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Invisible
“One of America’s greatest novelists” dazzlingly reinvents the coming-of-age story in his most passionate and surprising book to date
Sinuously constructed in four interlocking parts, Paul Auster’s fifteenth novel opens in New York City in the spring of 1967, when twenty-year-old Adam Walker, an aspiring poet and student at Columbia University, meets the enigmatic Frenchman Rudolf Born and his silent and seductive girfriend, Margot. Before long, Walker finds himself caught in a perverse triangle that leads to a sudden, shocking act of violence that will alter the course of his life.
Three different narrators tell the story of Invisible, a novel that travels in time from 1967 to 2007 and moves from Morningside Heights, to the Left Bank of Paris, to a remote island in the Caribbean. It is a book of youthful rage, unbridled sexual hunger, and a relentless quest for justice. With uncompromising insight, Auster takes us into the shadowy borderland between truth and memory, between authorship and identity, to produce a work of unforgettable power that confirms his reputation as “one of America’s most spectacularly inventive writers.”
320 pages, Paperback
First published October 27, 2009
454 people are currently reading
13128 people want to read
About the author
Paul Auster
229 books12.2k followersPaul Auster was the bestselling author of 4 3 2 1, Bloodbath Nation, Baumgartner, The Book of Illusions, and The New York Trilogy, among many other works. In 2006 he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature. Among his other honors are the Prix Médicis Étranger for Leviathan, the Independent Spirit Award for the screenplay of Smoke, and the Premio Napoli for Sunset Park. In 2012, he was the first recipient of the NYC Literary Honors in the category of fiction. He was also a finalist for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (The Book of Illusions), the PEN/Faulkner Award (The Music of Chance), the Edgar Award (City of Glass), and the Man Booker Prize (4 3 2 1). Auster was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. His work has been translated into more than forty languages. He died at age seventy-seven in 2024.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,843 reviews
November 27, 2025
A reader writes a book and a writer reads this book… That is what Invisible approximately comes up to on the side of the plot…
Invisible is a novel of moral anxiety, of moral qualms and of moral ambiguity. Who is really a villain and who is really a do-gooder? How much of the surrounding world remains invisible to us? How much of the other people’s life is invisible too?
And in the end the novel turns into a profound and ironical contemplation on the nature of truth and deception.
“And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.” Ecclesiastes 1:17
How much of the world we see is truth and how much of it is lie?
Put something in the wrong place, and even though it is still there – quite possibly smack under your nose – it can vanish for the rest of time.
Invisible is a novel of moral anxiety, of moral qualms and of moral ambiguity. Who is really a villain and who is really a do-gooder? How much of the surrounding world remains invisible to us? How much of the other people’s life is invisible too?
And in the end the novel turns into a profound and ironical contemplation on the nature of truth and deception.
“And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.” Ecclesiastes 1:17
How much of the world we see is truth and how much of it is lie?
October 6, 2019
I shook his hand for the first time in the spring of 1967. I was a second-year student at Columbia then, a know-nothing boy with an appetite for books and a belief (or delusion) that one day I would become good enough to call myself a poet,...
I love Paul Auster, there's no way around it. I am always intrigued, fascinated and sometimes completely in the dark but he is such a great writer for me. Have read several of his books and fortunately I have some more to go, but this one, again, a gem. Dark, intriguing, what's going on, how is this going to end....beautiful writing... Yes, the end is a bit weird but for me, somehow it fitted perfectly in the storyline. Auster does not give any answers, sometimes it is hard to follow a storyline, but this book was easily readible for me. His stories can be hard to read sometimes, but this one was quite a smooth story as I see it. Three persons in the book tell their part and view of the story. Outstanding. Therefore again, 5 stars. More to follow as usual.
This is the story outline: Twenty-year old Adam Walker, an aspiring poet, is studying in New York City when he meets the enigmatic Frenchman Rudolf Born, and his silent and seductive girlfriend Margot. Before long, Walker finds himself caught in a love triangle that leads to a sudden, shocking act of violence that will alter the course of his life....
