Luminous, passionate, expansive, an emotional tour de force, Sunset Park follows the hopes and fears of a cast of unforgettable characters brought together by the mysterious Miles Heller during the dark months of the 2008 economic collapse.
An enigmatic young man employed as a trash-out worker in southern Florida obsessively photographing thousands of abandoned objects left behind by the evicted families.
A group of young people squatting in an apartment in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
The Hospital for Broken Things, which specializes in repairing the artifacts of a vanished world.
William Wyler's 1946 classic The Best Years of Our Lives.
A celebrated actress preparing to return to Broadway.
An independent publisher desperately trying to save his business and his marriage.
These are just some of the elements Auster magically weaves together in this immensely moving novel about contemporary America and its ghosts. Sunset Park is a surprising departure that confirms Paul Auster as one of our greatest living writers.
Paul Auster is the bestselling author of Report from the Interior, Winter Journal, Sunset Park, Invisible, The Book of Illusions, and The New York Trilogy, among many other works. He has been awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature, the Prix Médicis Étranger, the Independent Spirit Award, and the Premio Napoli. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
As with most of Paul Auster's novels, he glitters and glides beneath the surface of the text, mixing the obscure with the dazzling, here with Sunset Park, although it may read like Auster, it also doesn't. The protagonist, 27 year old Miles Heller has abandoned his well-connected New York family and gone into the wilderness to deal with the death of his stepbrother Bobby who died in a car accident, Miles overcome with grief and guilt, believes he was the cause of it, but this he never reveals to his father, who runs a publishing firm, his estranged actress mother, or Bobby’s real mother. He finds salvation in Florida working as a house clearer, and has a fascination with taking photos of abandoned things. By chance he meets a younger girl in a park – they’re both reading The Great Gatsby, and begin a risky relationship.
Auster, whose plots are usually compelling, seems to have mislaid his sense of drive in terms of storytelling here, the narrative ebbs and flows sublimely, but never really takes hold like some other of his novels, by his standards Sunset Park reads pretty normal. There are long passages of workmanlike prose: “Every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday she takes the subway into Manhattan and goes to her part-time job at the PEN American Center at 588 Broadway, just south of Houston Street. She started working there last summer…” And so on. Circumstances force Miles to flee again, this time back to New York, where he and girlfriend end up sharing a squat in the Sunset Park area with his old pal Bing, and a sexually frustrated artist called Ellen.
The narrative unexpectedly widens and we are given long sections from the point of view of each of these characters, creating an intimate viewpoint of their shared and cramped existence. The second half of the novel is far more heartfelt, with Miles aware he must re-establish contact with his estranged family and confront his past, but he isn't the only one with problems. What's great about Sunset Park is there are no minor characters in Auster's world, everyone else has a rich, complicated inner life of their own, and when the mother and father of Miles start to enter the story, your mindset switches over to them, leading to some poignant moments towards the end.
Overall there isn't the substance of previous work, however, it's uncluttered approach still makes for a compulsive read, driven by Auster's incongruous, infectious and sheer damned interest in his subject matter. 4/5
يجمع بول أوستر شخصيات روايته في بيت صنست بارك الخشبي في نيويورك يحكي في سرد هادئ عن الفقد والخسارة في الحياة بمختلف أشكالها المادية والمعنوية واختلاف طرق التعامل معها بين الهروب والمواجهة عدم منطقية الاختيارات وتناقض المشاعر واختلاف الرغبات والعلاقات خلال مراحل العمر الرواية مقسمة لفصول بأسماء الشخصيات فيها التفاصيل الحياتية والنفسية والعاطفية لكل منهم سرد متنوع ما بين الواقع وذكريات الماضي وملامح عن الرياضة والأدب والفن
Set during the American financial recession in 2008, the college dropout Miles Heller, who has been running from his past for seven years, is forced to leave his new girlfriend in Florida and return home to New York City. Through several situations of coincidence and self-discovery, it is a story about how to reconnect with a world once left behind, and how to rejoin the human race after self-inflicted exile.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش روز بیست و چنجم ماه ژوئن سال 2011میلادی
عنوان: سانست پارک؛ نویسنده پل استر؛ برگردان: مهسا ملکمرزبان؛ تهران، افق، 1389؛ در 326ص؛ شابک 9789643696658؛ چاپ دوم 1389؛ چاپ سوم 1392؛ چاپ چهارم 1393؛ چاپ دیگر 1395، در 299ص؛ شابک 9789643698911؛ چاپ دوم 1398؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده 21م
کتاب «سانست پارک»، رمانی نوشته ی «پل استر» است؛ که نخستین بار در سال 2010میلادی منتشر شد؛ داستان در سالهای بحران اقتصادی و در سال 2008میلادی رخ مینماید؛ مردی بیست و هشت ساله به نام «مایلز هلر» به «فلوریدا» میرسد، جایی که آخرین مکان در سفرش به سراسر کشور است؛ «مایلز هلر» در «فلوریدا» به کار تمیز کردن خانهها میپردازد؛ و در همانجا «مایلز» شیفته ی «پیلار سانچز» هفده ساله میشود، و دوباره خود را در حال گریز میبیند؛ به نیویورک باز میگردد، جایی که خانواده اش هنوز در آنجا زندگانی میکنند، و به آپارتمانی متروکه در «سانست پارک» در «بروکلین» میرود؛ داستان از دیدگاههایی گوناگون روایت میشود: از دیدگاه پدر «مایلز» به نام «موریس هلر» که ناشر است و تلاش میکند تا تجارت خود را نگاهبانی کند؛ و از دیدگاه مادر «مایلز» با نام «مری لی سویان» که بازیگری شناخته شده است و خود را آماده میکند تا به صحنه بازگردد
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 04/04/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
SPOILER ALERT: Is it just me, or did Paul Auster write two thirds of a book? He's created a more populous novel than usual, and manages to supply satisfying narrative arcs for the majority of those characters. I wonder if he found such atypical conventionality alarming, for he certainly shied away providing any such satisfying resolution for his main character, Miles. Miles has spent his entire adult life running away from the fatal consequences of an impulsive shove during what ought to have been an ordinary argument between stepbrothers. After years of doing the penance of an itinerant lifestyle, Miles finally appears ready to heal; he finds love and seeks reconciliation with his long estranged family. When an entirely optional, seemingly inevitable confrontation with the police arises, he takes another impulsive swing, which threatens to destroy all. I can't help but think this is the juncture where a writer like Dostoevsky would have rolled up his sleeves and gotten to work. Auster is too cool a customer for that. He merely nods in the direction of his character coming to terms with the consequences of his temper, and leaves it at that.
