In "Oracle Night" Auster tempts the reader with many intriguing subplots, only to leave each of them at a dead end, never developing them to completion. Overall, it felt like a waste of time- it was the portrayal of a marriage full of deceit and adultery, which Auster tries to pawn off as acceptable since the protaganist, Sydney Orr, writes about it first in his mysterious blue notebook. While the reader wants to sympathise with the protaganist, it's simply impossible. By the end of the story feelings towards Orr border on disgust, and his theory that the words we write dictate our futures leaves a foul aftertaste.What could have been an intruiging tale wound up a confusion of underdeveloped subplots- and not worth the time it takes to pull the true story from the muddle.