Paul Auster
Encyclopedia
Paul Benjamin Auster is an American author known for works blending absurdism
, existentialism
, crime fiction
and the search for identity and personal meaning in works such as The New York Trilogy
(1987), Moon Palace
(1989), The Music of Chance
(1990), The Book of Illusions
(2002) and The Brooklyn Follies (2005).
, to Jewish middle class parents of Polish
descent, Samuel and Queenie Auster. He grew up in South Orange, New Jersey
and graduated from Columbia High School
in adjoining Maplewood
. After graduating from Columbia University
in 1970, he moved to Paris
, France
where he earned a living translating French literature. Since returning to the U.S. in 1974, he has published poems, essays, novels of his own as well as translations of French writers such as Stéphane Mallarmé
and Joseph Joubert
.
He and his second wife, writer Siri Hustvedt
, were married in 1981, and they live in Brooklyn
. Together they have one daughter, Sophie Auster
. Previously, Auster was married to the acclaimed writer Lydia Davis
. They had one son together, Daniel Auster.
He is also the Vice-President of PEN American Center
.
Following his acclaimed debut work, a memoir entitled The Invention of Solitude
, Auster gained renown for a series of three loosely connected detective stories published collectively as The New York Trilogy
. These books are not conventional detective stories organized around a mystery and a series of clues. Rather, he uses the detective form to address existential
issues and questions of identity, space, language and literature, creating his own distinctively postmodern
(and critique of postmodernist) form in the process. Comparing the two works, Auster said, "I believe the world is filled with strange events. Reality is a great deal more mysterious than we ever give it credit for. In that sense, the Trilogy
grows directly out of The Invention of Solitude
."
The search for identity and personal meaning has permeated Auster's later publications, many of which concentrate heavily on the role of coincidence and random events (The Music of Chance
) or increasingly, the relationships between men and their peers and environment (The Book of Illusions
, Moon Palace
). Auster's heroes often find themselves obliged to work as part of someone else's inscrutable and larger-than-life schemes. In 1995, Auster wrote and co-directed the films Smoke
(which won him the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay
) and Blue in the Face
. Auster's more recent works, Oracle Night
(2003), The Brooklyn Follies (2005) and the novella Travels in the Scriptorium
have also met critical acclaim.
psychoanalysis
and the American transcendentalism
of the early to middle 19th century, namely amongst others Henry David Thoreau
and Ralph Waldo Emerson
.
In short Lacan's theory declares that we enter the world through words. We observe the world through our senses but the world we sense is structured (mediated) in our mind through language. Thus our subconscious is also structured as a language. This leaves us with a sense of anomaly. We can only perceive the world through language, but we have the feeling of something missing. This is the sense of being outside language. The world can only be constructed through language but it always leaves something uncovered, something that cannot be told or be thought of, it can only be sensed. This can be seen as one of the central themes of Paul Auster's writing.
Lacan is considered to be one of the key figures of French poststructuralism. Some academics are keen to discern traces of other poststructuralist philosophers throughout Auster's oeuvre - mainly Jacques Derrida
, Jean Baudrillard
and Michel de Certeau
- although Auster himself has claimed to find such philosophies 'unreadable'http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2004/03/04/3/a-conversation-with-author-paul-auster.
The transcendentalists believe that the symbolic order of civilization separated us from the natural order of the world. By moving into nature - like Thoreau in Walden
- it would be possible to return to this natural order.
The common factor of both ideas is the question of the meaning of symbols for human beings. Auster's protagonists are often writers who establish meaning in their lives through writing, and they try to find their place within the natural order to be able to live within "civilization" again.
Edgar Allan Poe
, Samuel Beckett
, and Herman Melville
have also had a strong influence on Auster's writing. Not only do their characters reappear in Auster's work (like William Wilson
in City of Glass or Hawthorne's Fanshawe
in The Locked Room, both from The New York Trilogy), Auster also uses variations on the themes of these writers.
Paul Auster's reappearing subjects are:
. In Moon Palace
and The Book of Illusions
it comes from the individual's uncertainty about the status of his own identity. The protagonists start a search for their own identity and reduce their life to the absolute minimum. From this zero point they gain new strength and start their new life and they are also able to regain contact with their surroundings. A similar development can also be seen in City of Glass
and The Music of Chance
.
Failure in this context is not the "nothing" - it is the beginning of something all new.
in The New York Review of Books
in 2008
, "Paul Auster has established one of the most distinctive niches in contemporary literature." Dirda has also extolled his loaded virtues in The Washington Post
:
Respected literary critic James Wood
, however, offers Auster little praise in his piece "Shallow Graves" in the November 30, 2009, issue of The New Yorker
:
Absurdism
In philosophy, "The Absurd" refers to the conflict between the human tendency to seek value and meaning in life and the human inability to find any...
, existentialism
Existentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
, crime fiction
Crime fiction
Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...
and the search for identity and personal meaning in works such as The New York Trilogy
The New York Trilogy
The New York Trilogy is a series of novels by Paul Auster. Originally published sequentially as City of Glass , Ghosts and The Locked Room , it has since been collected into a single volume.- Plot introduction :...
(1987), Moon Palace
Moon Palace
Moon Palace is a novel written by Paul Auster that was first published in 1989.The novel is set in Manhattan and the U.S. Midwest, and centres on the life of the narrator Marco Stanley Fogg and the two previous generations of his family.- Plot summary:...
(1989), The Music of Chance
The Music of Chance
The Music of Chance is an absurdist novel by Paul Auster about the meaninglessness of the universe. In 1993, it was made into a film; Mandy Patinkin played Nashe and James Spader played Pozzi.-Plot summary:...
(1990), The Book of Illusions
The Book of Illusions
The Book of Illusions is a novel by American writer Paul Auster, published in 2002.-Plot introduction:Set in the late 1980s, the story is written from the perspective of David Zimmer, a university professor who, after losing his wife and children in a plane crash, falls into a routine of depression...
(2002) and The Brooklyn Follies (2005).