I understand all of the praise for Paul Auster. Beautiful writing, well-drawn characters. Definitely told from a male perspective; I have a hard time falling for the romance of baseball history, and felt like Ellen's extreme sexual fascination was male fantasy rather than reality. But I found myself very compelled by the characters. I wanted to know how they would come through it all. Morris was definitely the most sympathetic character for me; a very decent man, torn between forgiving his son, and fearing that by doing so, he would put his marriage at risk. His son, Miles, was also a fascinating protoganist: a young man who has gone off the rails, but is at heart, a good person, who is poised to get his life back on track. I thought Auster's portrayal of the impact of the economic crisis was very well done. He offers an unflinching look at an economy that pushes a group of young people to act as modern outlaws with their risky plan to squat in an abandoned house. As a passionate reader, I loved the writing about publishing, the work the PEN does to try to protect writers, and Miles love for literature. But, I was so disappointed in the ending. It felt too sudden and far too hopeless. I didn't need complete resolution, but I felt so frustrated that all of the progress the characters made was instantly reversed. Kind of a "why bother?" conclusion. I liked Auster's theme about wounds being a part of becoming a mature adult. But I hate the idea of his characters giving up because of their wounds.
My gosh .... I’m still loving Paul Auster. Perfect ‘go to’ read at a time when I ‘really’ needed a book to engage me - a book to easily enjoy! This novel did the trick... Got me out of my own distracted head.
It gets my ‘trim-tab’ - thumbs up 👍🏻 👍🏻 LIKED IT - short review- during this unsettling time of our lives. I don’t have a desire right now to be counted on writing full reviews for every book I read right now.... But.... If I did… This would be one worth writing about.
....GREAT character development (loved the leading protagonist in the young woman he meets in the park when they were both reading “The Great Gatsby”.... Wonderful STORYTELLING JOURNEY we follow!!!
....ENJOYABLE NOVEL!!!
With the crisis of the Coronavirus- the shock, the number of people affected around the world, the fears- ( we have no income during this time, are living ‘smack-in-the-neighborhood’ of a heavy hit area of people with virus, a compromised medical condition myself, family members in their late 80’s, deaths, nurses at my hospital on strike ( not feeling safe without enough needed medical supplies), the bleak economy, people unemployed, generation wars,social distancing, the worries: emotions high one minute, numb the next minute.... Update facts coming down the pipes every hour..... hooked on reading everything going on in every state and country around the world.... Shall I go on? Got the idea? Life is not as we knew it....
And..... while watching movies on TV for more well being release..... Actors on the screen ( Netflix, HBO, etc.) are touching , socializing, kissing, hugging... ....it looks like a ‘time in the past’....
I tossed out a dozen books that just were not able to ‘hold-my-interest’ during this time ( perfectly readable books too).... I was ready to give up reading for a few weeks, if need be.... Then I asked myself... “WHO DO YOU REALLY NEED RIGHT NOW?” “What authors — have kept me interested in their books?” Paul Auster came through! Thank you!!! This was just what I needed!
أسلوب كتابة غير مألوف لقارئي بول أوستر. فمن اعتاد عوالمه الغرائبية، سيتعجب حتما من سرد الرواية البسيط الذي يتقدم للأمام بدون حبكات محيرة تجهد عقلك في فهمها. في إيقاع سريع تتحرك أحداث الرواية في فترة زمنية لا تزيد عن ستة أشهر تقريبا. مع لقطات تعود فيه كل شخصية بالزمن إلى الوراء بنفس إيقاع الحاضر الرشيق بدون ترهل أو استرسال في وصف لا داع له. وبفعل سحر ذلك الإيقاع، خطفتني الرواية ولم أتركها حتى أنهيتها.
كان بمعظم شخصيات الكتاب ضعفاً وتعاسة جعلاني أتعلق بهم وأشعر بمدى قربهم لي. فضياع كل منهم في ظل أزمة اقتصادية-كساد عام 2008-عصفت بحياتهم المتهالكة جعلني أتوحد معهم تماما ومع احباطاتهم وعدم مبالاتهم بحياة لا تبشر بأي نور في نهاية النفق. وكانت "إيلين" هى اقربهم إلى قلبي. كما تأثرت كثيرا بمشاعر الأب "موريس" وهو يراقب ابنه "مايلز"الهارب طوال سبع سنين بدون أن يشعره بذلك.
كل شخصيات الرواية شخصيات لا تملك إلا أن تحبها. فأخطاؤهم غير مقصودة مهما كان حجمها. وحتى تلك الأخطاء ينتج عنها ندم يقتل جزءا كبيرا من الروح تكفيرا عن تلك الخطأ.
