Moon Palace
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Moon Palace is a novel written by Paul Auster. It was first published in 1989.
The plot is set in Manhattan and the U.S. Midwest, and is centered around the life of the narrator Marco Stanley Fogg and two previous generations of his family.
Fogg is an orphan, with his Uncle Victor as his only caretaker. The story begins when Fogg goes to college, living in his own apartment furnished with over a thousand books which Uncle Victor gave to him. Uncle Victor, however, dies before Fogg quits college and leaves him without friends or family. Fogg turns introvert and spends his time reading, concluding "Why should I get a job? I have enough to do living through the days." However, he does find a job: taking care of Thomas Effing, who, he learns much later, is his grandfather. He also meets Kitty Wu and begins a furious romance.
Fogg learns about the complicated history of his parents, and Effings's previous identity as the painter Julian Barber. When Effing dies, leaving money to Fogg, Fogg breaks from Kitty Wu and travels across the U.S. to search for himself. On a lonely California beach, the book ends. "This is where I start, I said to myself, this is where my life begins."
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Summary
From Uncle Victor to Columbia University
Marco Stanley Fogg, aka M.S., is the son of Emily Fogg. He doesn't know his father. His mother dies by a car accident when he is eleven years old. He moves to his uncle Victor's, by whom he is raised during the next years. Later, Marco goes to a boarding school in Chicago. When he reaches college age, he goes to Columbia University in New York City. After spending his freshman's year at the college dormitory, he rents an apartment in New York.
Uncle Victor dies, which makes Marco lose track. After paying the funeral and the costs that go along, Marco realizes that little of the money that Uncle Victor gave him is left. He decides to let himself decay, to get out of touch with the world. He makes no effort to earn money. His electricity is cut off, he is losing weight, and finally he is told that he must leave his apartment. The day before he is thrown out, Marco decides to ask Zimmer for help, an old college friend whom he has lost contact with. In the meantime Zimmer has moved to another apartment, so when Marco arrives at Zimmer's old apartment, he is invited by some strangers to join their party. At that party he meets Kitty Wu for the first time, who seems to fall in love with him. The next day, Marco has to leave his flat, and finds himself on the streets of Manhattan.
Central Park
Central Park becomes Marco's new home. He finds shelter from the conformity pressure of the Manhattan streets. He finds food in the garbage cans, since the visitors leave a lot of food there. Marco even manages to stay in touch with what's going on in the world by reading newspapers left by visitors. Although life in Central Park is not very comfortable, he feels at ease: he's enjoying his solitude and he finds a balance between the inner and the outer self.
At first, the weather is very good, so that where to stay is not a big problem. But after a few weeks the weather changes. In a strong rain shower, Marco gets ill, and retires to a cave in Central Park. After some days of his delirium, he crawls out of the cave and has wild hallucinations while lying outside. There, he is finally found by Zimmer and Kitty Wu, who have been looking for him all the time. Due to fever he has illusions of indians and calls Kitty Pocahontas.
At Zimmer's
Zimmer is a good friend of Marco and he's the one to find Marco in the park, after Marco had become ill and sick. Zimmer hosts Marco in his apartment, where Marco recovers slowly. One day, Marco has to go to the army physical, where he is rated unfit because of his poor physical and mental state. Marco feels very bad about living on Zimmer's costs, so he finally persuades him to let him do a French translation for him to earn some money. He then meets Kitty again.
At Effing's
After he's finished his work on the translation, Marco's searching for another job offer. He finds a job at Effing's, where he is hired for reading books to Effing and driving the old, blind and lamed man through the city of New York in his wheelchair. Effing is a really strange man and tries to teach Marco in his own way. Marco has to describe Effing all the things he can see while driving around. This way, Marco learns to look at the things around him very precisely.
Effing's Story
With Kitty Wu
Solomon Barber
At first Marco doesn't know, but after some time he realises that Barber actually is his father, whom he never got to know.
Moving West
Characters
Marco Stanley Fogg / M.S.
The name:
"Marco" refers to Marco Polo, the explorer who discovered China (Later M.S. "discovers" Chinatown through Kitty Wu)
"Stanley" refers to the reporter Mr. Stanley, who found Dr. Livingstone in the heart of darkest Africa.
"Fogg" originally comes from Fogelmann, which was changed to Fog by the immigration departement. The second "g" was added later. Marco says about his last name: "A bird flying through the fog, a giant bird flying across the ocean, not stopping until it reached America" (this resembles the American Dream)
"M.S." Uncle Victor tells Marco "M.S." stands for manuscript, a book that is not yet finished. (everybody is writing his own life, his own story)
Thomas Effing / Julian Barber
Solomon Barber
Kitty Wu
Uncle Victor
Symbols and Motifs
The quest for identity
Both Marco and Solomon are raised without having a father as a male role model. This has a major impact on them:
Marco completely loses orientation when Uncle Victor dies. He is very upset about the gap of not knowing his father and is occupied in finding his roots all along the following time. Shortly after finding his father, he loses him again.
Solomon writes a book that deals with the topic of a fatherless life.
The moon
In this interview, published in The Red Notebook, Paul Auster looks at the meanings of the moon on Moon Palace.
The moon is many things all at once, a touchstone. It’s the moon as myth, as ‘radiant Diana, image of all that is dark within us’; the imagination, love, madness. At the same time, it’s the moon as object, as celestial body, as lifeless stone hovering in the sky. But it’s also the longing for what is not, the unattainable, the human desire for transcendence. And yet it’s history as well, particularly American history. First, there’s Columbus, then there was the discovery of the west, then finally there is outer space: the moon as the last frontier. But Columbus had no idea that he’d discovered America. He thought he had sailed to India, to China. In some sense Moon Palace is the embodiment of that misconception, an attempt to think of America as China. But the moon is also repetition, the cyclical nature of human experience. There are three stories in the book, and each one is finally the same. Each generation repeats the mistakes of the previous generation. So it’s also a critique of the notion of progress.
(Interview with Larry McCaffery and Sinda Gregory, The Red Notebook, Faber & Faber, Boston, 1995)
Chance and coincidence
Food and hunger
The American myth
Postmodernism
Autobiographical details
The American author and director Paul Auster was the descendant of an Austrian Jewish family. He was born on the 3rd of February 1947 in Newark, New Jersey which is only 20 miles southwest of New York. There he also attended high school. In his childhood Paul Auster’s father, Samuel Auster was often absent. Samuel Auster was a businessman and left the house in the morning before Paul was awake and returned home when he was already in bed. Paul Auster always searched for someone to replace his father. Unlike his father his mother gave Paul very much attention. Due to that constellation Paul did not enjoy good health in his childhood. After high school graduation in 1966 Paul Auster travelled to Europe. He ran out of money and when he arrived home he had lost 20 pounds. Later Paul Auster studied English language and literature at Columbia University in New York and graduated in 1970. After graduation he sailed on an oil tanker. In 1971 he went to France and stayed there for 4 years - most of the time in Paris. After his return in 1974 he kept his head above water by teaching at Columbia University and working as a French translator and publisher of French literature in American publishing houses. The first promising signals came in 1985 from the United States but for German publishing houses Paul Auster remained too much of a risk. Finally in 1987 “City of Glass” was his first novel to be published in Germany, unfortunately hardly anybody wanted to buy the book. Eleven years and ten books later Paul Auster became an international celebrity and today his books are translated in 24 languages. The critics praise him for his easy dealing with difficult subjects and the suspense in his books. And since Wayne Wang spotted him as a scriptwriter Paul Auster has a non-reading fan club. Today Paul Auster lives in Brooklyn, New York, in 1980 he moved there from Manhattan due to the high expenses in Manhattan. Till today he still lives there because of the atmosphere, he says: “The life in Brooklyn is calmer and in a certain way more cosmopolitan, a district which doesn’t take itself important”. The two films “Smoke” and “Blue in the Face” (script by Paul Auster) by Wayne Wang are homage to Brooklyn. In 1982 Paul Auster married the United States author Siri Hustvedt, they have a 17-year-old daughter and Paul Auster has a son from his first marriage, who is 27 years old. In some of her Books Siri Hustvedt has elements similar to Austers books, for example: Every night a woman observes a man. Furthermore you can notice several parallels between Paul Auster’s live and Marco’s live in Paul Auster’s novel Moon Palace: • Paul Auster and Marco Fogg, they both were born in 1947. • Marco’s and Paul’s father were absent during the childhood of their sons • Once Paul’s uncle travelled to Europe; he stored several boxes of books at the Austers’ home. Paul Auster read one book after the other. That goes with Marco, who read the books of Uncle Victor. • They both studied at Columbia University, New York. • Paul and Marco ran out of money and lost a lot of weight due to that. • Effing and Paul went to France (Paris)