Biography
Auster was born in Newark, New JerseyNewark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
, to Jewish middle class parents of Polish
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
descent, Samuel and Queenie Auster. He grew up in South Orange, New Jersey
South Orange, New Jersey
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 16,964 people, 5,522 households, and 3,766 families residing in the township. The population density was 5,945.3 people per square mile . There were 5,671 housing units at an average density of 1,987.5 per square mile...
and graduated from Columbia High School
Columbia High School (New Jersey)
Columbia High School is a four-year comprehensive regional public high school located at 17 Parker Avenue in Maplewood, New Jersey, which serves students in grades nine through twelve within the South Orange-Maplewood School District, which includes Maplewood and South Orange Townships...
in adjoining Maplewood
Maplewood, New Jersey
Maplewood is a township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 23,867.-History:...
. After graduating from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in 1970, he moved to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
where he earned a living translating French literature. Since returning to the U.S. in 1974, he has published poems, essays, novels of his own as well as translations of French writers such as Stéphane Mallarmé
Stéphane Mallarmé
Stéphane Mallarmé , whose real name was Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools of the early 20th century, such as Dadaism, Surrealism, and Futurism.-Biography:Stéphane...
and Joseph Joubert
Joseph Joubert
Joseph Joubert was a French moralist and essayist, remembered today largely for his Pensées published posthumously....
.
He and his second wife, writer Siri Hustvedt
Siri Hustvedt
Siri Hustvedt is an American novelist and essayist. Hustvedt is the author of a book of poetry, five novels, two books of essays, and a work of non-fiction...
, were married in 1981, and they live in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
. Together they have one daughter, Sophie Auster
Sophie Auster
Sophie Auster is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of author and film director Paul Auster and writer Siri Hustvedt....
. Previously, Auster was married to the acclaimed writer Lydia Davis
Lydia Davis
Lydia Davis is a contemporary American writer noted for her short stories. Davis is also a French translator, and has produced several new translations of French literary classics, including Proust's Swann’s Way and Flaubert's Madame Bovary....
. They had one son together, Daniel Auster.
He is also the Vice-President of PEN American Center
PEN American Center
PEN American Center , founded in 1922 and based in New York City, works to advance literature, to defend free expression, and to foster international literary fellowship. The Center has a membership of 3,300 writers, editors, and translators...
.
Writing
The Invention of Solitude
The Invention of Solitude is the debut work of Paul Auster, a memoir published in 1982. The book is divided into two parts, Portrait of an Invisible Man, which concerns the sudden death of Auster's father, and The Book of Memory, in which Auster delivers his personal opinions concerning subjects...
, Auster gained renown for a series of three loosely connected detective stories published collectively as The New York Trilogy
The New York Trilogy
The New York Trilogy is a series of novels by Paul Auster. Originally published sequentially as City of Glass , Ghosts and The Locked Room , it has since been collected into a single volume.- Plot introduction :...
. These books are not conventional detective stories organized around a mystery and a series of clues. Rather, he uses the detective form to address existential
Existentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
issues and questions of identity, space, language and literature, creating his own distinctively postmodern
Postmodernism
Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...
(and critique of postmodernist) form in the process. Comparing the two works, Auster said, "I believe the world is filled with strange events. Reality is a great deal more mysterious than we ever give it credit for. In that sense, the Trilogy
The New York Trilogy
The New York Trilogy is a series of novels by Paul Auster. Originally published sequentially as City of Glass , Ghosts and The Locked Room , it has since been collected into a single volume.- Plot introduction :...
grows directly out of The Invention of Solitude
The Invention of Solitude
The Invention of Solitude is the debut work of Paul Auster, a memoir published in 1982. The book is divided into two parts, Portrait of an Invisible Man, which concerns the sudden death of Auster's father, and The Book of Memory, in which Auster delivers his personal opinions concerning subjects...
."
The search for identity and personal meaning has permeated Auster's later publications, many of which concentrate heavily on the role of coincidence and random events (The Music of Chance
The Music of Chance
The Music of Chance is an absurdist novel by Paul Auster about the meaninglessness of the universe. In 1993, it was made into a film; Mandy Patinkin played Nashe and James Spader played Pozzi.-Plot summary:...
) or increasingly, the relationships between men and their peers and environment (The Book of Illusions
The Book of Illusions
The Book of Illusions is a novel by American writer Paul Auster, published in 2002.-Plot introduction:Set in the late 1980s, the story is written from the perspective of David Zimmer, a university professor who, after losing his wife and children in a plane crash, falls into a routine of depression...
, Moon Palace
Moon Palace
Moon Palace is a novel written by Paul Auster that was first published in 1989.The novel is set in Manhattan and the U.S. Midwest, and centres on the life of the narrator Marco Stanley Fogg and the two previous generations of his family.- Plot summary:...
). Auster's heroes often find themselves obliged to work as part of someone else's inscrutable and larger-than-life schemes. In 1995, Auster wrote and co-directed the films Smoke
Smoke (film)
Smoke is an American independent film released in 1995. It was produced by Hisami Kuroiwa, Harvey Weinstein and Bob Weinstein and directed by Wayne Wang and Paul Auster...
(which won him the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay
Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay
The Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay is one of the annual awards given by Film Independent, a non-profit organization dedicated to independent film and independent filmmakers.-1990s:1994*David O...
) and Blue in the Face
Blue in the Face
Blue in the Face is a 1995 comedy directed by Wayne Wang and Paul Auster. It stars Harvey Keitel, Victor Argo, Giancarlo Esposito, Roseanne Barr, Michael J. Fox, Lily Tomlin, Mira Sorvino, Lou Reed, Mel Gorham, Jim Jarmusch,and Malik Yoba....
. Auster's more recent works, Oracle Night
Oracle Night
Oracle Night is a 2003 novel by American author Paul Auster.The novel is about a writer named Sidney Orr , who, after making a miraculous recovery from near fatal illness, buys a new notebook and starts writing a story about a man who completely changed his life when he realised how much his...
(2003), The Brooklyn Follies (2005) and the novella Travels in the Scriptorium
Travels in the Scriptorium
Travels in the Scriptorium is a novel by Paul Auster first published in 2007.Elements from most past Auster novels all converge in this book: every character other than the protagonist, Mr...
have also met critical acclaim.
