One of my goals in 2020 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.

I avoided reading this book for a while, as it looks vaguely political (it is) and violent (it really is), but last month I finally read Man in the Dark by Paul Auster.

August Brill can’t sleep. After his wife dies and he gets in a car accident, after he goes to live with his daughter in Vermont, after his granddaughter’s boyfriend is killed and he can’t help her heal, after he can’t finish his memoirs from grief and self loathing, August Brill can’t sleep. So he tells himself stories at night instead.

Theres something I find comforting about Paul Auster’s books, even though many of them have deeply disturbing aspects. I think it’s his plain writing style but also that his books are often set in places that are familiar to me. We both lived in Brooklyn, we both visited the same areas in Vermont. When I read his books, I feel like I know where they are set, like I’ve been there, and that makes them all the more compelling. I struggled to get into this book, and once I did, I struggled to know that there would be a violent event that would be hard to read. But I ended up really enjoying Man in the Dark. This is the most outwardly violent book I’ve ever read of Auster’s, although I would say that City of Glass is strangely violent. I thought it was interesting that this book takes place in two stories, one in real life (although this book is fiction) and one in a frictional story that the main character is creating within the book. I’m not sure I have ever read a book with this devise that reads so smoothly. I would recommend this book for those who feel comfortable with reading about violent acts, those who like stores about people reflecting on thier lives, and those who like alternate history stories. But I would also give a warning that this book has disturbing graphic violence, military violence and should not be read lightly.

Have you ever put off reading a book bc it was political in nature?