Customer Reviews
Horror tale with a twist - By: reader 451, 29 May 2008 
Some of the reviewers here describe In the Country of Last Things as a realistic work. I disagree. This book is an alllegory & aims at nothing else. But such is the force of Auster's writing that the reader is prepared to suspend disbelief.
It is a unique characteristic of the industrial world that none of us has a complete vision of how it works, & it is easy to imagine that what we don't understand, let alone control, could suddenly cease to function; Auster plays on this basic fear to weave a morbid, often horrific tale.
The heroine, in search of her brother, finds herself trapped in a city that we recognise as having once been 20th century American, but has now become a crucible of destitution, savagery, & violent struggle for survival. This grim novella describes a society which has ceased creating or even producing, & is thus reduced to consuming what is left... until that runs out. It holds a mirror to our own compulsory consumption, waste & greed, & it forces us to consider the actual value of modern material comfort. It also lets Auster exploit on a grander scale his pet themes of decay & degradation, of homelessness & its impact on identity.
Post-modern decay apparently isn't pretty. It is a place of book burners & ghouls, of cannibals & suicidal fanatics, of pathetic attachment to the most miserable objects, & of general disregard for human life & dignity, even if hope & love aren't entirely missing. But it makes for a fascinating read, one that it is difficult to complete in anything but a single, mesmerising sitting.
A BOOK FOR ONE NIGHT - By: Joan Marmag, 17 Jan 2007 
From the very first sentence of the book I could not stop reading. I finished the book that very night, staying awake until 04.00. The surreal world drags you in & doesn't let go. My favourite book by Auster.
nostalgia - By: Mr. W. Deneve, 05 Jun 2006 I read this book about 15 years ago & still have the haunting image of Auster's 'runners' playing in my mind. As a dystopian, spoilt future this is precise & believable. Close to the end of the Book of Illusions I am ready to re-read the country of last things. If you enjoy this try Margaret Atwood's Oryx & Crake for a double bill of near future pleasure!
A harrowing account - By: Philippe Horak, 19 Dec 2003 Paul Auster’s novel offers a haunting picture of a devastated society with alll its miseries & struggles for survival. It is highly reminiscent of George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four” & although Paul Auster’s novel is also set in the future, it is a chilling reflection of contemporary social reality. It is a short, sustained masterpiece, truly unforgettable.
A sad and beautiful story about love in a lost world - By: Milena T. Zlatarova, 25 Nov 2003 This is a finely written, heart-breaking account of a woman`s survival in a disappearing, ghostly world. It is also a story about survival of love & humanity.
This is the first novel of Paul Auster I`m reading, & I would definitely search for other titles of him, as well. He manages to create out of words such a vivid image of the world fallling apart,that sometimes I shrugged with fear,feeling as if I was almost touching the solitudine of Anne Blume, the miserable life of the citizens, the slow fading of human morality.The best thing about the novel is that in such a dark, tragic narrative, love seems to prevail in a certain, very subtle but very powerful way. These can be told also as four stories about love: first, the love for her brother for whom Anne Blume is looking; then love for Ysabel- the woman she saved on the street; Sam Ferr- the journalist who dreams about the book of his life, & Victoria- the runner of Woburn House- a temporary shelter for sick & poor souls.Each of them is a defender of humanity in his own way,a living proof that even in the most unhuman conditions love & hope for a better life can survive.
