Books: “The Book of Illusions” by Paul Auster

In Paul Auster’s “The Book of Illusions.” the protagonist, Professor David Zimmer, is gobsmacked when his wife and two sons are killed in a plane crash. Distraught, he happens upon a silent movie starring Hector Mann, a minor 1920s comedian who suddenly disappeared at the height of his career. The movie makes him laugh, and inspires Zimmer to write a book about Mann’s films. After it’s published, he suddenly gets a letter out of the blue asserting Mann is alive but is failing fast. Whaaa?

Thus begins a journey of discovery for Zimmer, and for us, as we slowly learn about the life Hector has been living since he’s vanished. Besides assuming various aliases, his post-Hollywood life includes performing sex acts in Chicago for fraternity brothers, being shot point blank in the chest during a bank robbery, and eventually moving to New Mexico and making movies no one will ever see. In the process, Zimmer himself falls in love with an author, a Veronica Lake lookalike who’s also writing a book about Hector Mann and who is bound to carry out the actor’s last wishes—which aren’t pretty.

There are many things that could qualify as illusions in this novel, some of them verging on the far-fetched.  But one thing for real is Auster’s graceful prose and his ability to tell a story. Written 20 years ago, it’s proof positive that authors may get old, but their genius never does.