Ratings21
Average rating3.5
Professor David Zimmer is drinking himself to death over the death of his family in a plane crash when one night he sees a clip from a film by the silent comedian Hector Mann. Mann vanished in 1929, but his films have begun to reappear anonymously in film archives around the world. Zimmer embarks on a journey to study the films, and thus begins a story within a mystery within a fable.
Reviews with the most likes.
moon palace meets leviathan - rehash of old auster themes (fevered protagonist trying to recover fast disappearing stories, missing artist skipping town/s to new lives, pathways steered by chance not agency) with only one addition (cinephilia, but that doesn't hold up well in a novel)
David Zimmer loses his wife
and sons in a plane crash and
his life begins to spin out
of control. Then one night
he watches a silent screen
comedian and, for the first time
in months, he laughs. His life
becomes his search for information
about the work of this comedian,
an obscure and mysterious man,
Hector Mann.
The Book of Illusions spins and
whirls, spiraling at times into
its own shadows. Recommended.
O livro do qual eu pra variar me lembrava mto pouco eh bom, com algumas partes incríveis: a do inner life of martin frost pra mim foi uma. É um testemunho da boa escrita que ele narra tantas cenas de filme mudo e não se torna horrivelmente entediante, mas não achei maravilhoso. Senti falta de saber mais sobre algumas coisas e menos sobre outras, acho.