"Little by little, by force of the attention [Bowen] brings to Sylvia Maxwell's words, he begins to see a connection between himself and the story in the novel, as if in some oblique, highly metaphorical way, the book were speaking intimately to him about his own present circumstances." But with all of this fraternizing going on between author and characters and characters and other characters, the line starts to blur about who it is that is actually doing the talking? Trause, whom Sidney consults throughout the novel offers this advice: "Everything human is real, and sometimes we know things before they happen even if we aren't aware of it. We live in the present, but the future is inside us at every moment. Maybe that's what writing is all about, Sid. Not recording events from the past, but making things happen in the future." While this is true-in parts-the relationship Sid has with his writing seems more malleable. While he may have predicted the future (in his wife) he has also played out the past by rehashing an already created character in Flitcraft/Bowen, and placing characters familiar to people he knows in his life within the story.
Auster's Oracle Night is one of those books that makes you question the whole process of writing. Does Sidney's reality reflect Bowen, or vice-versa? It's a difficult question to answer given that the book is layered three deep in fictional characters (Orr-Bowen-Flitcraft), but certainly an intriguing one and Auster masterfully hints at his answer throughout the novel. Even when Bowen has left the scene and the novel focuses on the events unfolding in Sid's real life, we still can't help wondering, "What does this have to do with Bowen?" and consequently, "What does Bowen have to do with this?" The answers are never made explicit, but the fact that Auster gets the reader thinking about the question is important enough.
