824. The Music of Chance

The Music of Chance
Paul Auster
1990
Around 220 pages

I love novels that have such a strange central concept. You can tell one weird idea came to the author, and then they just ran with it.

Jim Nashe is a fireman with a two-year-old daughter and wife who has just left him. After coming into some family money, he decides to travel across the country in a Saab, and the money runs out fast. He meets a young gambler named Jack Pozzi, and they scheme to fleece a couple of millionaire bachelors, Flowers and Stone. Unfortunately, their scam fails so they have to become indentured servants to the two men, who want them build a wall on their grounds that nobody will ever see. 

Paul Auster is an amazing storyteller and a master at absurdist novels. Flowers and Stone were great villains, and the ending was both surprising and satisfying. You continue to impress me Paul!

RATING: *****

Interesting Facts:

Adapted into a film in 1993 starring James Spader and Mandy Patinkin.

UP NEXT: Stone Junction by Jim Dodge