Themes
According to a dissertation by Heiko Jakubzik at the University of Heidelberg, two central influences in Paul Auster's writing are Jacques Lacan'sJacques Lacan
Jacques Marie Émile Lacan was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who made prominent contributions to psychoanalysis and philosophy, and has been called "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud". Giving yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, Lacan influenced France's...
psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
and the American transcendentalism
Transcendentalism
Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that developed in the 1830s and 1840s in the New England region of the United States as a protest against the general state of culture and society, and in particular, the state of intellectualism at Harvard University and the doctrine of the Unitarian...
of the early to middle 19th century, namely amongst others Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist...
and Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
.
In short Lacan's theory declares that we enter the world through words. We observe the world through our senses but the world we sense is structured (mediated) in our mind through language. Thus our subconscious is also structured as a language. This leaves us with a sense of anomaly. We can only perceive the world through language, but we have the feeling of something missing. This is the sense of being outside language. The world can only be constructed through language but it always leaves something uncovered, something that cannot be told or be thought of, it can only be sensed. This can be seen as one of the central themes of Paul Auster's writing.
Lacan is considered to be one of the key figures of French poststructuralism. Some academics are keen to discern traces of other poststructuralist philosophers throughout Auster's oeuvre - mainly Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida was a French philosopher, born in French Algeria. He developed the critical theory known as deconstruction and his work has been labeled as post-structuralism and associated with postmodern philosophy...
, Jean Baudrillard
Jean Baudrillard
Jean Baudrillard was a French sociologist, philosopher, cultural theorist, political commentator, and photographer. His work is frequently associated with postmodernism and post-structuralism.-Life:...
and Michel de Certeau
Michel de Certeau
Michel de Certeau was a French Jesuit and scholar whose work combined history, psychoanalysis, philosophy, and the social sciences.-Education:...
- although Auster himself has claimed to find such philosophies 'unreadable'http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2004/03/04/3/a-conversation-with-author-paul-auster.
The transcendentalists believe that the symbolic order of civilization separated us from the natural order of the world. By moving into nature - like Thoreau in Walden
Walden
Walden is an American book written by noted Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau...
- it would be possible to return to this natural order.
The common factor of both ideas is the question of the meaning of symbols for human beings. Auster's protagonists are often writers who establish meaning in their lives through writing, and they try to find their place within the natural order to be able to live within "civilization" again.
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
, Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
, and Herman Melville
Herman Melville
Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick and the posthumous novella Billy Budd....
have also had a strong influence on Auster's writing. Not only do their characters reappear in Auster's work (like William Wilson
William Wilson (short story)
"William Wilson" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1839, with a setting inspired by Poe's formative years outside of London. The tale follows the theme of the doppelgänger and is written in a style based on rationality...
in City of Glass or Hawthorne's Fanshawe
Fanshawe (novel)
Fanshawe is a novel written by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne. It was his first published work, which he published anonymously in 1828.-Background:...
in The Locked Room, both from The New York Trilogy), Auster also uses variations on the themes of these writers.
Paul Auster's reappearing subjects are:
- coincidence
- frequent portrayal of an ascetic lifeAsceticismAsceticism describes a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from various sorts of worldly pleasures often with the aim of pursuing religious and spiritual goals...
- a sense of imminent disaster
- obsessive writer as central character/narrator
- loss of the ability to understand
- loss of language
- depiction of daily and ordinary life
- failure
- absence of a father
- writing/story telling, metafictionMetafictionMetafiction, also known as Romantic irony in the context of Romantic works of literature, is a type of fiction that self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction, exposing the fictional illusion...
- intertextualityIntertextualityIntertextuality is the shaping of texts' meanings by other texts. It can include an author’s borrowing and transformation of a prior text or to a reader’s referencing of one text in reading another. The term “intertextuality” has, itself, been borrowed and transformed many times since it was coined...
- American History
- American Space
Coincidence
Instances of coincidence can be found throughout Auster's work. Auster himself claims that people are so influenced by the continuity among them that they do not see the elements of coincidence, inconsistency and contradiction in their own lives:Failure
Failure in Paul Auster's works is not just the opposite of the happy endingHappy ending
A happy ending is an ending of the plot of a work of fiction in which almost everything turns out for the best for the protagonists, their sidekicks, and almost everyone except the villains....
. In Moon Palace
Moon Palace
Moon Palace is a novel written by Paul Auster that was first published in 1989.The novel is set in Manhattan and the U.S. Midwest, and centres on the life of the narrator Marco Stanley Fogg and the two previous generations of his family.- Plot summary:...
and The Book of Illusions
The Book of Illusions
The Book of Illusions is a novel by American writer Paul Auster, published in 2002.-Plot introduction:Set in the late 1980s, the story is written from the perspective of David Zimmer, a university professor who, after losing his wife and children in a plane crash, falls into a routine of depression...
it comes from the individual's uncertainty about the status of his own identity. The protagonists start a search for their own identity and reduce their life to the absolute minimum. From this zero point they gain new strength and start their new life and they are also able to regain contact with their surroundings. A similar development can also be seen in City of Glass
The New York Trilogy
The New York Trilogy is a series of novels by Paul Auster. Originally published sequentially as City of Glass , Ghosts and The Locked Room , it has since been collected into a single volume.- Plot introduction :...
and The Music of Chance
The Music of Chance
The Music of Chance is an absurdist novel by Paul Auster about the meaninglessness of the universe. In 1993, it was made into a film; Mandy Patinkin played Nashe and James Spader played Pozzi.-Plot summary:...
.
Failure in this context is not the "nothing" - it is the beginning of something all new.
Identity/Subjectivity
Auster's protagonists often go through a process that reduces their support structure to an absolute minimum: They sever all contact with family and friends, go hungry and lose or give away all their belongings. Out of this state of "nothingness" they either acquire new strength to reconnect with the world or they fail and disappear for good.Reception
"Over the past twenty-five years," opined Michael DirdaMichael Dirda
Michael Dirda , a Fulbright Fellowship recipient, is a Pulitzer Prize–winning book critic for the Washington Post.-Career:Having studied at Oberlin College for his undergraduate degree, Dirda took a Ph.D. from Cornell University in comparative literature. In 1978 Dirda started writing for the...
in The New York Review of Books
The New York Review of Books
The New York Review of Books is a fortnightly magazine with articles on literature, culture and current affairs. Published in New York City, it takes as its point of departure that the discussion of important books is itself an indispensable literary activity...
in 2008
2008 in literature
The year 2008 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*January 1 - In the 2008 New Year Honours, Hanif Kureishi , Jenny Uglow , Peter Vansittart and Debjani Chatterjee are all rewarded for "services to literature".*June 15 - Gore Vidal, asked in a New York Times...