I love Paul Auster, there's no way around it. I am always intrigued, fascinated and sometimes completely in the dark but he is such a great writer for me. Have read several of his books and fortunately I have some more to go, but this one, again, a gem. Dark, intriguing, what's going on, how is this going to end....beautiful writing... Yes, the end is a bit weird but for me, somehow it fitted perfectly in the storyline. Auster does not give any answers, sometimes it is hard to follow a storyline, but this book was easily readible for me. His stories can be hard to read sometimes, but this one was quite a smooth story as I see it. Three persons in the book tell their part and view of the story. Outstanding. Therefore again, 5 stars. More to follow as usual.
This is the story outline: Twenty-year old Adam Walker, an aspiring poet, is studying in New York City when he meets the enigmatic Frenchman Rudolf Born, and his silent and seductive girlfriend Margot. Before long, Walker finds himself caught in a love triangle that leads to a sudden, shocking act of violence that will alter the course of his life....
December 29, 2011
If you like to read a book with a nice story that makes sense and has a moral/point/definitive ending then you will not want to be friends with Paul Auster. Put the book down, that's it...gently..., now off you go and find something else to read.
If on the other hand you can't be dissuaded and carry on reading this the first thing to know is that you should probably disregard the blurb on the back - it only applies to the first 72 pages of the book. Maybe the person who wrote the blurb only got that far? Who knows. Now all of this probably sounds like it's gearing up to becoming the damning voice of someone who didn't like this book. Actually, I did like this book but again I'm never sure why I like Auster books. They have that appealing shiny-ness, that makes me go "oooh" then put my hands out to touch it even though I know I shouldn't,much like someone giving you a plate of mercury to play with.
But behind the shiny is a matted world of weird, part of which, once again is loosely based on Austers own youth (wistful yearnings to be a writer, time in Paris translating poetry). How much of it is based on Austers on youth I don't know and can't be arsed to find out but right now I'm really hoping he doesn't have a sister. Although I'll say no more on that subject otherwise I'll start turning this review into one big spoiler. This book is really three stories tucked up together in between one cover and none of them really draw any satisfactory conclusions, except maybe that as you go through life you will meet a lot of people who are f*cked in the head and some of them might be French.
If on the other hand you can't be dissuaded and carry on reading this the first thing to know is that you should probably disregard the blurb on the back - it only applies to the first 72 pages of the book. Maybe the person who wrote the blurb only got that far? Who knows. Now all of this probably sounds like it's gearing up to becoming the damning voice of someone who didn't like this book. Actually, I did like this book but again I'm never sure why I like Auster books. They have that appealing shiny-ness, that makes me go "oooh" then put my hands out to touch it even though I know I shouldn't,much like someone giving you a plate of mercury to play with.
But behind the shiny is a matted world of weird, part of which, once again is loosely based on Austers own youth (wistful yearnings to be a writer, time in Paris translating poetry). How much of it is based on Austers on youth I don't know and can't be arsed to find out but right now I'm really hoping he doesn't have a sister. Although I'll say no more on that subject otherwise I'll start turning this review into one big spoiler. This book is really three stories tucked up together in between one cover and none of them really draw any satisfactory conclusions, except maybe that as you go through life you will meet a lot of people who are f*cked in the head and some of them might be French.
April 1, 2020
How often does one have the opportunity to walk into a bar, meet a person, for the first time, and then be offered -(all finances covered) - to write a literary magazine?
The year is 1967....
This novel is divided into four sections....
and.....
I LOVE PAUL AUSTER....
another wonderful Auster novel!!!
This time - I ‘read’ (the physical book), but I could almost hear Paul Auster’s voice reading it ...
like the last few audiobooks I had listened to by him.
In section one: [Spring]
Adam Walker, twenty years old, was an aspiring poet - an undergraduate at Columbia University. He meets the callabistic/ persuasive tutor.....Frenchman Rudolf Born.... political science professor, and his girlfriend Margot. Margot liked the young poet. She had good taste: me too!!!
