Sunset Park
Ratings17
Average rating3.3
15
Ratings17
Average rating3.3
In the sprawling flatlands of Florida, 28-year-old Miles is photographing the last lingering traces of families who have abandoned their houses due to debt or foreclosure. Miles is haunted by guilt for having inadvertently caused the death of his step-brother, a situation that caused him to flee his father and step-mother in New York 7 years ago. What keeps him in Florida is his relationship with a teenage high-school girl, Pilar, but when her family threatens to expose their relationship, Miles decides to protect Pilar by going back to Brooklyn, where he settles in a squat to prepare himself to face the inevitable confrontation with his father that he has been avoiding for years.
Reviews with the most likes.
Sunset Park follows a small gang of young adults in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and features many Auster hallmarks. It's largely set in New York City, is full of baseball trivia, and lots of intertextual references. I found Sunset Park to be a mostly okay novel, if a little unfocused. The story changes perspectives frequently, often moving away from the most interesting characters to check in with someone else.
My first big gripe is that the protagonist is a far fetched character if there ever was one. He is excessively gloomy and stubborn, while also being completely magnetic to every other character. I just didn't find him to be at all believable, even in Auster's fantasy land.
Another problem to me was the prevalence of inappropriate relationships between minors and adults. Several different characters had sexual relationships with teenagers that were ultimately justified by the story. Auster acknowledges the weirdness of it, but dismisses it. It feels like he wasn't sure why exactly these relationships are inappropriate.
As other reviews have said, the biggest problem comes at the very end. The ending is extremely abrupt, bleak, and ambiguous. It really soured me on the whole book that came before.
I would give this book a pass. There are some nice moments, but I found it to be the weakest Auster novel I've read.
another late auster that leaves me cold. the characters are repetitions from before that don't seem to add new dimensions and so now it gets grating when they all speak with that same introspective austerian voice in a hermetically sealed plot. especially as auster tries to write about the gfc here and shows limited understanding of what it meant to anyone who isn't a baby boomer who loves baseball and doesn't use a phone
I loved the characters and, as usual, Auster's writing is flawless. Even the abrupt ending is forgiven. The people living in an abandoned building, the silent Miles and his love for the young girl, his half brother and the accident and guilt, his obscure feelings and sad journey...
I love Paul Auster's prose. About this book in particular, well it has a shoking ending that makes a lot of sense but is not what I wanted or expected and it talks in general about many interesting topics.
