On the Side: Commemorating Paul Auster (1947-2024)
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- čas přidán 5. 07. 2024
- I am a huge fan of Paul Auster. So I was shocked to hear he had passed away. In this video I try to commemorate this great American writer in my own way.
After editing I discovered that the sound falters from 1:19 until
around 7:20. I have been unable to repair this. Below you
find my script of that part of the video.
Most of these I have read too long ago to say anything noteworthy about it. So I will only elaborate on the titles I wrote a review about in random order.
• The New York Trilogy - 2002
• Mr. Vertigo - 2003
• The Brooklyn Follies - 2007
I mentioned this book in my New York Book Tag video.
• Timbuktu - 2003
• Augi Wren’s Christmas Story - 2010
• Invisible - 2010
This novel, which I read in July of 2010, is less surreal than the average Auster, and it has more symbolism. Still it is of the same high caliber as Man in the Dark or Brooklyn Follies, just to name a few.
The story is about a student, Adam Walker, who comes into contact with a certain Rudolf Born. This meeting and one event in particular changes Walker's life drastically. The story again takes typical Auster twists and because each chapter is written from a different perspective, it is highly entertaining.
The ending of the novel came rather abruptly for me and also left me somewhat disappointed. No apotheosis or thunderclap, but a rather unsatisfactory meeting between two characters from the book, which ends in the flight of one of them.
Still, Invisible is a very good book which rightly bears the name of this formidable author.
• Oracle Night - 2004
• The inner life of Martin Frost - 2010
• Sunset Park - 2011
Imagine that you are sixteen years old. While walking along the street with Bobby, the son of your father's second wife, you get into an argument with him. At one moment you push him, he falls on the street and is immediately run over by a car. Try to imagine what that does to your life. This is the gist of Sunset Park. This event largely determines Miles Heller's life. The novel is structured around the various characters who move around Miles Heller.
Five years after this traumatic incident, he overhears his father, Morris, talking to his second wife, Willa, about him. His father says kind things about him, but Willa is less forthcoming:
“There's an anger and a coldness in him that frighten me.”
Miles, who is almost 21 years old, feels as if he is being chopped into pieces.
“They had no idea how much he loved them. For five years he had been walking around with the memory of what he had done to his brother on that road (…) and because he had never told his parents about the shove and how deeply he was tormented by it, they misread the guilt that had spread through his system as a form of sickness. (…) he hated himself for having caused them so much sorrow, so much unnecessary grief.”
He realizes that he no longer dares to face them.
“Perhaps the best thing for all concerned would be to remove himself from their lives, to disappear.”
At the time of the story, Miles and his father have not been in contact for about eight years. All this time he has kept himself alive by doing all kinds of odd jobs, which do not do justice to his good set of brains. He lives in Florida, with his underage girlfriend, Pilar. One of her sisters blackmails him and threatens to report him for having sex with a minor. He has to flee until Pilar turns 18 in a few months, and finds shelter in the squatter house of an old friend of his (Bing) in Sunset Park in good old New York.
I love this tribute to Paul Auster, so thank you! I read quite a few books by him, but I have not read his books for a couple of years (sometimes even a writer you love gets a little bit forgotten on your bookshelves), but I am determined to read more by him soon. I was quite shocked by Paul Austers passing, I did not know he was ill.
I really like your channel, by the way!
Groetjes, Bettina
Thanks Bettina. True what you say about forgetting an author you love. His passing was a shock to me as well.
It’s unfortunate about your audio in this video Ed but you still made it engaging regardless
Thanks, Daniel. I have no idea what happened there...
Interestingly the only Paul Auster book I own and have read is 4321! At the time I found it very compelling and read it very quickly. I would like to return to him. Thank you for the video!
That's funny, isn't it? The only book of his I really disliked is your hook into his works. I do hope you find you way back to his books.