, "Paul Auster has established one of the most distinctive niches in contemporary literature." Dirda has also extolled his loaded virtues in The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
:
Ever since City of Glass, the first volume of his New York Trilogy, Auster has perfected a limpid, confessional style, then used it to set disoriented heroes in a seemingly familiar world gradually suffused with mounting uneasiness, vague menace and possible hallucination. His plots — drawing on elements from suspense stories, existential récit and autobiography — keep readers turning the pages, but sometimes end by leaving them uncertain about what they've just been through.
Respected literary critic James Wood
James Wood (critic)
James Wood is a literary critic, essayist and novelist. he is Professor of the Practice of Literary Criticism at Harvard University and a staff writer at The New Yorker magazine.-Background and education:...
, however, offers Auster little praise in his piece "Shallow Graves" in the November 30, 2009, issue of The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
:
What Auster often gets instead is the worst of both worlds: fake realism and shallow skepticism. The two weaknesses are related. Auster is a compelling storyteller, but his stories are assertions rather than persuasions. They declare themselves; they hound the next revelation. Because nothing is persuasively assembled, the inevitable postmodern disassembly leaves one largely untouched. (The disassembly is also grindingly explicit, spelled out in billboard-size type.) Presence fails to turn into significant absence, because presence was not present enough.
Awards
- 1989 Prix France Culture de Littérature Étrangère for The New York Trilogy
- 1990 Morton Dauwen Zabel Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters
- 1991 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionPEN/Faulkner Award for FictionThe PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation to the authors of the year's best works of fiction by living American citizens. The winner receives US $15,000 and each of four runners-up receives US $5000. The foundation brings the winner and runners-up to...
finalist for The Music of Chance - 1993 Prix Médicis Étranger for Leviathan
- 1996 Bodil AwardsBodil AwardsThe Bodil Awards are the major Danish film awards given by Denmark's National Association of Film Critics . The awards are presented annually at a ceremony in the Imperial Cinema in Copenhagen. Established in 1948, it is one of the oldest film awards in Europe...
- Best American Film: Smoke - 1996 Independent Spirit Award - Best First Screenplay: Smoke
- 1996 John William Corrington Award for Literary Excellence
- 2003 Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesAmerican Academy of Arts and SciencesThe American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
- 2006 Prince of Asturias Award for Literature (received in previous years by Günter GrassGünter GrassGünter Wilhelm Grass is a Nobel Prize-winning German author, poet, playwright, sculptor and artist.He was born in the Free City of Danzig...
, Arthur MillerArthur MillerArthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...
and Mario Vargas LlosaMario Vargas LlosaJorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquis of Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian-Spanish writer, politician, journalist, essayist, and Nobel Prize laureate. Vargas Llosa is one of Latin America's most significant novelists and essayists, and one of the leading authors of his generation...
) - 2006 Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters for Literature
- 2007 Honorary doctor from the University of LiègeUniversity of LiègeThe University of Liège , in Liège, Wallonia, Belgium, is a major public university in the French Community of Belgium. Its official language is French.-History:...
- 2007 Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des LettresOrdre des Arts et des LettresThe Ordre des Arts et des Lettres is an Order of France, established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture, and confirmed as part of the Ordre national du Mérite by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963...
- 2010 Médaille Grand Vermeil de la ville de ParisVille de ParisVille de Paris may refer to:* Paris* A number of ships of the French Navy named Ville de Paris. See French ship Ville de Paris* HMS Ville de Paris...
Fiction
- Squeeze Play (1982) (Written under pseudonym Paul Benjamin)
- The New York TrilogyThe New York TrilogyThe New York Trilogy is a series of novels by Paul Auster. Originally published sequentially as City of Glass , Ghosts and The Locked Room , it has since been collected into a single volume.- Plot introduction :...
(1987)- City of Glass (1985)
- Ghosts (1986)
- The Locked Room (1986)
- In the Country of Last ThingsIn the Country of Last ThingsIn the Country of Last Things is a dystopian epistolary novel written by American author Paul Auster and first published in 1987.- Plot summary :...
(1987) - Moon PalaceMoon PalaceMoon Palace is a novel written by Paul Auster that was first published in 1989.The novel is set in Manhattan and the U.S. Midwest, and centres on the life of the narrator Marco Stanley Fogg and the two previous generations of his family.- Plot summary:...
(1989) - The Music of ChanceThe Music of ChanceThe Music of Chance is an absurdist novel by Paul Auster about the meaninglessness of the universe. In 1993, it was made into a film; Mandy Patinkin played Nashe and James Spader played Pozzi.-Plot summary:...
(1990) - Auggie Wren's Christmas Story (1990)
- Leviathan (1992)
- Mr. VertigoMr. VertigoMr. Vertigo is a novel written by Paul Auster and first published in 1994. It tells the story of a young orphaned boy from St. Louis, Walter Claireborne Rawley, who happens upon a mysterious traveler known only as Master Yehudi. Master Yehudi trains Walter to fly and they begin traveling across the...
(1994) - TimbuktuTimbuktu (novella)Timbuktu is a 1999 novella by Paul Auster. It is about the life of a dog, Mr Bones, who is struggling to come to terms with the fact that his homeless master is dying....
(1999) - The Book of IllusionsThe Book of IllusionsThe Book of Illusions is a novel by American writer Paul Auster, published in 2002.-Plot introduction:Set in the late 1980s, the story is written from the perspective of David Zimmer, a university professor who, after losing his wife and children in a plane crash, falls into a routine of depression...
