Man in the dark

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Man in the dark (ger .: Man in the Dark ) is a novel by Paul Auster from the year 2008 .

action

The main character is the 72-year-old ex- literary critic and journalist August Brill. Plagued by insomnia , he lies awake at night. He wonders about the events he would rather forget: the recent death of his wife and the murder of Titus, his granddaughter's ex-boyfriend. In the balance between waking and sleeping, he tries to suppress his worries by imagining a parallel world. There the USA is not at war with Iraq , but rather has the elections in 2000 in a new bloody civil warthat divides the country. In this story in the story, a man wakes up in a deep hole in the ground without knowing how he got there. In fact, he previously worked as a magician and lived in Queens . His wallet, which he still has with him, identifies him as an Owen Brick. At dawn he is freed by a soldier and learns that he is a Corporal Brick soldier in the civil war . He is ordered to shoot a man he does not know, with whose death the civil war that has been raging for years would end immediately. The soldier knows nothing of a war in Iraq, and the twin towers in New York are still in place. In truth, after the fraudulent election in 2000, various states said goodbye to the Union, resulting in a bloody war for power in America. Brick tries to flee from the job, but is repeatedly caught and then learns that the victim of the attack is August Brill who has spun the war in his head. In order to carry out the assignment, Brick has to move into the world of the author. In the end, however, he himself dies in the warfare of the fictional world.

In the real world, however, August Brill opens up to his granddaughter by telling the eventful story of his marriage and the unvarnished confrontation with Titus' death. He overcomes his own fear and the granddaughter's self-doubts by relentlessly telling the real story.

interpretation

The novel Mann im Dunkel is a game of illusions and fictions that often confuses the reader against the gloomy background of political and personal catastrophes , violent entanglements and unpredictable coincidences . At the same time, he takes a position on the current situation in the USA in 2008. In this respect, Man in the Dark can also be read as a parable on a possible future in the past. Paul Auster ultimately proves to be the real illusionist whose “strange world keeps turning”. With this comforting insight, he ends his novel.

expenditure

literature

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