وعلى قدر "عادية" الرواية بالنسبة لكاتب غير اعتيادي كبول أوستر، على قدر ما كانت النهاية مفاجئة وغير متوقعة. وكأن أوستر أراد أن يضيف "لمسته العبثية" في أخر لحظة ليذكر القارئ بأنه لا يقرأ لمؤلف ممن يحبون النهايات السعيدة.
Sunset Park is an area in Brooklyn where an uninhabited house attracts several peoples.. Every single one of them has a history to tell, and inner demons to be conquer!!!
** Miles Heller** After he has suffered a traumatic event with his half-brother that cost his life, he flees to find the love of his life!!
**Alice Bergstrom** A young and beautiful girl that having had an abortion, must face pangs of conscience that threaten to destroy her life..
**Ellen Brice** Discovering a dark secret overshadowing the relation to her boyfriend, which will jeopardize more than she can bear!!
**Bing Nathan** His friendship to Miles means the world to him, he will be toss into an abyss of bewildering feelings!!
All of them Loosers!!! Human beings struggling in an ocean of forlornness!!! All of them in search for meaning , a future, and a reason to get on against and despite all odds..
This is a character driven novel. The persons in it feels so damn real, that I found myself pondering over them even at my work and doing my household and shopping.. It's a touching and moving book, tell with much passion and truth!!
I cannot recommend it highly enough.. Paul Auster has advance in my life as to become my favorite writer. Sunset Park is more than a well told story about a bunch of people, its also full of insight and truth!!!
I can only say: Read and experience it for yourself!!!
Happy readings to all my goodreads friends.. Dean;)))
An intimate novel, in the style of "Leviathan," on the ravages and impasses in which post-subprime America has locked up its citizens. We follow Miles, who had racked with guilt after the death of his half-brother, fled his life and his family to find himself in a squatted house in Sunset Park, New York, with Alice, the luminous who questions the silence of the generation in her thesis. In the post-war period, Bing is rebellious and energetically seeks another way in a dead-end society. Ellen is an introvert trying to get back on her axis. And finally, Morris, Miles' father, who is expecting his son, sees the friends living around him without understanding what this world has become.
پل استر نویسنده ی خوبیست.. نویسنده ی خوبی که خیلی خوب بلد است قصه بگوید و خواننده را با خودش همراه کند.. نویسنده ای که کتابهای خیلی خوبی خوانده، فیلمهای خیلی خوبی دیده، اطلاعات بالایی دارد و عاشق بیسبال است! این ششمین کتابی بود که از پل استر خواندم و بعد از هر کتاب بیشتر به قدرت نوشتن این نویسنده ی معاصر امریکایی پی میبرم. کتاب سانست پارک درباره ی زندگی چندین نفر است که توسط خانه ای در سانست پارک به هم مربوط شده اند. مایلز، آلیس، بینگ، الن، موریس، مری لی، و شخصیت های حاشیه ای تر یعنی پیلار، بابی، ویلا و... شخصیت هایی در زمان بحران اقتصادی امریکا. بینگ، آلیس، الن و مایلز هر کدام به دلایلی در خانه ای متروکه در سانست پارک با یکدیگر همخانه میشوند. کتاب به بخش های جداگانه تقسیم شده که در هر بخش بر زندگی یکی از افراد اصلی تمرکز میکند. لحن کتاب سوم شخص و دوم شخص است. داستان کتاب داستان خیلی پرفراز و نشیب و هیجان انگیزی نیست. که درواقع هیچ کدام از کتابهای پل استر اینگونه نیست که ماجرایی مطرح شود و در آخر حل شود یا به پایان برسد. کتاب های استر همیشه پایان متفاوتی از چیزی که فکر میکنید و انتظار دارید دارد. اما جادوی قلم استر خواننده را با خود همراه میکند. و نه فقط همراه میکند، که به فکر هم فرو میبرد، درگیر میکند و در خود غرق میکند...
داستان به نظرم جالب بود و انسانی - انسانی به همه ی معانی کلمه هم عاطفی، هم اقتصادی، هم جسمانی. البته جزو بهترین هایی نیست که از استر خوندم اما به نظرم به خوندنش می ارزه. اگه ترجمه اش خوب بود سه ستاره و نیم بهش می دادم
ترجمه
بعد از بخور و نمیر و سفر در اتاق تحریر این سومین کتابی بود که با ترجمه ی مهسا ملک مرزبان می خوندم. ذیل او دوتا کتاب تجربه ی نه چندان خوبی رو که از این مترجم داشتم بیان کردم. این کتاب هم مثل همونا است. قطعا نیاز به ویرایش داره اما اکثر جاها متن فارسی روونه. مترجم تذکر داده که نقطه گذاری نویسنده رو رعایت کرده اما به نظرم این ترجمه هنوز به اون سطح نرسیده که دغدغه ی نقطه گذاری بخواد واسش مطرح بشه
سوای اشکالات ترجمه دو موضوع منو آزار ��ی ده: یکی بی توجهی مترجم به توضیح دادن اشارات فرهنگیه - همه رو همینجوری ترجمه یا بازنویسی کرده بی هیچ دغدغه ای برای خواننده ی فارسی زبان - و دیگری سانسورهای هردنبیلی - یعنی یه چیزی رو می تونسته با تغییر بیاره ولی نیاورده اما یه جای دیگه بدتر از اونو ترجمه کرده (یه خودسانسوری تلخ و بی قاعده ای داره). خلاصه اینکه کتابو گذاشته جلوشو تا ته رفته و واسه اینکه به مشکل نخوره توضیحو بی خیال شده و بخش های نامناسب احتمالیو ماس مالی کرده. اشتباهاتشو در ترجمه بعضا مشخص کردم اما دیگه حوصله ی ذکرشو ندارم - به قول نشریات جزئیات ایرادها در نزد نویسنده ی نقد موجوده
سانسورها
آلیس در موسسه ی پن برای کمک به نویسندگان در خطر فعالیت می کنه و واقعه ی سلمان رشدی از نقاط عطف زندگیشه - چند بند مربوط به این مطلب حذف شده (البته در رفتاری عجیب مترجم چند جمله ای از بخش محذوف را چندین صفحه بعد در جایی دیگر آورده). الن نقاشی برهنه می کشه و مدتی که رابطه ای نداره نیازای بدنیش خیلی جدی شده - عمده ی مطالب مربوط به این موضوع در حد اشاره ترجمه شده اند. بینگ در اواخر داستان شک می کنه نکنه همجنسگرا باشه - خاطره اش از سفرش با مایلز و برخی اشارات به این موضوع حذف شده ان. و اینجا و اونجا هم حذفیاتی وجود دارن. احتمالا در کل کتاب یه ده بیست صفحه ای حذف شده
ذكرتني هذه الرواية بمقولة فوكنر "إنهم يكتبون كتابة جيدة غير أنه ليس لديهم ما يقولونه" ، نعم... لم يكن لديّ شك في ان بول اوستر سيقدم رائعة اخرى مليئة بالسحر والسوريالية والجاذبية الادبية... لكن هيهات، انه مجرد عمل سردي لبناء شخصيات بالكاد تتصارع او تتشابك فيما بينها.