(2002) - Oracle NightOracle NightOracle Night is a 2003 novel by American author Paul Auster.The novel is about a writer named Sidney Orr , who, after making a miraculous recovery from near fatal illness, buys a new notebook and starts writing a story about a man who completely changed his life when he realised how much his...
(2003) - The Brooklyn FolliesThe Brooklyn Follies-Plot summary:60-year-old Nathan Glass returns to Brooklyn after his wife has left him. He is recovering from lung cancer and is looking for "a quiet place to die". In Brooklyn he meets his nephew, Tom, whom he has not seen in several years. Tom has seemingly given up on life and has resigned...
(2005) - Travels in the ScriptoriumTravels in the ScriptoriumTravels in the Scriptorium is a novel by Paul Auster first published in 2007.Elements from most past Auster novels all converge in this book: every character other than the protagonist, Mr...
(2006) - Man in the DarkMan in the Dark (novel)Man in the Dark is a novel by Paul Auster published in August 2008. Its topic is a dystopian scenario of the present-day USA being torn apart by a new secession and civil war after the presidential elections of 2000...
(2008)
- InvisibleInvisible (2009 novel)Invisible is a novel by Paul Auster published in 2009 by Henry Holt and Company. The book is divided into four parts, telling a continuous story but each section told in a different voice and by several different authors.-Plot summary:...
(2009) - Sunset ParkSunset Park (novel)Sunset Park is a novel by Paul Auster published in November 2010.-Plot summary:Set during the American financial recession in 2008, a college dropout, who has been running from his past for seven years, is forced to leave his new girlfriend and life in Florida and return home to New York...
(2010)
Poetry
- Disappearances: Selected Poems (1988)
- Ground Work: Selected Poems and Essays 1970-1979 (1991)
- Collected Poems (2007)
Screenplays
- The Music of ChanceThe Music of ChanceThe Music of Chance is an absurdist novel by Paul Auster about the meaninglessness of the universe. In 1993, it was made into a film; Mandy Patinkin played Nashe and James Spader played Pozzi.-Plot summary:...
(1993) - SmokeSmoke (film)Smoke is an American independent film released in 1995. It was produced by Hisami Kuroiwa, Harvey Weinstein and Bob Weinstein and directed by Wayne Wang and Paul Auster...
(1995) - Blue in the FaceBlue in the FaceBlue in the Face is a 1995 comedy directed by Wayne Wang and Paul Auster. It stars Harvey Keitel, Victor Argo, Giancarlo Esposito, Roseanne Barr, Michael J. Fox, Lily Tomlin, Mira Sorvino, Lou Reed, Mel Gorham, Jim Jarmusch,and Malik Yoba....
(1995) - Lulu on the BridgeLulu on the BridgeLulu on the Bridge is a 1998 romantic mystery drama film directed by author Paul Auster. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.-Plot:...
(1998) - The Inner Life of Martin Frost (2007) – "The Inner Life of Martin Frost" is a screenplay that is mentioned in Auster's novel `The Book of Illusions.' It's the only film that the protagonist watches of Hector Mann's later, hidden films. It's a simple story of a man meeting a girl, and an intense relationship, and her vanishing.
Essays, memoirs, and autobiographies
- The Invention of SolitudeThe Invention of SolitudeThe Invention of Solitude is the debut work of Paul Auster, a memoir published in 1982. The book is divided into two parts, Portrait of an Invisible Man, which concerns the sudden death of Auster's father, and The Book of Memory, in which Auster delivers his personal opinions concerning subjects...
(1982) - The Art of Hunger (1992)
- The Red NotebookThe Red NotebookThe Red Notebook is a collection of stories written by American author Paul Auster in four parts. The Red Notebook in 1992, Why Write? in 1995, Accident Report in 1999 and It Don't Mean a Thing in 2000...
(1995) (The Red Notebook was originally printed in Granta (44)). (1993). - Hand to Mouth (1997)
- Collected Prose (contains The Invention of SolitudeThe Invention of SolitudeThe Invention of Solitude is the debut work of Paul Auster, a memoir published in 1982. The book is divided into two parts, Portrait of an Invisible Man, which concerns the sudden death of Auster's father, and The Book of Memory, in which Auster delivers his personal opinions concerning subjects...
, The Art of Hunger, The Red NotebookThe Red NotebookThe Red Notebook is a collection of stories written by American author Paul Auster in four parts. The Red Notebook in 1992, Why Write? in 1995, Accident Report in 1999 and It Don't Mean a Thing in 2000...
, and Hand to Mouth as well as various other previously uncollected pieces) (first edition, 2005; expanded second edition, 2010)
Edited collections
- The Random House Book of Twentieth-Century French Poetry (1982)
- True Tales of American Life (First published under the title I Thought My Father Was God, and Other True Tales from NPR's National Story Project) (2001)
Translations
- "The Uninhabited: Selected Poems of Andre du BouchetAndré du BouchetAndré du Bouchet was a French poet.- Biography :Born in Paris, he lived in France until 1941, when his family left occupied Europe for the United States. He studied at Amherst College and then at Harvard University . After teaching for a year, he returned to France...
" (1976) - Life/Situations, by Jean-Paul SartreJean-Paul SartreJean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy, particularly Marxism, and was one of the key figures in literary...
, 1977 (in collaboration with Lydia DavisLydia DavisLydia Davis is a contemporary American writer noted for her short stories. Davis is also a French translator, and has produced several new translations of French literary classics, including Proust's Swann’s Way and Flaubert's Madame Bovary....
) - A Tomb for Anatole, by Stéphane MallarméStéphane MallarméStéphane Mallarmé , whose real name was Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools of the early 20th century, such as Dadaism, Surrealism, and Futurism.-Biography:Stéphane...
(1983) - Chronicle of the Guayaki Indians (1998) (translation of Pierre ClastresPierre ClastresPierre Clastres, , was a French anthropologist and ethnographer. He is best known for his fieldwork among the Guayaki in Paraguay and his theory on stateless societies.-Theories:...
' ethnography Chronique des indiens Guayaki) - The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert (2005)
- Vicious Circles: Two fictions & "After the Fact", by Maurice BlanchotMaurice BlanchotMaurice Blanchot was a French writer, philosopher, and literary theorist. His work had a strong influence on post-structuralist philosophers such as Jacques Derrida.-Works:...
