Book Of Illusions: Amazon.ca: Books

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First Sentence
EVERYONE THOUGHT HE was dead. Read the first page

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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover

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Customer Reviews

63 Reviews

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

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4.0 out of 5 stars (63 customer reviews)

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4.0 out of 5 stars Another fine outing by Auster, Mar 11 2009

By	NorthVan Dave (North Vancouver, British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Book of Illusions: A Novel (Paperback)

The story focuses on David Zimmer. An author who has walled himself away from the world after the death of his wife and two boys. To get over his grief, he decides to write a book about a little known silent screen actor who disappeared from the face of the earth after his last silent movie. What follows is a story of how David comes back to life (eventually) after being asked to go and meet with the elusive actor.

The book is pure Auster. It has the regular story, and then Auster concocts several other stories within the story. And as always he dangles just enough of the story within the story to keep you interested and wanting more.

So what didn't I like about this novel? The main character David Zimmer. That's what I didn't like. He comes across as mean and I never grew to like him, no matter how long I stayed with the novel. Having said that though, if you're a Paul Auster fan, then you'll want to read this book. If it is your first time in coming to an Auster novel, I'd recommend The New York Trilogy first.

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1.0 out of 5 stars You'll have to fight to finish it., Nov 6 2004

By	W. Miller "LAnguishing in LA" (Los Angeles, California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Book of Illusions: A Novel (Paperback)

This had to be one of the most plodding overwritten books I've ever been unfortunate enough to read. Huge and I mean HUGE passages go off on tangents and it basically leaves you wanting to tear your eyes out. Then, after suffering through all the blah, blah, blah and toughing out massive meaningless passages the book ends completely abruptly as if the author had no idea how to end his story. In fact, the ending was nothing short of a major disappointment with absolutely no reward whatsoever. Aside from a tiny bit of brilliant imagery here and there this book is pure tedium and a must miss.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Dancing about architecture - a decent read with a few holes, Jul 12 2004

By	E. Castro (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Book of Illusions: A Novel (Paperback)

There were some really gripping bits of this novel. The characters are consitently, coherently drawn, it does a good job slipping back and forth between time and place, and it manages to create suspense and drama from a fairly understated story line. I particularly like the physicality of the descriptions. I really got a sense for what nealry all the characters looked and sounded like. And they all stayed in character - there weren't departures from character to scoot the plot along.

However, it fell short it two fairly glaring areas for me.

1) The romance elements are barely plausible. They struck me as middle-school melodramatic. People sort of pop from indifference into world-shattering love, and stay in puppy-dog devotion until circumstances tear them apart.

2) The attempt to discribe brilliant cinema fell so far short as to be almost comic in its attempt. Writing about visual art is really hard to do, and I respect the ambition of giving it a go here. Any description, even a good one, leaves you with a pretty thin shadow of the real thing, so no fault of Auster's that this is short of compelling. But this particular part of the book goes past the forgivable and into the groan-out-loud bad. Hard to say more without a spoiler here, but let me just say that I'm very glad that Auster is writer and not a film maker.

This was at the low end of a 4 star read for me. Lose the pretention, make the characters as real in their relations to each other as they are in their thoughts and actions, and leave brilliant films to the imagination, and it would have been a really notable read. As it is, its a solidly crafted, middle of the road, enjoyable but forgettable book.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Another breathtaking piece of fiction by Auster
Auster's book is a modern fairy tale of troubled lives searching for a purpose to continue living in a world of loneliness, regret and self pitty. Read more

Published on Jul 7 2004 by P. KALAY

3.0 out of 5 stars Ends abrupt-- Auster gave up. Good nonetheless
I really got into the character building Auster did. The book moved smoothly and creatively. The reader at no point was lost in what Auster was working with. Read more

Published on Jun 2 2004 by Renee

3.0 out of 5 stars Three and a half stars. Kind of plodding.
I find Auster's ideas interesting, but his execution plods a litle. I didn't find this book to be brilliant, but it was capably done, a little melodramatic in content, but I... Read more

Published on April 21 2004 by a.

1.0 out of 5 stars Nothing New
After reading Mr. Auster's dopey Timbuktu (I wrote a damning review of that too) I thought the man was out of ideas, and The Book of Illusions proves it. Read more

Published on April 20 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved this book!
Paul Auster shows just how great a writer he is with this book.
You are immediately wrapped up in the world of Hector Mann. Read more

Published on April 7 2004 by David T. Brown

4.0 out of 5 stars Good overall !
A nice and pleasant experience reading this book. I would rate it 3.7 or 3.8 Nothing really special but a very fine story !

Published on Mar 26 2004 by KeepKage

4.0 out of 5 stars Illusions & Delusions
In this book Auster continues to dazzle readers with a unique and powerful writing style. His sentence structure and precision in language makes virtually all his books a... Read more

Published on Mar 18 2004 by Jon Linden

5.0 out of 5 stars Nothing Is At It Seems
In Paul Auster's THE BOOK OF ILLUSIONS, a man who is returning from the dead ends up searching for one everyone thinks is dead. Read more

Published on Feb 21 2004 by Totally Anonymous

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Surreal Disappearing Auster Hit!
Make no mistake, Mr. Auster is one of the finest, strangest, and most mesmorizing fiction writers out there, and this book is among his best! Read more

Published on Jan 28 2004 by S. Henkels

5.0 out of 5 stars BRILLIANT
Couldn't stop reading and thinking of it.... Read it. Now!

Published on Jan 24 2004

› See all 63 customer reviews...

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