معضلة هذه الرواية انها محشورة في زاوية الكتابة الجيدة وانتقاء اللغة الشعرية الجذابة على حساب المعنى والمضمون المبني على تفاهة القصة والمعالجة
I thought it was an OK read. He used a big word on me. Well, it was big to me. • effulgence: radiant splendor, brilliant
And he had one of the characters own a little shop that repaired things from the middle of last century (1930s-1970s) and it brought back a lot of pleasant memories because these were things I had grown up with: • Manual typewriters…fountain pens…mechanical watches…vacuum tube radios…record player…wind-up toys…gumball machines…rotary telephone (we thought it was the dawning of a modern age when push-button telephones came into being)
I will continue to read this author…he certainly has a following and this is high praise from Umberto Eco: • Nabokov once said, ‘I divide literature into two categories, the books I wish I had written and the books I have written.’ In the former category I would put books by Kurt Vonnegut, Don DeLillo, Philip Roth, and Paul Auster.” (The Paris Review)
There was an instance, in which a young women is writing a dissertation on a film by William Wylie, ‘The Best Year of Our Loves’ (1946, a movie about WW II vets returning home to the States and realizing they don’t fit in…and the people who were not fighting in the war don’t seem to give a hoot about what they went through…I liked it a lot), and she is thinking in her head and we are privy to her thoughts. It goes on for over 2 pages—a very long sentence—and the very long sentence becomes noticeable to me but it is just perfect…that very long sentence. I wrote down in my notes “perfect writing”. It was captivating to me.
There are a couple of things about this book that puzzled me. • There was some weird sex in this book. I don’t know if anybody else who read this book noticed that. I wouldn’t say it detracted from the novel, but neither did it enhance it. • The main protagonist is 28 year-old Miles Heller. Early on in the novel he is at a small dinner party with some people, and another young man his age annoys him, and annoys him to the point he is feeling he wants to get up and smash his face in. Like, whoa, it’s just a dinner party. The guy was not being too much of an asshole to merit getting his face smashed in. Anger management issues for Miles. We learned earlier he was guilty over an incident in which he was walking by the side of a highway with his stepbrother, and he was in a verbal mud-slinging fight with his stepbrother and he pushed him into the road and, unfortunately, he got run over and killed by a car that was just coming around the bend (Miles had no way of knowing this). Then at the end of the novel he has an altercation with a cop in which he is blinding mad again. Throughout most of the novel he is presented in a reasonable light and he seems to be a good match for another character in the novel, the much younger Pilar Sanchez (not even 18). But the incidents in which he goes apeshit…I am not sure what the point of this was...it made him less endearing to me, and for an altercation to happen at the very end of the novel, Paul Auster did that on purpose…that’s what he wanted to leave the reader with. So what is the reader to make of this? That he will beat the hell out of his soon-to-be wife Pilar during their marriage? I have no idea… I hope I read an interview by Paul Auster in which he reveals his motive, or a GR reviewer opines on this.
Παράξενο βιβλίο… Έντονο και συναρπαστικό που δεν το αφήνεις από τα χέρια σου λένε οι κριτικές στο οπισθόφυλλο, καθώς και πως ο Auster έχει έμφυτο το χάρισμα της αφήγησης. Δεν θα μπορούσα να συμφωνήσω περισσότερο με αυτά.
Δυσάρεστο βιβλίο… Αναφέρεται σε αληθινούς ανθρώπους της γενιάς μας, που αντιμετωπίζουν πολλά οικονομικά και π��οσωπικά προβλήματα στην αναζήτηση του εαυτού τους. Νομίζω ότι ταυτίστηκα με τους περισσότερους από αυτούς σε συγκεκριμένα σημεία και πιστεύω πως – εντάξει, δεν νομίζω να είχα το στομάχι να γίνω καταληψίας – σίγουρα αν ζούσα στην Αμερική θα πέρναγα κι εγώ από δουλειές σαν αυτές που κάνουν οι πρωταγωνιστές μας: κακοπληρωμένες, χωρίς νόημα και ανειδίκευτες, κάπως σαν ισοδύναμο του να γίνεις σερβιτόρος στην Ελλάδα δηλαδή.
