4, 3, 2, 1

Auster, Paul, 4, 3, 2, 1
(2017)

«Ferguson was not yet five years old, but he alredy understood that the world consisted of two realms, the visible and the invisible, and that the things he couldn't see were often more real than the things he could» [pàg. 43].

«What bothered him most about falling out of the tree was that it needn't have happened. Ferguson could accept pain and suffering when he felt they were neccessary, such as throwing up when he was sick or letting Dr. Guston jab a needle into his arm for a shot of penicillin, but unneccessary pain violated the principles of good sense, which made it both stupid and intolerable» [pàg. 64].

«President Kennedy was dead. [...] The man of the future was dead. Unreal city. [...] Two roads diverged in an unreal city, and the future was dead» [pàg. 178]. 

«The last day of Ferguson's life, August 10, 1960, began with a brief rain shower just after dawn» [pàg. 222].

«But here's where it gets interesting. You take the main road, there's a three-car pileup, traffic is stalled for more than an hour, and as you sit there in your car, the only thing on your mind will be the back road and why you didn't go that way instead. You'll curse yourself for making the wrong choice, and yet how do you really know it was the wrong choice? Can you see the back road? Do you know what's happening on the back road? Has anyone told you that an enormous redwood tree has fallen across the back road and crushed a passing car, killing the driver of that car and holding up traffic for three and a half hours? Has anyone looked at his watch and told you that if you had taken the back road it would have been your car that was crushed and you who were killed? Or else: You took the back road, and the tree fell on the driver just in front of you, and as you sit in your car whishing you had taken the main road, you know nothing about the three-car pileup that would have made you miss your appointment anyway. Or else: There was no three-car pileup, and taking the back road was the wrong choice.
»What's the point of all this, Archie?
»I'm saying you'll never know if you made the wrong choice or not» [pàg. 298].