This book started out as a very clever idea, an attractive, promising premise for a story. A man known only as Mr. Blank wakes up in an austere room with no memory of how he got there. Good premise, no? The writing lives up to the storyline. It is wonderful, minimalist, yet somehow very descriptive. The situation and mental tortures are almost Orwellian. The events and characters introduced were very intriguing. As you neared the end of the book you were starving to see how the author would tie all these mysterious events and people together.

Unfortunately, the ending made me so angry that I have ended up despising this book. Paul Auster is no Jonathan Fowles. Jumping into the story in the manner that he did shattered the entire point of reading his book. Well, if they are all just characters helping you live in infamy (which in and of itself is vain) then what the hell do I want to read your book for? No one cares if you live in infamy. You are not being deep by pointing this out when you have strung your reader along hoping for an ending to the story. It was even torture for Mr. Blank in the book when he could not find out the end to the story! You would think the author would realize what he is doing to his readers. If he does, then he is obviously having fun with the market. Frankly, I can’t believe the book was published with such a half-assed “deep” ending.

Later I discovered that the characters in this book are references to characters in his other books. This is wonderful and all, but the synopsis could have included this for the benefit of readers who haven’t read his past works. I don’t think I will be purchasing another one of Paul Auster’s book ever. Travels to the Scriptorium is a waste of time and effort if you have not read any of his other works. I also have a sneaking suspicion that even previous readers of Auster will find this particular novel stark, uninteresting, and an upfront waste of time.

I’m not going to pretend that I understood what Auster is trying to tell us through this book. In fact, to be really honest, I am totally clueless as to what this book is about. I had picked up this book thinking it was some sort of suspense novel that will eventually tie up all scattered clues into one satisfying knot (obviously, I’ve not read Auster before). Of course, this was not the case. There’s no denouement to speak of. All the readers are left with are a bunch of clues, and an open ending.

My immediate reaction, upon completing this, was to reread certain parts of the book, in the hope of finding some crucial bits I’ve missed. Of course, I found none. Hence, as of now, I’m still pretty clueless about what’s going on.

It was at Amazon.com that I found out why this book totally lost me. It turned out that many of the characters in this book are actually characters from his OTHER books. So this book works like some kind of inside-joke for his fans, while non-insiders like me are, like how one reviewer put it, left out in the cold.

This book should have come with a warning at the very least.

But that aside, I’ll have to say that the premise is rather interesting. Auster writes brilliantly, so I guess what I’m going to do is to pick up his earlier works, and revisit this novella after I’ve acquainted myself with all the characters that have made an appearance here. Only then will I decide whether or not I like this little novel.

This was an interesting and somewhat odd little book. I was prepared to be late to work if need be so I could finish it. I haven’t read anything quite like it before and enjoyed it.