Ταυτόχρονα ήταν ένα αληθινό βιβλίο. Οι ήρωες, νεαροί ενήλικες που θα έπρεπε να έχουν κατασταλάξει στο τι θέλουν από τη ζωή τους, ενώ οι συνομήλικοί τους είναι παντρεμένοι με υποθήκη, κερδοφόρα δουλειά, παιδιά και συνταξιοδοτικό πλάνο, αυτοί επιμένουν να κυνηγούν τα όνειρά τους, την κατάθλιψή τους, να γνωρίσουν τον εαυτό τους και τα θέλω τους. Κεντρικός ήρωας παρουσιάζεται ο Μάιλς, ο οποίος επιστρέφει στην πόλη του μετά από 7 χρόνια αυτοεξορίας, τιμωρώντας τον εαυτό του, φορτώνοντάς τον τύψεις για ένα ατυχές περιστατικό που είχε συμβεί. Η ιστορία του Μάιλς, αφηγούμενη και από τη σκοπιά των γονιών του, αναδεικνύει το ζήτημα της επιστροφής του «άσωτου υιού» και τον τρόπο υποδοχής του.
Το βιβλίο είναι απόλυτα ειλικρινές, αποκαλύπτοντας όλα τα συναισθήματα των ηρώων του. Δεν έχω διαβάσει άλλο βιβλίο του συγγραφέα, η αφήγησή του πάντως πράγματι είναι έντονη, συναρπαστική, σαν να ακούς ένα εξαιρετικό παραμυθά να μιλάει – μόνο που αυτά που λέει απέχουν πολύ από παραμύθια. Λόγω του βιβλίου κόντεψα τη Δευτέρα να τρακάρω 3 φορές από την αϋπνία πηγαίνοντας στη δουλειά, και σήμερα (Τρίτη) ξύπνησα από τις 7 για να είμαι συνεπής σε αυτά που έπρεπε να ετοιμάσω για τη δουλειά μου. Αύριο (Τετάρτη) επίσης με περιμένει πολύ πρωινό ξύπνημα, την έκανα και στα βιαστικά κάποια στιγμή το μεσημέρι για να διαβάσω κάποιες σελίδες ακόμα… Δεν ήταν ότι είχα αγωνία για την εξέλιξη της υπόθεσης, ούτε είχε ο συγγραφέας να το πάει κάπου… Απλά όλοι οι ήρωες έμοιαζαν σαν να είναι φιλαράκια μου που ήθελα να τους ακούσω… είχα καιρό να βρω τόση αμεσότητα ηρώων σε ένα βιβλίο (είναι βέβαια θα μου πείτε που όλοι οι 30 συν – πλην που έχουμε παραμείνει στην Ελλάδα ψαχνόμαστε τι στην ευχή κάνουμε με τις δουλειές μας και τι ονειρευόμασταν κάποτε. Καταλήψεις πάντως δεν έχουμε κάνει ακόμα, η ΥΦΑΝΕΤ και το εργοστάσιο ΑΛΑΤΙΝΗ παραμένουν στα χέρια των παραδοσιακών αναρχικών!)
3 αστέρια για το Σανσετ Παρκ γτ αναπόφευκτα το συγκρίνω με άλλα του Οστερ, όπως το βιβλίο των ψευδαισθήσεων ή την τριλογία της Νέας Υόρκης. Οι αναγνωστικές απαιτήσεις/ανάγκες διαμορφώνονται ήδη από την επαφή με τα άλλα βιβλία του και έτσι μοιραία το συγκεκριμένο χάνει στα σημεία καθώς και στο τέλος. Ένας μέτριος Όστερ όμως επουδενί δεν σημαίνει ότι δεν αξίζει να διαβαστεί. Είναι δεξιοτέχνης στη γραφή και η οικειότητα που νιώθεις στις σελίδες του είναι πάντα ανεκτίμητη.
Miles Heller is a one-man gloomfest. He’s haunted by the death of his stepbrother, estranged from his family and facing blackmail for conducting an under-age relationship. The 28 year-old flees Florida for a Brooklyn squat. There he joins a bunch of flatmates, each with their own personal raincloud: Bing is sexually confused, Ellen sex-starved, Alice in a dying relationship. Depression, suicide, infidelity, abortion and chlamydia all feature in a book that takes the 2008 economic crisis as its backdrop. Punctuated by rare moments of tenderness, Heller’s sorry story continues as he makes the transition from emptying repossessed properties to living in one. The sadness permeating his life, and those around him, should touch the reader. But because the story is narrated in a cool, detached voice, it's hard to feel sorry, to feel anything, for the book’s damaged characters. All of which might have been defensible were it not for the dismal conclusion. Sunset Park doesn’t so much draw to a close as screech to a standstill. It’s a story with a beginning, a middle and a gaping hole where the end should be. In a book groaning with glumness, the last page is the grimmest part of all.
صانست بارك.....بول أوستر ما الذي جرى في المجتمع الأمريكي إبان أزمته الاقتصادية الطاحنة في 2008، كيف تركوا بيوتهم وطردوا منها، وكيف خلخلت تلك الأزمة مبادئ عدة عندهم؟
كل ذلك وأكثر يكشفه لنا بول أوستر بتقنيته المحترفة في الكتابة.
Paul Auster è un autore che, in un modo o nell’altro, riesce sempre a colpirmi. Mi piacciono le sue idee narrative ma, soprattutto, il fatto che la sua penna scavi nei personaggi non lasciando solo linee che tratteggiano.