, 1999
Miscellaneous
- The Story of My TypewriterThe Story of My TypewriterThe Story of My Typewriter is a little book, by Paul Auster, mostly with pictures by the painter Sam Messer about the author's old Olympia typewriter. Auster bought the typewriter in 1972 from an old college friend who had owned it since 1962. Allegedly everything Auster has written since has been...
with paintings by Sam Messer (2002) - "The Accidental Rebel" (Wed. April 23 article in New York Times)
Other media
- On the album As Smart as We Are by New York band One Ring ZeroOne Ring ZeroOne Ring Zero is a modern music group led by Joshua Camp and Michael Hearst that melds many genres and sounds to create a unique type of music.-Instruments:...
, Auster wrote the lyrics for the song "Natty Man Blues" based on Cincinnati poet Norman FinkelsteinNorman Finkelstein (poet)Norman Finkelstein is a poet and literary critic. He has written extensively about modern and postmodern poetry and about Jewish American literature. According to Tablet Magazine, Finkelstein's poetry "is simultaneously secular and religious, stately and conversational, prophetic, and...
.
- In 2005 his daughter, SophieSophie AusterSophie Auster is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of author and film director Paul Auster and writer Siri Hustvedt....
, recorded an album of songs in both French and English, entitled Sophie Auster, with the band One Ring ZeroOne Ring ZeroOne Ring Zero is a modern music group led by Joshua Camp and Michael Hearst that melds many genres and sounds to create a unique type of music.-Instruments:...
. The lyrics of three of the songs (in English) are by Paul Auster; and he also provided for the accompanying booklet translations of several French poems which form the lyrics of other songs on the album.
- In 1993, a movie adaptation of The Music of ChanceThe Music of Chance (film)The Music of Chance is a 1993 American drama film directed by Philip Haas. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival...
was released. Auster features in a cameo role at the end of the film.
- In 1994 City of Glass was adapted as a graphic novel by artist David MazzucchelliDavid MazzucchelliDavid Mazzucchelli is an American comic book artist and writer. His latest work is the award-winning graphic novel, Asterios Polyp.-Career:...
and Paul KarasikPaul KarasikPaul Karasik is an American cartoonist, editor, and teacher, notable for his contributions to such works as City of Glass: The Graphic Novel, The Ride Together: A Memoir of Autism in the Family, and I Shall Destroy All The Civilized Planets.- Biography :In the early 1980s, after having graduated...
. Auster's friend, noted cartoonist Art SpiegelmanArt SpiegelmanArt Spiegelman is an American comics artist, editor, and advocate for the medium of comics, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning comic book memoir, Maus. His works are published with his name in lowercase: art spiegelman.-Biography:Spiegelman was born in Stockholm, Sweden, to Polish Jews...
, produced the adaptation.
- Jazz trumpeter and composer Michael MantlerMichael MantlerMichael Mantler is a composer and trumpeter in new jazz and contemporary music.-Career: United States:Mantler was born in Vienna, Austria...
's album Hide and Seek uses words by Auster from the play of the same name.
- Paul Auster's voice can be heard on the 2005 album entitled We Must Be Losing It by The Farangs. The two tracks are entitled "Obituary in the Present Tense" and "Between the Lines".
- In 2006 Paul Auster directed the film The Inner Life of Martin Frost, based on an original screenplay by himself. It was shot in LisbonLisbonLisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
and Azenhas do MarAzenhas do MarAzenhas do Mar is a seaside town in the municipality of Sintra, Portugal.-External links:*...
and starred David ThewlisDavid ThewlisDavid Thewlis is an English actor of stage and screen. His most commercially successful role to date has been that of Remus Lupin, in the Harry Potter film series...
, Iréne JacobIrène JacobIrène Marie Jacob is a French-born Swiss actress considered one of the preeminent French actresses of her generation. Jacob gained international recognition and acclaim through her work with Polish film director Krzysztof Kieślowski, who cast her in the lead role of The Double Life of Véronique...
and Michael ImperioliMichael ImperioliJames Michael Imperioli , commonly known as Michael Imperioli, is an American actor and television writer. He is perhaps best known for his role as Christopher Moltisanti on The Sopranos for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2004. He also...
as well as Auster's daughter Sophie. Auster himself provided the narration, albeit uncreditedClosing creditsClosing credits or end credits are added at the end of a motion picture, television program, or video game to list the cast and crew involved in the production. They usually appear as a list of names in small type, which either flip very quickly from page to page, or move smoothly across the...
. The film premiered at the European Film Market, as part of the 2007 Berlinale in BerlinBerlinBerlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Germany on February 10, 2007, and opened in New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
on September 7 of the same year.
- The lyrics of Fionn ReganFionn ReganFionn Regan is an Irish singer-songwriter and artist from Bray, County Wicklow, who came to prominence in 2006 with the release of his Mercury-nominated debut album, The End of History...
's 2006 song Put A Penny In The Slot mention Auster and his novella TimbuktuTimbuktu (novella)Timbuktu is a 1999 novella by Paul Auster. It is about the life of a dog, Mr Bones, who is struggling to come to terms with the fact that his homeless master is dying....
.
- Austrian composer Olga NeuwirthOlga NeuwirthOlga Neuwirth is an Austrian composer.As a child at the age of seven, Neuwirth began lessons on trumpet. She later studied composition in Vienna at the Vienna Academy of Music and Performing Arts under Erich Urbanner, while studying at the Electroacoustic Institute...
's composition ... ce qui arrive ... (2004) combines the recorded voice of Paul Auster with ensemble music and live electronics by Markus Noisternig and Thomas Musil (Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics (IEM)). Paul Auster is heard reading from his books Hand to Mouth and The Red Notebook, either as straight recitation, integrated with other sounds as if in a radio play, or passed through an electronically realized string resonator so that the low tones can interact with these of a string ensemble. A film by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster runs throughout the work featuring the cabaret artist and actress Georgette Dee.
