I’m currently re-reading The Music of Chance by Paul Auster and enjoying it tremendously even though I know exactly how it plays out (and boy is there a twist 2/3 through). As I explained to Sam today, reading Auster is like walking down a straight road which looks ordinary but all the details start taking your mind all over the surrounding countryside. The Music of Chance is probably my favourite Auster novel. It’s not as majestic as The New York Trilogy but there’s something about it that appeals, probably the opening 50 pages with a man finding himself free to do anything at all so he just drives aimlessly around America not looking for something but welcoming whatever comes his way. Another reason I like it so much is that it’s represents the first time I came across Auster, not with this book but with the film version which I’d rented on a whim back in 1994 and loved. Reading it again now I had the desire to see the film again to see if it holds up (I suspect it does) and what it adds, if anyting (Auster was involved in the production). And I thought it would make a good 30th birthday present for Sam as it’s her kind of film. But it’s not available. So much for the Long Tail.
Smoke, however, is being re-released in January so there’s hope.
//shock// i thought i was the only person to enjoy that film. Caught it on TV many years ago and I’d missed the first part. I normally hate joining a film late but this time I was just intrigued. Picked up a copy in a sale for £3.99 three years ago. Shame there isn’t a DVD release of it.
You should check out Smoke. My memory is a little hazy but it’s pure Auster on celuloid, with Harvey Keitel in “calm” mode, which is always good. And you should read the Music of Chance book. The film is pretty much identical scene for scene.
Funny thing is I assumed the film would be popular enough to stay available what with it being rather good and coming from one of America’s premier moden novelists, but then this is the film industry we’re talking about…
I love the book, but has never seen the film. I tried to find did around a year ago, and it’s available on VHS in the US. So it might be possible to buy it online from somewhere.
Great news about Smoke.Seen it a few times and always great. Wasn’t there a companion movie using cut scenes or something? Will have to try Music of Chance as like Auster’s other stuff.
Thanks for reminding me of the film. Same as Dan Black I saw it when it was on TV but missed the first part. Didn’t the final scene have Paul Asuter himself offering to give the characters a ride in his car?
And I saw Smoke on VHS in a charity shop the other day for £2. Will go back and get it now. Last time I went in there I got 12 episodes of Ulysses 31 on 6 VHS cassettes. How I love charity shops!
And the Sunday afternoon book show on radio 4 had an interview with Auster about a month ago. A member of the audience asked him “what is the purpose of existence?” If only we knew.
P.S. The recent reprint of the comic version of City of Glass is well worth buying.
Helga – a US VHS won’t play here (NTSC vs PAL) and I’m relictant to buy anything I can’t digitize these days. I’m not that desperate to own a copy!
Dan – you’re thinking of Blue In The Face, made up of improvisations from the cast and famous friends (Lou Reed, for example) in the few days after shooting Smoke before the sets came down. Haven’t seen it myself but would like to.
Other Auster films are Lulu On The Bridge (written and directed, not seen) and The Centre of the World (story, same director as Smoke, not seen either).
Mikal – Yes, that’s Auster at the end. He always kinda appears in his books and films either in person or by giving a character his name, or a name like his name. It’s most intriguing, fiction as semi-autobio or something meta like that.
The Mazzucchelli adaptation of City of Glass is excellent and highly recommeded from this quarter too. It’s only available from Picador US but I’m sure it’s being imported (I saw it in Gosh Comics, London the other week).
The comic of City of Glass is being published by some big name publisher in the UK in a few months if you can’t find it in your local comic shop.
Blue in the Face is excellent, in some (only some) ways better than Smoke. It’s also worth tracking down the short story Smoke was based on.
Hi Paul – long time! Yup, it’s being put out by Faber, as I suspected since they do his novels over here. Great news.
It’s probably fair to say it’s worth tracking down everything Auster has written. I have a friend who decided to do his PHD on everything Auster had written including lit-crit and translations…
Even the cheapest players seem to play both NTSC and PAL these days. You could probably risk getting a video from the US, and if it doesn’t work on your machine you could offload to someone who does. DVDs are the same – Amazon are currently offering a multi-region PAL & NTSC DVD player for 29.99.
(Eee, back int old days, trans-Atlantic tape tradin were a fraught business. Why kids these days, etc, etc.)
Jez
I realise this is very specific to me but I don’t want to own any videos or DVDs at the moment. The few I do buy (actually thinking about it, the one I’ve bought in the last year) I rip to the computer and give to Sam. I could probably rig up a video recorder via a DV camera to the Mac and copy a VHS but to be honest it’s a little too much hassle (and I the quality might be dubious) plus I’d probably have to buy a new VCR (I don’t think Sam’s is NTSC compatible) and there’s enough redundant kit gathering dust in this house as it is.
I’d like to see the film again but for those two hours of joy I’ve got to be realistic!