Paul Auster

Sunset Park

Colton Ray

A very quiet, introspective novel about loss in all its many forms. Several young characters find themselves in a liminal state, squatting in an abandoned Brooklyn apartment after the 2008 housing crisis as they work out their own issues with varying amounts of success. Sunset Park, unfortunately, ends right when things were beginning to happen. Another hundred pages or so would have given us time to wrap up the interesting arcs Auster set up for the cast of characters, but he chose to end the novel in medias res, which felt unsatisfying. 

These were interesting characters and an interesting setting, but the narrative rarely rises beyond the inner monologues of their own fears and delusions. There was also way too much shoehorned-in commentary about baseball and the 1946 film The Best Years of Our Lives, which felt very "middle-aged, upper-class white man" for lack of a better term. 

Despite these flaws, the writing was flowing and gorgeously done without being showy, and I love reading about young twentysomethings dealing with trauma and learning who they are (because I'm a narcissist who loves reading about myself). If you're in the mood for something pensive and melancholy, I'd give this one a read.

Sunset Park

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