- Paul Auster narrated "Ground Zero" (2004), an audio guide created by the Kitchen Sisters (Davia Nelson and Nikki SilvaNikki SilvaNikki Silva is a radio producer, and museum curator from Santa Cruz, California. She is one half of the Peabody Award winning public radio team, the Kitchen Sisters....
) and Soundwalk and produced by NPR, which won the Dalton Pen Award for Multi-media/Audio, (2005), and was nominated for an Audie AwardAudie AwardsThe Audie Awards are annually bestowed annually in the USA for outstanding audiobooks. The Audies have been granted by the Audio Publishers Association, a not-for-profit trade organization, since 1996. The nominees are announced each year in January, and the winners are announced at a gala banquet...
for best Original Work, (2005).
- In the 2008 Russian film Плюс один (Plus One), the main character is in the process of translating one of Auster's books.
- In the 2009 documentary "Act of God", Auster is interviewed on his experience of being struck by lightning as a boy.
See also
- Paul is the older cousin of conservativeConservatismConservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
columnist Lawrence AusterLawrence AusterLawrence Auster is an American traditionalist conservative blogger and essayist.-Personal life:Auster grew up in New Jersey. He attended Columbia University for two years, later finishing a B.A. in English at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He moved to Manhattan in 1978, and still resides...
.
Further reading
- Paul Auster, Gérard de Cortanze La solitude du labyrinthe. Paris:Actes Sud, 1997.
- Franchot Ballinger Ambigere: The Euro-American Picaro and the Native American Trickster. MELUS, 17 (1991–92), pp. 21–38.
- Dennis Barone (ed.): Beyond the Red Notebook. Essays on Paul Auster. Penn Studies in Contemporary American Fiction. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia (2. ed. 1996)
- Dennis Barone Auster’s Memory. The Review of Contemporary Fiction, 14:1 (Spring 1994), pp. 32–34
- Charles Baxter The Bureau of Missing Persons: Notes on Paul Auster’s Fiction. The Review of Contemporary Fiction, 14:1 (Spring 1994), pp. 40–43.
- Harold Bloom ed. Paul Auster. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publ.; 2004.
- Martine Chard-Hutchinson Paul Auster (1947- ). In: Joel Shatzky and Michael Taub (eds.). Contemporary Jewish-American Novelists: A Bio-Critical Sourcebook. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1997, pp. 13–20.
- Alain Chareyre-Méjan, Guillaume Pigeard de Gurbert. Ce que Paul Auster n’a jamais dit: une logique du quelconque. In: Annick Duperray (ed.). L’oeuvre de Paul Auster: approches et lectures plurielles. Actes du colloque Paul Auster. Aix-en-Provence: Actes Sud, 1995, pp. 176–184.
- Gérard de Cortanze, James Rudnick: Paul Austers New York. Gerstenberg, New York; Hildesheim, 1998 Gérard de Cortanze Le New York de Paul Auster. Paris: Les Éditions du Chêne-Hachette Livre, 1996.
- Robert Creeley Austerities. The Review of Contemporary Fiction, 14:1 (Spring 1994), pp. 35–39.
- Scott Dimovitz, 'Public Personae and the Private I: De-Compositional Ontology in Paul Auster's The New York Trilogy.' MFS: Modern Fiction Studies. 52:3 (Fall 2006): 613-633.
- Scott Dimovitz, 'Portraits in Absentia: Repetition, Compulsion, and the Postmodern Uncanny in Paul Auster's Leviathan.' Studies in the Novel. 40:4 (Winter 2008): 447-464.
- William Drenttel (ed.) Paul Auster: A Comprehensive Bibliographic Checklist of Published Works 1968-1994. New York: Delos Press, 1994.Sven Gächter Schreiben ist eine endlose Therapie: Der amerikanische Romancier Paul Auster über das allmähliche Entstehen von Geschichten. Weltwoche (31.12.1992), p. 30.
- François Gavillon Paul Auster, gravité et légèreté de l'écriture. Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2000.
- Charles Grandjeat Le hasard et la nécessité dans l’oeuvre de Paul Auster. In: Annick Duperray (ed.). L’oeuvre de Paul Auster: approches et lectures plurielles. Actes du colloque Paul Auster. Aix-en-Provence: Actes Sud, 1995, pp. 153–163. Ulrich Greiner: Gelobtes Land. Amerikanische Schriftsteller über Amerika. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1997
- Claude Grimal Paul Auster au coeur des labyrinthes. Europe: Revue Littéraire Mensuelle, 68:733 (1990), pp. 64–66.
- Allan Gurganus How Do You Introduce Paul Auster in Three Minutes?. The Review of Contemporary Fiction, 14:1 (Spring 1994), pp. 7–8.
- Anne M. Holzapfel: The New York trilogy. Whodunit? Tracking the structure of Paul Auster’s anti-detective novels. Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1996. (= Studien zur Germanistik und Anglistik; 11) ISBN 3-631-49798-9 Beate Hötger: Identität im filmischen Werk von Paul Auster. Lang, Frankfurt am Main u.a. 2002. (= Europäische Hochschulschriften; Reihe 30, 84) ISBN 3-631-38470-X Heiko Jakubzik: Paul Auster und die Klassiker der American Renaissance. Dissertation, Universität Heidelberg 1999 (online text)
- Bernd Herzogenrath An Art of Desire. Reading Paul Auster. Amsterdam: Rodopi; 1999
- Bernd Herzogenrath Introduction. In: Bernd Herzogenrath. An Art of Desire: Reading Paul Auster. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1999, pp. 1–11.
- Gerald Howard Publishing Paul Auster. The Review of Contemporary Fiction, 14:1 (Spring 1994), pp. 92–95.
- Peter Kirkegaard, Cities, Signs, Meanings in Walter Benjamin and Paul Auster: Or, Never Sure of Any of It in Orbis Litterarum: International Review of Literary Studies 48 (1993): 161179.
- Barry Lewis The Strange Case of Paul Auster. The Review of Contemporary Fiction, 14:1 (Spring 1994), pp. 53–61.
- James Marcus Auster! Auster!. The Village Voice, 39 (August 30, 1994), pp. 55–56.
- Brian McHale Constructing Postmodernism. London and New York: Routledge, 1992.