Qui si comincia in Florida dove vive il ventottenne Miles Hiller dopo una sorta di fuga da New York. Il suo lavoro consiste nello sgomberare da mobili ed oggetti le case abbandonate.
Sono immobili spesso lasciati in fretta e furia da insolventi o altro e di cui lui fotografa gli oggetti lasciati come testimoni silenziosi di sconfitte e fallimenti.
Il destino condurrà, tuttavia, Miles a fare ritorno a New York e precisamente nel quartiere di Sunset Park e, ironicamente, proprio in una casa abbandonata che occuperà assieme a altri tre personaggi.
Auster è, per me, un maestro delle geografie umane. Le sue storie occupano spazi per raccontare quanto sia intricato, profondo e doloroso il mondo delle relazioni. Fratelli, sorelle, amanti, mogli, mariti e, soprattutto, madri e padri. Una mappa dove ci si posiziona spesso arenandosi nei silenzi che si tramutano in rabbia finchè si raggiunge la consapevolezza che le ferite sono una parte essenziale della vita.
"Questa è l’idea che sta accarezzando, dice Renzo, scrivere un saggio sulle cose che non succedono, le vite non vissute, le guerre non combattute, i mondi-ombra che corrono paralleli a quello che prendiamo per il mondo reale, il non-detto e il non-fatto, il non-ricordato. Un terreno infido, forse, ma potrebbe valere la pena di esplorarlo."
Paul Auster is one of my favorite writers; always able to paint his characters with taut, finely-detailed, yet propulsive brush strokes. And in Sunset Park, he does not disappoint.
This novel is less postmodern than his recent book Invisible. It focuses on debris: physical debris from trashed-out foreclosed homes in Florida that Miles Heller, a Brown University drop-out, rescues through his camera. And mental debris that Miles wrestles with after a spontaneous action on his part results in an accidental death, causing him to run from his New York family and live in self-imposed exile.
Eventually, we will meet the other characters: four flat-broke twentysomethings who are searching for their more authentic selves, illegally squatting in an abandoned house in Sunset Park in Brooklyn. And we will meet Morris Heller, Miles’ father, the “Can Man” and an independent publisher, who has never quite given up that his son will eventually find his way back home.
The fractured narrative, told sequentially in the third-person POV, weaves together a number of elements: baseball trivia including the economic recession foreclosure crisis, Jack Lohrke (“Lucky”) who cheated death repeatedly until the very end, William Wyler’s 1946 coming-home classic The Best Years of Our Lives, the demise of the literary publishing houses, and the Hospital of Broken Things, which repairs artifacts of a world that once was. The themes that Auster has explored in the past – art, rebellion, and soltitude – are all here again, this time dealt with directly and swiftly.
These disparate elements all come together in an ending that took my breath away. In essence, Auster is asking: “Is luck random or is it within our control? How much responsibility can we take for occurrences? Is it worth hoping for a future when there is no future? Should we live for the passing moment or take the big picture into consideration? These questions will have you ruminating long after you read the last pages.
At the best times it is hard to put down a Paul Auster novel. He's a writer who writes for his readers. A goes to B and that will eventually come to C. My problem with his work is that I can picture the outline or map while reading his works.
The early Paul Auster I love, and its cool that he uses his home base Brooklyn as a guide or representation in his later novels, but then again, a lot of his work is like a math proposition. And although I don't put the book down, I could easily do so as well. Because I just don't care. And that sort of pains me with respect to Paul Auster, because I admire him for his taste (I love his translations of French poetry), and he's an interesting writer to a point, but.....
He churns so much books out now, and his last one "Invisible" is a novel i enjoyed very much. Maybe because it reminded me of a Patricia Highsmith yarn - but it jelled for me. "Sunset Park" is neither horrible or decent - it's just there. And there are so many more important books to read, you don't want to spend time with something that is ....just there on your table or book case.
There is no doubt in my mind that Auster will come up again with a winner, but till then...
Το έτος είναι το 2008 και η κρίση χτυπά την Αμερική... Γουεχεεεεεεειιιι, σα να μην πέρασε μια μέρα λοιπόν... Είναι 2020 και η κρίση μας έχει ραπισει(sic) όλους.. Επιστρέφοντας όμως στα του βιβλίου, το 2008 4 νέοι κάνουν ουσιαστικά κατάληψη σε ένα σπίτι στο σανσετ παρκ.. Κανείς τους δε το κάνει τόσο από οικονομικούς λόγους, όσο γιατί ο καθένας έχει ένα παρελθόν από το οποίο τρέχει...το σπίτι αυτό λοιπόν κατά τη γνώμη μου λειτουργεί σαν ένα καταφύγιο, σαν μια ομπρέλα που τάχα θα τους προστατεύσει από την ενηλικίωση. Κυριολεκτικά και μεταφορικά.. Ο πρωταγωνιστής μας, ο Μάιλς κράτα ένα μυστικό μέσα του εδώ και πολλά χρόνια που τον απομάκρυνε από την οικογένεια του και άφησε γύρω του πληγές. Εκεί που νομίζει λοιπόν πως βρήκε επιτέλους τον τρόπο να υπάρξει μακρυά από ευθύνες και σκοτούρες του παρελθόντος, ανακαλύπτει πως αυτό τον καλεί πισω για να κλείσει τους λογαριασμούς του. Δεν έχω πολλά να πω, αγαπώ τον Πολ ωστερ χρόνια τώρα, μου αρέσουν τα περισσότερα από τα βιβλία του και στενοχωριεμαι που βλεπω ότι και αυτό εδώ εχει σχετικά χαμηλή βαθμολογία στο goodreads. Για μένα ήταν ενα από τα καλύτερα του. Το απόλαυσα απίστευτα και το προτείνω. Καλέ, αγαπήστε τον Paul Auster.. #MakePaulAusterGreatAgain
Set primarily in the Sunset Park community of Brooklyn following the financial crash of 2008, Paul Auster's novel "Sunset Park" combines elements of literary bohemia with reminders of "The Diary of Anne Frank". The book features four young people in their 20s who stryggle with themselves, with their artistic or literary ambitions, and with poverty. They find themselves squatting in a ramshackle abandoned small house in Brooklyn which New York City has seized for back taxes. The four young people live in fear of the inevitable day when the city discovers their illegal presence in the house and evicts them. During the process, they struggle and perhaps thrive in spite of appearances.
