Paul Auster

[Bartleby]

We don't seem to have a thread dedicated to Paul Auster, despite him being one of North America's most successful living writers, but it's never too late, so here it is... with a recent profile on him:

‘This might be the last thing I ever write’: Paul Auster on cancer, connection and the fallacy of closure

As he was finishing his latest novel, the writer became seriously ill. He talks about making sense of his life through fiction, the secret of sustaining love and how his new book took him by surprise

www.theguardian.com

 

[Liam]

Despite the fact that I didn't really love his latest (and perhaps his last) book, Baumgartner, I am nevertheless glad I read it.

As a novel it might represent Auster's farewell letter to literature but also a kind of "memorate" (a personal narrative told from memory, close to folktale in terms of genre), in which he draws conclusions about his protagonist's life as both a writer and a human being.

It is very easy to see Auster himself in the titular character, as he meanders through the latter years of his life after losing his wife in a swimming accident. Along the way he remembers everything and everyone from his childhood, and these, I thought, were the strongest and most interesting parts of the book.

I also absolutely loved the ending: the last sentence in particular was very moving!