Oracle Night

I'm back in SF after an uneventful 5 1/2 hour drive from LA, stopping briefly at my brother's to pick up his new digital camera so I can play around with it over my much needed, however brief, vacation.

Speaking of vacation, one of the books I am reading right now, purchased just for my holiday, is Paul Auster's Oracle Night. If you have never read any of Auster's work, the time has come to pick one up. He is, in my opinion, one of the best American authors of the 20th and 21st centuries. Two of my favorites are Levithan and The Music of Chance (which was also made into a most excellent and disturbing film, with Mandy Patinkin and James Spader).

I am about half way through Oracle Night, and am totally hooked. If I don't finish it tonight, I'm sure I'll finish it tomorrow. The story revolves around an author recovering from an illness who purchases a notebook that seems to have some sort of magical quality to it, though just what is yet unclear. Paul Auster's writing has the kind of affect of pulling you quickly into the story and giving you the sense of walking beside the characters as they progress through the story. But they can also be dark as Auster doesn't shy away from touching on parts of the human psyche that can, at times, make the reader uncomfortable. While Auster isn't unique in this way for me, there are times when I feel like a peeping Tom, as though I am witnessing something I should not, as I read. It is easy to lose yourself in the lives and experiences of those you are reading about, whether they are real or fictional, and perhaps this is why I love reading as much as I do.