Conversations with Paul Auster

by James M. Hutchisson (Editor), Paul Auster

Paul Auster (b. 1947) is one of the most critically acclaimed and intensely studied authors in America today. His varied career as a novelist, poet, translator, and filmmaker has attracted scholarly scrutiny from a variety of critical perspectives. The steadily rising arc of his large readership has made him something of a popular culture figure with many appearances in print interviews, as well as on television, the radio, and the internet. Auster's best known novel may be his first, City of Glass (1985), a grim and intellectually puzzling mystery that belies its surface image as a -detective novel- and goes on to become a profound meditation on transience and mortality, the inadequacies of language, and isolation. Fifteen more novels have followed since then, including The Music of Chance, Moon Palace, The Book of Illusions, and The Brooklyn Follies. He has, in the words of one critic, -given the phrase 'experimental fiction' a good name- by fashioning bona fide literary works with all the rigor and intellect demanded of the contemporary avant-garde.

This volume--the first of its kind on Auster--will be useful to both scholars and students for the penetrating self-analysis and the wide range of biographical information and critical commentary it contains. Conversations with Paul Auster covers all of Auster's oeuvre, from The New York Trilogy--of which City of Glass is a component--to Sunset Park (2010), along with his screenplays for Smoke (1995) and Blue in the Face (1996). Within, Auster nimbly discusses his poetry, memoir, nonfiction, translations, and film directing.

Genres: Nonfiction

222 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

James M. Hutchisson, Charleston, South Carolina, is professor of English and director of graduate study in English at The Citadel. His books include Poe and DuBose Heyward: A Charleston Gentleman and the World of Porgy and Bess, both published by University Press of Mississippi.

Reviews

[Emre · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Sanırım burada hayret uyandırıcı olan, en hakiki anlamıyla yalnız kaldığınız anda, gerçek bir yalnızlık haline düştüğünüz anda, bunun artık yalnız kalmadığınız, başkalarıyla aranızda bir bağ kurulmaya başladığı an olduğunu fark etmeniz." Sf:7

"Hakikat, kurmacadan daha yabancıdır. Benim peşinde olduğum şey de sanırım, içinde yaşadığım dünya kadar tuhaf bir kurgu roman yazmaktır." Sf:16

"Bir roman, dünyada iki yabancının en mahrem halleriyle buluşabilecekleri tek yerdir. Okur ile yazar kitabı bütünlerler. Başka hiçbir sanat bunu yapamaz. Başka hiçbir sanat insan hayatının özündeki içedönüklüğü yakalayamaz." Sf:177

"Hiçbir kitabım yazmaya başladığım zaman tasarladığım şekilde bitmedi." Sf:203

"Savaşta aşağılanma, yenilgi ve inanılmaz sayıda masum insanın ölmesi dışında bir son yok." Sf:251

[Natalia Hernández Moreno · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aside from repetitive questions and multiple interviewers claiming to have read most of his work (while sticking to two or three catchphrases), Auster is always straightforward and, against popular belief, not at all pretentious.

“When I began as a novelist, I thought I had one or two books in me, and yet, here I am, ten years later, still doing it. Beckett compared himself to Joyce by saying: ‘The more Joyce knew, the more he could. The more I know, the less I can.’ As far as I’m concerned, there’s an altogether different equation: The less I know, the more I can.”

[RND · Rating 3 out of 5]

The series of books this volume belongs to insists on the interviews (compiled from different sources over the years in a career) being presented in chronological order. In that way you can track what the subject says, feels, how he thinks, and how that changes. Which is fine. It can get a little irksome when repetition unavoidably occurs. But Auster has wisdom to spare, which makes this an interesting collection.

[Carlosfelipe Pardo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty repetitive interviews (same questions over and over again at least 70% of the time), much more than any of the other “conversations with” I’ve read. Plus you get most of these anecdotes and descriptions from reading Auster’s several autobiographical accounts (there’s at least 3 of them!). I would suggest someone contemplating reading this to just choose one of the interviews and read it by itself in the original.

[Selma Pirim · Rating 5 out of 5]

ömrüne ömür 🤍🩵

[Muge Kocaman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okunmasa da olurmuş...