A Case of Human Folly — Two Novels
We dived headfirst into the dreamy Autumn, and with the pandemic threatening our mental tranquility every day, our appetite for small pleasures need tending to. As the season is working its magic on our mood, the interest in fall reading lists is on the rise now more than ever. For me, it has always been a melancholic fiction novel that goes well with the rainy dusk time and the unpredictable October weather. Melancholy may not be the word to rightfully describe The Brooklyn Follies, but as far as fiction novels go, it does more than just adorn the day.
Reading through the psychological fiction, you find yourself walking beside the characters on the streets of Brooklyn and accompanying them in their twisted encounters with themselves and with each other. It was the strong association and inclusion of Brooklyn in the narration that reminded me so much of Dubliners. As Joyce breathed life into Dublin through the genuine sequences of everyday lives of its inhabitants, Auster depicts Brooklyn as more than a neighborhood. It is a place that unifies the similar states in which the characters find themselves: lives led by confusion, misfortune, and the chaos of the unpredictable.
The two novels are worlds apart in terms of the literary eras they belong to, not to mention the difference in genre and style. Yet, at the very heart of both stands the human- a fragile, unstable, restless human figure with its deepest, darkest, most inherent desires and infirmities waiting to be disclosed. The novels present a close examination of individuals who are, in some way, victimized by their fate that is very much self-constructed by unfortunate occasions of poor judgment and unbridled urges.
As a collection of short stories, Dubliners offers a sedating experience of melancholy for a moody autumn day. Joyce delivers the insecurities and humane follies of ordinary Irish people with such a bold and striking style that it becomes unlikely to find one’s self wrapped up in their despair. As you journey through the seemingly insignificant incidents taking place in the lives of strangers, the gloomy air of Dublin sinks into your bones. It is as if the city becomes a stage for their grim lives and helpless minds. In a state of humane intricacy, these casually selected and utterly unconnected people are unified in the city of Dublin.
The Brooklyn Follies, in the full sense of the phrase, is centered around an account of follies occurring in the narrow streets of Brooklyn; a simple neighborhood, but in Auster’s eyes it becomes an entire world on its own. These characters represent the same humans as the ones who inhabited the world in Joyce’s time, with the same guilty pleasures that tangled their lives; but only slightly less grim and more ludicrous. No; The Brooklyn Follies is nowhere near melancholic. But its up-front and cynical narration of human frailty makes it even more dramatic and impactful.
If you are looking for some heartfelt human drama for your reading hours, Dubliners and The Brooklyn Follies will keep you in good company.
