Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Multi Layered Plot
The novel Oracle Night contains a multi layered plot in which more than one story is being told in tandem with each other. Although i am usually a fan of this kind of story telling, in this case i found it to be confusing and unamusing. I found that i was unable to engage in either story as much as i would have liked. I found Sid and Gracie's story to be the more intresting of the two stories due to the mystery over the baby and the narration by Sid as well as the mystery over the Chen which i thought was not fully developed. I was unable to grew intrested in Nick Bowen's story especially after realising that due to the dual plot i was reading a book about a guy writing a book about a guy reading a book. All this made it difficult to realise where the phrase Oracle Night fits into all this with it being a title of a book in something written by Sid as well as the title of this very book, are they supposed to be the same book or something?
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I can understand why you didn't enjoy the book much, but personally, i did. Although it was a bit challenging at first, i was able to eventually engage in the plot(s) (and thats after i wrote all the charachters down to sort things out.. hehe) anyway, i like wat u pointed out at the end "are they supposed to be the same book or something?" Maybe Auster intended on creating this confusion as to what is real and what is fiction. I think the title contributes to the theme (or at least i think it is) about the very thin line separating a writer and his/her work (which is shown several times throughout the novel, when Sidney getes so captivated in his writing that he loses track of reality)
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