My original plans were to read this book and Oracle Night this week alongside Baumgartner, which would have left only Sunset Park of Auster’s novels unread, but I was enjoying his 2002 novel The Book of Illusions so much, I took it a little more slowly to savour the text. Now I have the hard task of writing it up.
Professor David Zimmer is holed up in his Vermont cabin, awash in alcohol and self-pity, mired in deep grief for his wife and two young sons who were killed in a plane crash six months before. One night though, he sees something on the tv that finally makes him laugh, it breaks the maudlin atmosphere. The event was in a silent movie starring Hector Mann, a little-known but much-loved comic actor from the end of the silent era. He made just twelve films and in Jan 1929, he disappeared, never to be heard from again. Zimmer finds himself obsessed by finding out about Mann, and he decides to track down the twelve films. It transpires that the only prints still in existence belong to six different renowned film archives, they had been sent two each anonymously. Zimmer sets about travelling to see them all and writes a well-received book about the comic genius.
He never discovered what had happened to Mann though, until one day a letter arrives from a Frieda Spelling, (Hector’s wife apparently), inviting him to their ranch in New Mexico. Hector is old, but alive, and wants to meet the man who wrote the book about him and with an offer for him to see Hector’s final films privately made at the ranch. At first he thinks its a prank, but one night a strange woman named Alma arrives to insist that he comes to New Mexico, Hector doesn’t have long to live, he must see him. Alma is the daughter of Charlie Grund, the cameraman on Hector’s films, they lived at the ranch too. Finally Alma persuades him and they go to the airport. David has only flown since his wife died with the aid of being Xanaxed out, but Alma takes care of him by starting to tell him Hector’s story, which she keeps up for the whole journey.
They finally arrive to find Hector is on his last legs, but David gets to meet his hero; it’s clear that Hector wants David to see his private films, but there is a clause in his will that they will be destroyed after his death, and Frieda intends to obey it to the letter. Time is against them all, and David will only get to see one of Hector’s films before Frieda throws him out and starts burning the reels. By this time too, David and Alma have fallen for each other and they plan to get together again after Hector’s burial….
The first half of this novel was brilliantly done, at the beginning, we really feel for David, then we’re cheering him on when he discovers a reason to come back to life, so to speak. Auster began his writing career translating from French, and this is what his professor does – having a job on the books to translate the 2000 pages of Chateaubriand’s Mémoires d’outre-tombe, and references to it abound (not that I’m familiar with that Frenchman’s work!). Knowing that Auster has a love of silent movies from discussions about Laurel and Hardy in 4 3 2 1, it wasn’t surprising to see this subject surface in an earlier work, and he finds a USP for Hector in his facial expression on film, setting apart from Chaplin, Lloyd and Keaton et al. Hector’s own story, the reason for his disappearance and subsequent reinventions as told by Alma to David are typical of Auster’s histories of his characters. Not exactly seeking the American Dream, but finding a place in life to exist in contentment, until reality butts in again and Hector has to run again.
Interestingly, David Zimmer himself has appeared in another of Auster’s novels. Moon Palace, the first of Auster’s dramas of life in America, after his stylised debut and dystopian follow-up In the Country of Last Things. Moon Palace has provided many recurring links in Auster’s work – and is the novel of his I want to re-read next. As you might expect, there are plenty of coincidences, one of Auster’s favourite devices, that occur throughout the novel. Auster also went on to develop The Inner Life of Martin Frost, the title of the private film by Hector, into a screenplay which he also directed, starring David Thewlis and Irene Jacob. Sadly it tanked with critics and box office, but I’m interested enough to have bought it on Amazon Prime! I’ll link back when I get a chance to watch it.
The Book of Illusions is a novel that is all about the circle of life, although this rather speeds up towards the end as Auster ties all the ends together with dramatic effect. I particularly enjoyed the first half, getting to know David – and his story definitely echoes with Baumgartner’s, Auster reworking some of David Zimmer’s life with a more comedic effect for his last novel; this novel isn’t as funny. I did, however, enjoy Alma’s telling of Hector’s life story, itself a book in the making within the book.
As to where this book stands in my rankings of Auster novels, I’d put it inside the top half. Where exactly, as yet, I’m undecided.
Source: Own copy. Faber hardback, 321 pages. BUY in paperback at Blackwell’s via my affiliate link (free UK P&P)
