Man in the Dark by Paul Auster
August Brill is a widower whose leg has been smashed by a car. He lies awake at night in the house he shares with his daughter, Miriam, and his granddaughter, Katya, in Vermont. Katya’s boyfriend, Titus, has been murdered, and Miriam ‘has slept alone for the past five years’. It is an unhappy, sleepless household, and Brill tells himself a story to manage the darkness until morning, when he will resume watching old movies with Katya.
The story is about a man called Brick, who goes to bed with his wife in New York ‘and when I wake up I’m lying in a hole in the middle of goddamned nowhere’. He is in military uniform. Another soldier helps him out, but even so it is very hard for him to work out what is happening.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in