Of the four squatters, the primary character is a 28 year old man named Miles Heller, a college dropout who had been working in south Florida removing property from repossessed homes. While in Florida, Miles became involved with a precocious 17 year old high school student, Pilar. Events force him to flee Florida, as he had fled his parents and college years earlier, and to accept the invitation of his old friend Bing to join him and two women in Sunset Park after Bing's girlfriend moved out. Bing runs a small repair shop called "The Hospital for Broken Things", but his primary interest in life is playing in a small jazz band.
There are two women squatters. Ellen struggles with selling real estate but her passion is art and painting. She turns from working on still lifes and buildings, where her work appears stilted, to the human body. Ellen is alone and sexually frustrated. The other woman in the house, Alice, is pursuing her PhD in English and working part town for an activist group concerned with the plight of dissident writers. Her dissertation topic is the 1946 film "The Best Years of our Lives" which deals with the problems of American servicemen returning home after WW II. The book is heavily freighted with symbolism -- with the film's suggesting something of the role that the period of squatting will play in the lives of the protagonists and the title of Bing's shop suggesting something of each of their lives.
There is also a great deal of baseball symbolism in this book using players both famous and obscure. The great promising pitcher for the Cleveland Indians, Herb Score, becomes emblematic of hard luck when his promising career ends as he is struck in the eye by a line drive. Auster also describes an obscure, undistinguished player, Jack "Lucky" Lohrke who faced three situations of almost certain death in WW II and lived to tell the tale. With baseball and bohemia the book is heavily atmospheric. It is at its best in the portrayal of the run-down neighborhoods of Brooklyn and of its struggling young people.
With all its symbolism and bohemian portraits, the book is short and a relatively fast read. It includes many characters besides the four young squatters. Most of this large group of secondary characters centers around Miles, and they include his father, who struggles to run a small publishing house, together with his stepmother, an academic, his mother, and actress, his stepbrother and his young girlfriend Pilar, the love of his life. The characters are well portrayed but the book is cluttered and has an almost dreamlike feel.
The book includes some highly poignant scenes and some beautifully lyrical writing. I was in love with much of the book and with its premise. As the book proceeds, the writing becomes overdone in places, with long, overly elaborate and mannered stringy sentences. There are also contrivances in the story line which make the book less effective. I liked the novel a great deal but was sorry my initial reaction was not fully sustained.
The novelist Siri Hustvedt, Auster's wife, suggested the phrase "the strangeness of being alive". When Ellen becomes deeply involved with the human figure the narrator of the tale observes: "She wants her human bodies to convey the miraculous strangeness of being alive -- no more than that, as much as all that. She doesn't concern herself with the idea of beauty. Beauty can take care of itself." The "strangeness of being alive", with all its enigmas, tragedy, coincidences and hope is the underlying theme of Paul Auster's novel.
An odd book. What begins as the story of a young drifter, Miles Heller, estranged from his family in New York and working as a 'trash out' man, cleaning up after housing repossessions during the financial collapse of 2008, in love with a brilliant underage Cuban-American girl with whom he lives and wants to marry as soon as she comes of age, becomes something different when circumstances cause him to flee Florida (the threat of arrest), and return to New York to live with his old friend Bing, who has invited Miles to join him at a squat/commune he has fashioned in downtrodden Sunset Park area of Brooklyn.
The book then reveals its true form, a series of interlocked character studies, as each character is developed in beautiful, brilliant, engaging, richly textured point of view chapters. There's Miles's publisher father, Morris,loving, literary, long-suffering, his actress mother--who abandoned father and son when Miles was a baby, but has continued to have a complicated relationship with her son. there's Bing himself, hopelessly optimistic, who runs the Hospital for Broken Things, which is a great metaphor for the house at Sunset Park in general. There are the other residents, Alice, the doctoral student (in literature, naturally), and Ellen, the realtor and artiest, the most emotionally fragile of the characters.
I loved it as I was reading it, right up until the last chapter, but kept wondering, seeing the small size of the book, how in the world he was going to pull it all this together. It all kind of collapsed for me at the end- and yet, the ride was exquisite and I'm glad I read it. It was my first Auster, and I know I'll start exploring the rest of his work.
