On March 3, 1947, in the maternity ward of Beth Israel Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, Archibald Isaac Ferguson, the one and only child of Rose and Stanley Ferguson, is born. From that single beginning, Ferguson's life will take four simultaneous and independent fictional paths. Four Fergusons made of the same genetic material, four boys who are the same boy, will go on to lead four parallel and entirely different lives. Family fortunes diverge. Loves and friendships and intellectual passions contrast. Chapter by chapter, the rotating narratives evolve into an elaborate dance of inner worlds enfolded within the outer forces of history as, one by one, the intimate plot of each Ferguson's story rushes on across the tumultuous and fractured terrain of mid twentieth-century America. A boy grows up-again and again and again.

Not all of us connected with the book, and a few of us couldn't find a reason early on to stick with the novel, but the majority of us thought the book was utterly amazing. Much of the conversation tried to tease out the intent behind the elaborate structure -- why did Ferguson 4 write these three other stories? We made a lot out of the commonalities (that Rose always pursues her dreams in the invented stories in a way she didn't in the 'real' one, the way that Amy is essentially the same in all cases) as well as the pointed differences (how diverse the versions of Stanley were) to see the book as a wistful and self-aware wish fulfillment, allowing Ferguson 4 to imagine how his family might have existed without the alienating money and eventual divorce. On that front, Sarah offered a fascinating take that the book could be in part a criticism of the arrogant wealth of Rockefeller and people of that ilk, especially since Rockefeller features prominently in the joke that generated the name of the character. All of us agreed that the Ferguson who attended Columbia was the most compelling story, and the tragedy of his disintegrating relationship with Amy against the backdrop of the campus protests was a tour de force of historical fiction. But we kept rediscovering beautiful passages throughout: the all-too-true literary magazine world Ferguson 4 runs in, the courtship of Rose and Stanley in the prelude, the last moments of in the storm. We admit it took a little work to remember all the re-used characters in their proper storylines, and there were disagreements about interpretation in places. Was Ferguson 4 expressing a homoerotic feeling towards his dead friend by creating the bisexual Ferguson? Was bisexual Ferguson's introduction to sex with men kind or creepy? Was Ferguson 4 trying to heal his relationship with his dead father, and if not, why paint Stanley so sympathetically in the prelude? Nonetheless, we raved and raved about the brilliance and sheer magnitude of this work, and many of us ended the evening considering of which our four favorite NUBClub books we would kick off the list to make room for 4321. Bravo, Mr. Auster, bravo.