| It’s a 3rd novel of Paul Auster that I read and 1st as an English edition. It’s a blue-hardcover slim book which has just about 260 more pages and made by rough bookbinding intentionally to help readers feel such as charm of bookbinding, according to the description of YES24, one of leading book shopping sight in Korea. In fact, however, the one attracted me in appearance was the cover of book rather than the binding form which the book company might intend to get reader’s eyes. There is an author’s name painted by steel color with great blue background color on the cover. It gave me some positive impression and some kinds of conviction that this book would not disappoint me. Prediction about first impression, however, is not always correct. This novel, ‘Oracle Night’ also takes frame form like his another novel that I already read. Sidney Orr is a main person of this novel and story is starting from a scene that he gets a blue-Portuguese notebook in Chang’s store. He can write a story with incredibly fast speed and he assumes that is caused by the blue notebook. I misunderstood that the story he wrote would be another story in the novel and it’s partially right. But resultingly, it doesn’t have a big role in the main plot like his other accomplishment ‘The books of Illusions’, at least in my point of view. My expectation that the inside story would be continued from the point he stopped along the flow of time is cruelly wracked and the story was flowing to the point that I didn’t estimated. But It takes only a few times to recognize what does the author intend to foreshadow and as a result, it induces me decreasing my interest toward the end of story. That is, likewise Dan Brown’s ‘Da Vinci Code’, this novel has a problem that the more the story is processed toward the end, the more its attraction is diminished along the transparently-looking plot. Some review about this book said that it is Paul’s another accomplishment that shows interaction between novel and another novel inside it. I don’t intend to disagree with the opinion. Merely I’d like to say that this novel fell short of my big anticipation about Paul Auster’s new one. However, in my opinion, it would not get over his previous work to be considered as masterpieces by many readers. Nevertheless, of course even if this novel let me down because of my too much expectation about his work, but ‘Oracle Night’ itself is NOT so-called common novel. It also has a lot of settings that would make readers astonish and show features of Paul Auster’s writing. If you’d like to taste a novel which looks like a movie, this latest novel of Paul Auster would be good choice. |
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폴 오스터의 이야기 속에는 늘 또 다른 이야기가 등장한다. 영화 '스모크'를 보아도 그렇고, '달의 궁전'이나 '환상의 책', 'Timbucktu'에도 제3자의 회상, 영화, 소설 등의 형태를 띄고 다양한 이야기 속의 이야기가 전개되는데, Oracle Night에도 마찬가지로 소설 속의 소설, 그리고 그 속의 또 하나의 소설이 등장한다. 그리고 그들은 그의 소설 속에서 다양한 기능을 한다고 생각된다. 끊임없이 우연과 필연을 가장한 우연이 엮이면서 새롭게 사건이 창조되고 진행되고 또 재창조되어 이야기가 진행되는 것이 내가 폴 오스터와 존 어빙의 소설에서 느끼는 가장 큰 매력이다. 끊임없이 계속되는 것. 하나의 사건과 그 결과로 끝나지 않고 그 이후로 계속되는 그런 것. 그렇기 때문에 그들의 이야기는 끝이 나도 나에게는 끝나지 않는 이야기가 된다. 그 다음을 계속해서 상상해 볼 수 있고, 그 다음의 이야기가 계속해서 힘을 지니게 된다. 나에게 어필하는 건 그런 소설, 그런 이야기, 그런 영화다. 계속해서 힘을 지니는 이야기. 작가에게 쉬지않고 작품을, 그것도 좋은 작품을 내놓으라고 하는 것은 물론 무리일테고, 내가 그렇게 하란다고 해서 그들이 그렇게 하지도 않겠지만, 좋아하는 작가의 훌륭하고 재미있는 작품을 너무 오래 기다려야 하는건 참 힘든 일 중 하나다. 항상 그들의 이야기는 하나를 끝내고 나면 다음 것을 목마르게 기다리게 되니. |