peter Aaron reviews their 15-year bond--including their shared love for Ben's lovely wife--and tries to reconstruct Ben's life. A boyhood experience in the Statue of Liberty haunted Ben until his transformation following a plunge from a fire escape at a drunken Fourth of July party in Brooklyn. After this fall, Ben stopped writing and became the "Phantom of Liberty," detonating Statue of Liberty replicas as a sign to America to "mend its ways." Peter's writing, on the other hand, surges "as though I had caught fire." The novel explores the fictional act: the relation between conflicting stories and kinds of truth; the reading of an address book, a la Sophie Calle, as a fertile text jammed with mysterious characters; role-reversal as self-discovery, practiced by photographer Maria and prostitute Lillian, women friends intimately linked to Peter and Ben. Finally, Peter (and Auster) appropriates the title of Ben's abandoned novel, a title that evokes the biblical sea monster and, thanks to Hobbes, the state, implying that the novel is itself a monster genre that merges diverse humans, their nightmares and passions. 25,000 first printing; author tour.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


From Library Journal

Born on August 6, 1945, Benjamin Sachs describes himself as "America's first Hiroshima baby . . . the original bomb child." Forty-five years later, while the FBI investigates Sachs's mysterious death, Sachs's friend Peter Aaron attempts to explain his even more enigmatic life--the personal and political forces that propelled his progression from Vietnam War protester to successful novelist to bomb-wielding terrorist. Auster's inventive plot, reminiscent at times of works by Paul Theroux, con tains bizarre coincidences which affirm that "everything is connected to everything else" as well as disturbing ambiguities that proclaim the elusiveness of truth. Both suspenseful and meditative, this new novel by the author of The Music of Chance ( LJ 9/1/90) blends a crime story with a thoughtful examination of important psychological and moral questions. For most public libraries. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/ 1/92.
- Albert E. Wilhelm, Tennessee Technological Univ., Cookeville
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Leviathon
51% buy the item featured on this page:
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Customer Reviews

52 Reviews
5 star:
 (33)
4 star:
 (9)
3 star:
 (4)
2 star:
 (4)
1 star:
 (2)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (52 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5.0 out of 5 stars A great read, Nov 1 2008
By NorthVan Dave (North Vancouver, British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: Leviathan (Paperback)
I don't know what it is about Auster's writing style, but I enjoy it very much. Having recently finished Leviathan, I confess that this was one book I had a hard time putting down. The book is party mystery novel part romance.

The plot focuses on the death of a man and the story of the dead man's life as told by his friend. His friend, coincidental enough, is an author as well.

I realize that I'm not doing the book justice. And that's a shame because it really is a good book. Auster does a great job of weaving a story of one man's life and how his life becomes inter-connected to all those around him. At the heart of this novel though is the simple fact that it is a good story. Auster does a good job of weaving a story and keeping the reader interested. At no point in time did I want to put the book down and forget about it. I was drawn in to the characters, the location, and the plot.

If you've read other Auster novels, then it is likely you have either read this one already or are about to read it. And if you're new to Aster's books then do yourself a favour and pick this one up.
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3.0 out of 5 stars no masterpiece but not good enough, Jun 9 2004
This review is from: Leviathan (Paperback)
This is not a book I would rave about, but having read it, I would call it descent. The characters are well thought off, they are unique and personal.
The book if too full of its message, though. It tries too hard to mask itself as one of those books that make the reader think about the meaning of things. The author desperately wants the reader to question his work, to scrutinize it for symbolism and hidden meanings. Problem is that its way to obvious and much too direct. The book lays claims to a realm of higher meaning which it is not written nearly well enough to reach.
However, taken at face value, it is a pretty enjoyable read.
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1.0 out of 5 stars Artificial Suspense, Mar 27 2004
By Roger Angle (Culver City, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Leviathan (Paperback)
The strategy of the story-telling didn't work for me.
I found the first ten pages so annoying and tedious that I couldn't read any further.
What I gather from the first 10 pp is that:
1. The dead guy had a "terrible secret." I need to know up front what this is, to keep reading. I won't read another page to find out.
2. The narrator knew the dead guy but doesn't want to tell FBI. I can't imagine why, and I don't care. This is supposed to be a hook, I guess, but it doesn't work that way for me. Just tell me, right off the bat. At least give me a hint.
3. The dead guy blew himself up for a reason. We don't know what that is. Right now-during the whole 10 pp-I don't give a tinker's damn. I guess this is supposed to be another hook. You have to give me at least a hint. Otherwise I just do a dim-out.

I took a workshop from the novelist John Rechy one time. He said: If you keep saying, in your book, "I have a mystery that I'm going to tell you," and you say it over and over again, it becomes maddening. It will make you put the book down. That is what happened to me here.
Thank God I can just put it down and forget about it.
Whew. What a relief.

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 		 Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Totally enjoyable.
LEVIATHAN is an anti-establishment piece done without getting annoying, and without becoming too postmodern or preachy. Read more
Published on Aug 21 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars Contemporary Literature at its Best
Leviathan is the story of Benjamin Sachs, a writer and an ideologist, as told by his long time friend and fellow writer, Peter Aaron. Read more
Published on April 17 2003 by RV

5.0 out of 5 stars German Reader
I have just finished reading "Leviathan" (translated german version). This is the first book of P. Auster that I read. I was completely enthusiastic. Read more
Published on Mar 26 2003 by mklausch

5.0 out of 5 stars More brilliance from Paul Auster
Paul Auster has to be one of the cleverest writers around, and one of the most rewarding. "Leviathan" tells the story of Peter Aaron's 15-year friendship with Benjamin Sachs - a... Read more
Published on Jan 9 2003 by Steven Reynolds

4.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing, but not Auster's best
Leviathan is a fascinating book, and it clips along at a very quick pace - I read it over the course of a couple of study halls. Read more
Published on Sep 14 2002 by staroftrackandfield

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, thought provoking and erotic
A Leviathan is a "sea monster" or whale or "whopper" and, by extension, an euphemism for "lie" or "liar". Read more
Published on April 26 2002 by Ian Muldoon

4.0 out of 5 stars An austere and enormous entertainment
Paul Auster is a blatantly theoretical novelist. He dissects and deconstructs literary genres and trends with the precision of a Swiss watchmaker. Read more
Published on April 24 2002 by Mike Stone

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but Not as Successfull as The New York Trilogy
I really enjoyed reading this book, even though it initially seemed like a rehash of themes Auster developed more fully, and I would say more succesfully, in _The New York... Read more
Published on Oct 23 2001 by Roger T. Whitson

4.0 out of 5 stars Clever, ambitious, entertaining
An excellent novel from one of the best writers in contemporary American literature.

The protagonist Benjamin Sachs, ex-con war resister turned brilliant novelist, is one of... Read more

Published on Aug 29 2001 by Christopher A. Smith

5.0 out of 5 stars The Terror Of True Freedom
Even though I've enjoyed Paul Auster's more recent screenplays, and the movies that came from them, it's a shame he abandoned novel writing as his primary mode of expression. Read more
Published on Jun 12 2001 by Jon G. Jackson

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