- Patricia Merivale The Austerized Version. Contemporary Literature, 38:1 (Spring 1997), pp. 185–197.
- Christophe Metress Iles et archipels, sauver ce qui est récupérable: la fiction de Paul Auster. In: Annick Duperray (ed.). L’oeuvre de Paul Auster: approches et lectures plurielles. Actes du colloque Paul Auster. Aix-en-Provence: Actes Sud, 1995, pp. 245–257.
- James Peacock Carrying the Burden of Representation: Paul Auster's The Book of Illusions. Journal of American Studies, 40:1 (April 2006), pp. 53–70. Werner Reinhart: Pikareske Romane der 80er Jahre. Ronald Reagan und die Renaissance des politischen Erzählens in den USA. (Acker, Auster, Boyle, Irving, Kennedy, Pynchon). Narr, Tübingen 2001
- William Riggan Picaros, Madmen, Naïfs, and Clowns: The Unreliable First-Person Narrator. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1981.
- Mark Rudman Paul Auster: Some ‚Elective Affinities‘. The Review of Contemporary Fiction, 14:1 (Spring 1994), pp. 44–45. Michael Rutschky Die Erfindung der Einsamkeit: Der amerikanische Schriftsteller Paul Auster. Merkur, 45 (1991), pp. 1105–1113.
- Edward H. Schafer Ways of Looking at the Moon Palace. Asia Major. 1988; 1(1):1-13. Steffen Sielaff: Die postmoderne Odyssee. Raum und Subjekt in den Romanen von Paul Auster. Univ. Diss., Berlin 2004. Joseph C. Schöpp Ausbruch aus der Mimesis: Der amerikanische Roman im Zeichen der Postmoderne. München: Fink, 1990.
- Motoyuki Shibata Being Paul Auster’s Ghost. In: Dennis Barone (ed.). Beyond the Red Notebook: Essays on Paul Auster. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995, pp. 183–188.
- Carsten Springer: Crises. The works of Paul Auster. Lang, Frankfurt am Main u.a. 2001. (= American culture; 1) ISBN 3-631-37487-9
- Carsten Springer: A Paul Auster Sourcebook. Frankfurt a. Main u. a., Peter Lang, 2001.
- Eduardo Urbina: La ficción que no cesa: Paul Auster y Cervantes. Vigo: Editorial Academia del Hispanismo, 2007.
- Eduardo Urbina: La ficción que no cesa: Cervantes y Paul Auster. Cervantes en el ámbito anglosajón. Eds. Diego Martínez Torrón and Bernd Dietz. Madrid: SIAL Ediciones, 2005. 433-42.
- Eduardo Urbina: Reflejos lunares, o la transformación paródica de la locura quijotesca en Moon Palace (1989) de Paul Auster. Siglos dorados; Homenaje a Augustin Redondo. Ed. Pierre Civil. Madrid: Castalia, 2004. 2: 1417-25.
- Eduardo Urbina: Parodias cervantinas: el Quijote en tres novelas de Paul Auster (La ciudad de cristal, El palacio de la luna y El libro de las ilusiones). ‘Calamo currente’: Homenaje a Juan Bautista de Avalle Arce. Ed. Miguel Zugasti. RILCE (Universidad de Navarra) 23.1 (2007): 245-56.
- Eduardo Urbina: Reading Matters: Quixotic Fiction and Subversive Discourse in Paul Auster’s The Book of Illusions Critical Reflections: Essays on Golden Age Spanish Literature in Honor of James A. Parr. Eds. Barbara Simerka and Amy R. Williamsen. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, 2006. 57-66.
- Various Authors. Special edition on Paul Auster. Critique. 1998 Spring; 39(3).
- Aliki Varvogli "World That is the Book: Paul Auster's Fiction". Liverpool University press, 2001. ISBN 978-0-85323-697-9
- Florian Felix Weyh Paul Auster. Kritisches Lexikon der fremdsprachigen Gegenwartsliteratur (26. Nachlieferung), pp. 1–10.
- Curtis White The Auster Instance: A Ficto-Biography. The Review of Contemporary Fiction, 14:1 (Spring 1994), pp. 26–29.
- Eric Wirth A Look Back from the Horizon. In: Dennis Barone (ed.). Beyond the Red Notebook: Essays on Paul Auster. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995, pp. 171–182.
- John Zilcosky The Revenge of the Author: Paul Auster’s Challenge to Theory. Critique, 39:3 (Spring 1998), pp. 195–206.
External links
- 'The Searcher', interview with The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
in May 1999 - 'An Interview with Paul Auster', interview with 3:AM Magazine3:AM Magazine3:AM Magazine is a literary magazine, which was set up as 3ammagazine.com in April 2000 and is edited from Paris. Its editor-in-chief since inception has been Andrew Gallix, a lecturer at the Sorbonne ....
in November 2001 - 'Dem old Bush blues', interview with The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
in April 2004 - 'The Tyrannies and Epiphanies of Chance', interview in the Oxonian Review in June 2004
- 'Paul Auster and Siri Hustvedt in conversation' at the Key West Literary Seminar in September 2007 (audio)
- George Dunford interviews Paul Auster, interview with Cordite Poetry Review in August 2008
- 'Interview: Paul Auster on His Newest Novel, Man in the Dark, interview with Village Voice in September 2008
- Interview with Auster, discussing Man in the DarkMan in the Dark (novel)Man in the Dark is a novel by Paul Auster published in August 2008. Its topic is a dystopian scenario of the present-day USA being torn apart by a new secession and civil war after the presidential elections of 2000...
with George Miller in November 2008 (audio) - 'The mechanics of reality', discussion between Paul Auster and school students in January 2009 (includes audio)
- I want to tell you a story piece by Auster at The Guardian, November 6, 2006. The subtitle reads: "one of America's greatest living novelists, argues that fiction is 'magnificently useless', but the act of creation and the pleasure of reading are incomparable human joys that we should savour"
- Paul Auster: Bio, excerpts, interviews and articles in the archives of the Prague Writers' Festival
- 'Dossier - The Brooklyn Follies, a collection of essays on Paul Auster's The Brooklyn Follies (English and French), on La Clé des Langues