این یه ریویو نیست. درواقع هیچکدوم از ریویوهایی که مینویسم ریویو حرفهای نیستن. نظرمه برای خودم که یادم بمونه. تا اینجا که از پل استر خوندم، از هوشش توی طرح داستان خوشم اومده. چیزی که باعث فاصله بینمون میشه (:)) سنگینی زیاده. خیلی سنگینه. باری که گذشته روی دوش شخصیتهاش میذاره خیلی سنگینه. و این سنگینی انگار میشینه روی سینهم. و انگار اندازه همون آدما تاریک و سرد میشم.و یه مقاومتی دارم نسبت به این قضیه. توی شهر شیشهای ارجاعاتی به بهشت گمشده میلتون وجود داشت و توی سانست پارک ارجاعاتی به یه فیلم هالیوودی با موضوع بعد از جنگ که الان اسمشو یادم نمیاد. که جالب بودن. بهرحال خیلی خوبه. خیلی خوبه که وقتی داری یه کتابی میخونی بدونی که احمق فرض نشدی. یا اصلا کتاب نوشته نشده برای خوشایند تو، نوشته شده چون باید نوشته میشده یا چون نویسنده بهش فکر میکرده. شخصیتپردازی و راوی خیلی خوب بود. راوی هرفصل انگار سومشخص آیندهی همون آدم بود. و خیلی کنجکاو موسیقی متن هم شدم. احساس کردم متن اصلی باید موسیقی متناسبی داشته باشه. در کل اگرچه حس میکنم طوری که استر فکر میکنه ازم دوره لکن همین برام چالش برانگیزه.که طور دیگهای نگاه کنم. اعلا.
The book is a very accurate depiction of the social decay in contemporary American society. The young adult characters are faced with important decisions for their lives, but they are unable to make good decisions because nothing much of real value has been passed on to them from their parents. They end up squatting in an abandoned house.Their squatting is more than literal. It is also spiritual and emotional as their lives are constantly falling apart right before their eyes. Its a sad story in a way and there is no happy ending, no super-hero coming to the rescue. Yet, despite all the sadness and decay, the author retains a glimmer of hope in the character’s lives. The young must move on with their lives and place some faith in the future, even though their present condition gives them no reason for a better future.
Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy said that in the social context, “Decadence means to be unable to reach the future, in body mind or soul. The decadence of an older generation condemns the younger generation to barbarism. Decadence of parents leaves children without heritage.” (Speech and Reality, 1970).
Sunset Park is the continual cry of despair of a morally and economically abandoned young generation living among us. The book should be a wake-up call to all parents to not leave their children’s emotional and spiritual development to whatever influences may happen to come upon them out there.
Le ferite sono una parte essenziale della vita, e finché non sei stato ferito in qualche modo, non puoi diventare un uomo
Il caso (o il destino? ) Una curva della strada Ferite che non si rimarginano La fuga dalla propria vita un feroce ritirarsi in se stessi accontentarsi di sopravvivere, smussando i propri desideri fino ad una quota prossima allo zero assoluto Incontri improbabili La ragazza sul prato che sta leggendo Il grande Gatsby,la tua stessa edizione tascabile Cazzotti imprevisti Un amico fissato con l'aggiustare (tutte) le cose rotte Pensieri scuciti Abbracci che ti fanno sentire a casa Il prezzo dell'impulsività D'ora in poi, si dice,non spererà più in niente e vivrà solo per questo, questo momento, questo momento che passa, l'adesso che è qui e poi non è qui, l'adesso che se n'è andato per sempre.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ PS. tornando a casa ho ascoltato un pezzo ,oh, potrebbe benissimo averlo scritto Miles (e il batterista ci sarebbe pure a Sunset Park ,il primario dell'Ospedale delle cose rotte :) ) eccolo https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mqiH0ZS...# Hold Back the River
"Ho provato a tenerti vicino a me ma la vita si è messa in mezzo ho provato a fare in modo di non essere là ma credo che avrei dovuto esserci "
Los personajes de Auster tienen patrones similares. Son introspectivos, algo depresivos, con problemas varios, sin dudas, nunca desbordan felicidad. Los de Sunset Park no escapan a esta regla. El protagonista vive las desgracias y alguna alegría efímera en un grupo de okupas.
La prosa austeriana es fluida, la técnica maravillosa y los caracteres son interesantes y bien definidos. El libro cierra y atrapa como casi todo lo de este gran autor.
Aporta además una correcta descripción de la sociedad americana de la primera década del 2000 con las consecuencias de la crisis económica, donde numerosas personas son desalojadas de sus casas a diario por no pagar la hipoteca. ¿La juventud norteamericana de esa época con escasos recursos y muchas ilusiones, no habrán sido los que luego votaron por Trump?
Fue uno de los primeros libros de Auster que leí y lo atesoro.
این دیگه چجور پایانی بود؟ جدیدا پل استر خون شدم و بعد از سفر در اتاق تحریر و سه گانه ی نیویورک رفتم سراغ این. روند داستانی کتاب رو دوست داشتم. راضی کننده بود. اما احساس می کنم به پایان کتاب کاملا گند زده. البته نمیشد همه چیز خوش و خرم تموم بشه ولی خب این پایان پوچ و باز اصلا مناسب نبود. کتاب درباره ی بحران اقتصادی سال دوهزار و هشته. داستان درباره ی یک پسر بیست و هشت ساله به نام مایلز هلره. در ابتدای کتاب کارگره و در ادامه که پیش میره آروم آروم میفهمیم چرا کارگر و خانواده و سابقه و گذشتهش همه رو میشن. فضای ملموس و حتی جالبی داشت کتاب. ولی اصلا نمی تونم پایانو پذیرا باشم. شمام اگه خوندین بگین پایانش چطور بوده بنظرتون؟ +در دوران کرونا کتاب چی میخونین؟
No encuentro palabras para describir lo absolutamente brillante, franco y desgarrador que es este libro, la intensidad que se desprende de cada una de sus páginas al abordar un tema que está tan candente y que causa tantas heridas como el drama de los desahucios. Paul Auster nos introduce en la piel de varios personajes desdibujados por el dolor y por la incomprensión de sus propios sentimientos, sumidos en un casi imperceptible proceso de recuperación mientras atisban un futuro borroso. Profundo, conmovedor y como siempre, cargado de reflexiones sobre el azar y las casualidades que mueven el mundo.