Leviathan, by Paul Auster

If you don't know Auster, maybe you're thinking of a medieval story with sea monsters, ships and sailors. You'll be absolutely wrong. In Auster's novel we don't find anything about monsters, seas or similar things.

On the other hand there is a novel, which has the same title and written by Hobbes. This Leviathan could have some link with Auster's Leviathan. Auster, through his caracters, criticises the State, a State which Hobbes conceived and described in his work in the 17th Century.

The story starts when a man blows himself up by the side of the road in Wisconsin. In fact that man is Benjamin Sachs and his story is told by Paul Aaron, the main character, a writer who knows Sachs, a writer as well, and tries to explain who Sachs was.

The book is interesting and easy to understand. Maybe the main trait is that Paul Aaron seems to be an alter ego of Auster. The story is told in a biographical way. The characters are a bit complex, on the other hand the plot is easy. The novel starts as a detective story and goes down just in the middle but at the end it is so effervescent and pleasing.

Aurelio. Advanced Level. Year 2