In the Country of Last Things - Paul Auster

I reached the last few pages of this book on the subway this morning and, very reluctantly, put it back in my bag and headed to work. But I couldn't stand it so I surreptitiously read the last few pages at my desk, and I'm writing this only seconds away from finishing it.

I loved this book. It is one of the best post-apocalyptic stories I've ever read -- vivid, eventful, character-driven, terrifying but with enough moments of humanity and hope to keep you invested.

This is the story of Anna Blume, a woman who has come to a ruined city in search of her brother, William. The city itself is a mystery -- I've read reviews that suggest it is New York, but I really didn't feel that it mattered. I like it much better as a city without a name, a city that could be anywhere. The city has collapsed, and probably the entire nation has also collapsed. Corrupt, inefficient regimes come and go in the city, but most of the population lives in a kind of starved, desperate stupor, scavenging for food and any objects they can sell to buy food. There are suicide cults of various kinds, centers where you can pay to be euthanized, and it is against the law to bury the dead, since they have to be burned for fuel.

Anna has an almost picaresque journey through the city -- we see the various micro-worlds through her misadventures of survival. She starts as a scavenger, looking for objects she can sell to keep herself alive, and falls in with an elderly woman who also scavenges, but who has the good fortune of an apartment so Anna doesn't have to sleep outside. She eventually is turned out of this apartment, and finds herself living amongst the remaining intelligentsia, who are inhabiting various rooms of the National Library.

Here she falls in with Sam, a journalist (and a colleague of her missing brother) who is writing a book that documents the decline and fall of the city. The two become lovers, and this is one of the most interesting sections of the book. Auster combines extreme desperation with moments of clarity in dizzying episodes and the physical details of Anna's life, in particular, make this story so incredibly evocative. In a way, it reminds me a little bit of "Oliver Twist" -- the lost child, falling in with wiser and more complicated characters. Anna starts out that way, but she isn't the foil that Oliver was for Dickens -- she's a more well-rounded, complete character.

I also compared this book to Jim Crace's recent book "The Pesthouse", except I felt Auster's book was far better. Crace seemed to shrink from examining the really interesting developments of a post-cataclysmic landscape, as if this struck him as too "science-fictiony" and a little silly. (And it definitely can be, in the hands of the wrong writer.) He had a few really wonderful moments in that book that he didn't exploit nearly as well as he could have. In contrast, Auster seems to luxuriate in those features, and devotes almost a little too much time to them in the opening of the book.

In fact, my one criticism with this book is that he takes a little too long to get into his plot, and spends a little too much time establishing the landcscape. Readers are savvy enough these days to accept an apocalyptic city and recognize it immediately -- they don't need as much establishment as Auster gives them.

According to IMDB, this book might be made into a movie, filmed in Argentina, with Eva Green as the main character. My little "prediction" for 2008 is that we're going to see a lot of these post-apocalyptic stories adapted for film - they might not make it all the way to the screen, but there will be deals and there will be rumors. Hollywood probably sat up and took notice when McCarthy won the Pulitzer for "The Road", and I'm sure someone will think to adapt Crace's book as well. (In fairness, it might make a really good movie.)