"Moon Palace" is a novel that was published in 1989. Paul Auster, its author, has been awarded with Prince of Asturias (2006), National Endowment of the Arts and Morton Dauwen Zabel Award (1990). He is also the author of "The Brooklyn Follies", "Timbuktu", "Mr. Vertigo", "Leviathan", "The Music of Chance, In The Country of Last Things", "City of Glass" and "Ghosts and The Locked Room".
The main character is Marco Stanley Fogg that prefers being called M.S Fogg who lost his mother in chilhood and never knew his father. His mother told him he was product of an affaire with a married man. Hence, he started to live with uncle Victor, ex member of the Cleveland Orchestra. He understood he might not behave like a father, so he decided to have a friendship with his nephew.
Victor had a promising career at the begining but it started to deteriorate joining worse orchestras. In Chicago, he gave personal lessons of clarinet. He married Dora Shamsky, a secretary that did not laugh at Victor's jokes and whose drunkenness made him suffer. After Fogg had been sent to a boarding school in New Hampshire, the relationship deteriorated and Victor showed signs of diminished health.
Howie Dunn and Victor disbanded the Moonlight Moods and started another group: The Moon Men. In fact, they got a contract in Los Angeles. After the graduation of M.S Fogg, they must separate as the young man starts his academic life in Columbia University. Victor has a particular inheritance, around 1400 books that without possibility to not agreeing, he would send his nephew once he was in New York.
When the young man turns 20, ucle Victor writes a letter which explains him that the Moon Men had been hit by hard times. He got a job like door to door encyclopedia salesman in Boise, Idaho. Foog invited him to go to New York but he never did. He died of a heart attack.
M.S Fogg is living alone in an apartment. He is completely distorted. He decides to avoid looking for a job and starts to live of his savings. After he loses his money, he decides to read each book of Uncle Victor before selling it to an book trader expert in getting better prices from his providors.
The situation unavoidably leads him to eat one meal per day and after some months he is unable to pay the rent. He meets by mistake to Kitty Wu before experiencing misery. Once he has not any place to live in, any food to eat, he decides to go to the Central Park. He looks for food in the trash cans and survives sleeping in public spaces.
One day M.S Fogg takes refuge in a cave. He finally is found by his best friend, Zimmer and Kitty Wu. They decide to help him. Zimmer that has a scholarship offers him protection. After understanding Kitty's feeling, Fogg starts a relationship with her and tries to find a job.
He gets a job with Mr Effing a blind, sarcastic and unpredictable old man. He hires Fogg to read books and describe reality. One day, the elder confess his story. He was obssessed with Tesla after watching what he did with energy and he realized he wanted to be an artist when watching into the eyes of the scientific. In an expedition to the West, Effing is abandoned by the guide Scoresby and is witness of the death of a parter called Byrne. He takes refuge in a cave where he finds water and a dead man.
An indian takes him by the hermit and tells him about the Gresham Brothers. A group of bandits that assault people and take a rest in the cave. He realizes they were the killers of the hermit. When they arrive to the hiding place, he kills them and take a good amount of money they brought.
After that, he changes his identity and in California makes a good fortune. A friend of his father recognizes him and suggests some link with the dead of Byrne. An unknown accident paralyzes him. An fact he takes as divine justice. He leaves to France where he meets Pave Shumansky, a Russian man, great reader and his friend he dies and Effing requires a new friend (MS Fogg).
Once, Shumansky finds a text written by Effing's son. That is how he realizes about his existence and it is the main reason because he wants Fogg to write his life experience. His desire is to transmit his life to his son and leave some money after death.
Effing takes a mount of money and asks Fogg to give it to unknown people in different places. It is a way to look for forgiveness for taking money from Gresham brothers. It was stolen from unknoen inocent people.
Effing asks to go to the rain on purpose. He gets sick and plans the date of his death. He dies the day planned and leaves some money to the woman that took care of him and to M. S Fogg.
Fogg is living with Katty Wu in the Chinese Town. He contacts Barber (Effing's son) and they agree to see each other. They gather and Baber asks him if he is son of Emily Fogg. Fogg assented. After a while Barber tells him, he might be his lost father. He slept once with Emily which destroyed her academic life and separated them for ever.
He told Fogg how was his life, how he travelled along USA being teacher in different colleges, some of them of low category. He grew up without his father, thinking he died in a cliff. He wrote stories about moon men that lived in the desert. Indians that became wild animals and sad stories about how a father killed his beloved son because he was under the form of an animal. His mother was crazy and died in a convalescent home. His aunt Clara kept the house under the condition to do it with her only black friend.
Katty Wu told Fogg, she was pregnant and gave him reasons to avoid having the baby. Fogg was not able to understand a reason and when she aborted he left her and went to live with Solomon.
Barber proposed Fogg to search for the Effing's cave. In the road the stopped in the place where Emily and Victor were buried. Solomon cried deeply and Fogg became crazy because he understood the deep love Baber felt and the real possibility of their biological link. He pushed him to a hole and Solomon got ill.
In the hospital, Solomon lost his titanic shape. And when he recovered a natural expression in his face, Fogg realized they were really similar.
Afterwards, Solomon died. Fogg tried to contact Katty but she had someone else in her life. He tried to continue the road to find Effing's cave. He was told it might have been covered by water. Fogg felt anger and watched the gigant moon of that night.
I do not cry with books but this one made me cry. A moon book about moon men. It makes me remember the stories of Murakami. I was born in 90's, it is interesting to how important was the arrival of men to the moon.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario