4321 (Volume 1)

Paul Auster / 李鹏程Jiuzhou Press · ChinaOct 2020

4.3

Word count: 294K words
Chapters: 16

Summary

On March 3, 1947, in a maternity ward in Newark, New Jersey, Ruth and Stanley's only child, Archie Isaac Ferguson, was born. From that moment, Ferguson's life unfolds along four independent, parallel paths. The four boys are one boy, shaped by the same DNA, yet each follows a different trajectory through four separate lives. The four Fergusons grow up in different towns, with different intellectual passions, love lives, and social circles; they mirror one another like shadows, illuminate one another, and arrive at different fates. Against the backdrop of a rapidly changing American society, the Fergusons race along their own youthful paths, enduring pain, loss, and transformation... A panoramic work of social realism, a singular epic coming-of-age novel, an all-encompassing story of tradition, family, love, and modern life, of the gifts of the self and the possibilities of a life. "Paul Auster is one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary literature." 4 3 2 1 is a brilliant, deeply moving masterpiece.

Editor's review

This is the first volume of 4 3 2 1, which builds the basic framework of the whole work: a boy is born, and his life then branches into four parallel paths. The focus of this volume is to lay out the four Fergusons' environments, family backgrounds, and early differences in personality; with dense textures of daily life and an unhurried narrative pace, Auster lets the same gifts emerge in different soil. Readers gradually grow familiar with the logic of switching among the four lines and discern subtle variations in seemingly repetitive daily life. Reading this volume is like patient sowing: plot tension has not yet fully unfolded, but the groundwork for character and era is extremely solid. It suits readers willing to invest time and enjoy slow-burning long novels, and it accumulates the necessary emotional and informational foundation for the fateful turns of the second volume. Read with an awareness of "comparison," noting how Auster plants echoes in the details.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers preparing to read all of 4 3 2 1 who want to start from the beginning
Literary readers who enjoy slow-burning coming-of-age novels and dense depictions of daily life
Book lovers interested in parallel lives and the themes of chance and fate
Deep readers willing to be patient with buildup and enjoy the construction of a long novel's structure

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting strong conflict and fast pacing from the very start
Readers unaccustomed to multi-strand narratives who easily confuse character threads
Readers who want only a single volume and do not plan to continue with the second

Reading tips

Before starting, learn the basic setup of the four parallel lines and read with an awareness of comparison.
After each stage or section of a line, briefly note that Ferguson's key circumstances.
Don't rush to decide which line is "more real"; first feel the differences and echoes.
Leave some time after finishing before reading the second volume, letting the character threads settle.

About the publisher

Jiuzhou Press China · Founded in 1993

Jiuzhou Press is a comprehensive publisher with humanities, social sciences, and classic works as important publishing directions, maintaining a sustained focus on philosophy, history, literature, and social culture. Its catalogue includes works by modern literary masters such as Xiao Hong and Lu Xun, as well as intellectual and art history works by Xu Fuguan, including A History of Chinese Theories of Human Nature: Pre-Qin Volume, A History of Han Thought, and The Spirit of Chinese Art: A Study of Shitao. It also translates and introduces overseas academic works such as Peter H. Wilson's The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy and Peter Suber's The Case of the Speluncean Explorers, and covers cross-cultural exchange themes such as From Dunhuang to Samarkand. Its publishing character lies in balancing the organization of original texts with academic translation, forming relatively stable author and title resources in categories including philosophy, military affairs, theory, and social culture. More complete information about the press's publishing history and plans is limited in publicly available sources; this summary is based only on the titles in the catalogue.

版权信息
1.0
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
4.1
4.2

FAQ

Will the four lines in the first volume make reading confusing?

It is somewhat challenging, but Auster provides recognizable circumstances and relationships in each line as anchors. As long as you note each Ferguson's town, family situation, and interests, you can gradually tell them apart. Brief notes help a great deal.

Why does the first volume feel relatively slow?

This volume is tasked with building the framework and laying out the environments of growth, focusing on letting the same gifts emerge in different soil, so daily details are dense and plot tension comes relatively later. This slow burn accumulates information and emotional foundation for the fateful turns of the second volume.

Can I read only the first volume and skip the second?

You can read it, but it will lack full resolution. The first volume mainly opens up the four parallel lives, and many threads have not yet reached their endings; the structural beauty of the whole work can only be fully appreciated in the second volume. If time allows, read both volumes together.

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About the author

Paul Auster Author · American · 1947–2024

Paul Auster (1947–2024) was an American novelist, poet, translator, screenwriter and film director, born in Newark, New Jersey, and a graduate of Columbia University. He is best known for The New York Trilogy, and his other major works include The Invention of Solitude, The Book of Illusions, 4321 and Winter Journal; his books have been translated into more than forty languages. His writing often blends detective fiction with metafictional devices, moving among themes of mistaken identity, chance and necessity, memory and solitude, with nested narratives and a spare, reflective prose that resists easy classification. Our catalogue holds twelve of his works, spanning foreign literature, mystery and science fiction. He died in Brooklyn on April 30, 2024, from complications of lung cancer.

李鹏程 Author

Li Pengcheng is an author about whom little public information is available; what can be confirmed comes mainly from six books he has translated or contributed to. Judging from the works in the database, his work centers on two areas: foreign literature and world history. In literature he has been involved in Chinese translations of English-language novels such as Of Mice and Men and 4321, while in history his translations include works on Britain, slavery, and the American Revolution, as well as a book on Poland. These are mostly long narrative texts that combine literary qualities with historical depth, requiring the translator to grasp character, period, and institutional context beyond mere language transfer. Because no reliable records of his birth and death dates, nationality, or education are available, his overall style cannot be fully assessed; based on existing translations, one can only say that his choices tend toward classics and serious nonfiction, with translations that seek to convey the structure of the originals faithfully.