I was intrigued by all the characters and the I loved the vibrancy - mood - and tone of the entire novel -
New York, Paris, ... even Oakland, California.
A love triangle develops ( not as steamy as your naughty mind thinks though), leading to repercussions of violence. ( hopefully you can’t imagine this - until you read it yourself)....😏
In section two: [Summer]
Adam was sharing an apartment with his sister Gwen....and was not well. He was slowly dying of leukemia. He sent his manuscript to a guy named Jim, a well known author. Jim agrees to meet with Adam.
In section three: [fall]
Adam died before he met with Jim in 2007. 🙁
Jim goes through the manuscript notes that Adam had sent him.... and tells a story of when Adam went to Paris....( introducing other characters: Helene and Cécile).
In section four:
Adam’s sister, Gwyn told Jim that many of the stories that Adam wrote were actually made up.
This section was a trip!
The themes include sexual lust, incest, rage, rebellion, and a hopeful desire to rectify integrity by making amends.
It’s very thought- provoking ...thrilling...
compelling...
And the title, “Invisible” really fits....
referring to relationships, emotions, .... with a book within a book...
Addicting... page turning!!
And...
SO THANKFUL ...
I’ve wasted hours on books ... that I just kept tossing ... and tossing... and tossing!!!
I’m excited that there are still many more Paul Auster books for me to read ( I just wish the library carried them all)!
The year is 1967....
This novel is divided into four sections....
and.....
I LOVE PAUL AUSTER....
another wonderful Auster novel!!!
This time - I ‘read’ (the physical book), but I could almost hear Paul Auster’s voice reading it ...
like the last few audiobooks I had listened to by him.
In section one: [Spring]
Adam Walker, twenty years old, was an aspiring poet - an undergraduate at Columbia University. He meets the callabistic/ persuasive tutor.....Frenchman Rudolf Born.... political science professor, and his girlfriend Margot. Margot liked the young poet. She had good taste: me too!!!
I was intrigued by all the characters and the I loved the vibrancy - mood - and tone of the entire novel -
New York, Paris, ... even Oakland, California.
A love triangle develops ( not as steamy as your naughty mind thinks though), leading to repercussions of violence. ( hopefully you can’t imagine this - until you read it yourself)....😏
In section two: [Summer]
Adam was sharing an apartment with his sister Gwen....and was not well. He was slowly dying of leukemia. He sent his manuscript to a guy named Jim, a well known author. Jim agrees to meet with Adam.
In section three: [fall]
Adam died before he met with Jim in 2007. 🙁
Jim goes through the manuscript notes that Adam had sent him.... and tells a story of when Adam went to Paris....( introducing other characters: Helene and Cécile).
In section four:
Adam’s sister, Gwyn told Jim that many of the stories that Adam wrote were actually made up.
This section was a trip!
The themes include sexual lust, incest, rage, rebellion, and a hopeful desire to rectify integrity by making amends.
It’s very thought- provoking ...thrilling...
compelling...
And the title, “Invisible” really fits....
referring to relationships, emotions, .... with a book within a book...
Addicting... page turning!!
And...
SO THANKFUL ...
I’ve wasted hours on books ... that I just kept tossing ... and tossing... and tossing!!!
I’m excited that there are still many more Paul Auster books for me to read ( I just wish the library carried them all)!
February 25, 2017
This is what fiction should be, in my opinion. Absolutely dazzling, believable yet at times shocking, intellectual without being predictable or dry, compulsively readable but never inane, and above all, completely effortless.
Invisible addresses three seasons in the life of a young man, Adam Walker. In 1967, Adam - a university student and wannabe poet - meets a French professor, Rudolf Born, at a party. What follows is a strange series of events culminating in two main outcomes: the first is Adam's brief affair with Born's girlfriend, Margot, and the second is a random act of violence, committed by Born, which Adam is witness to. All of this takes place within the first seventy pages, with the rest of the book devoted to the effect of these events on Adam's life immediately afterwards, and their resonance in later years. All the usual themes of literary fiction are intact - memory, truth, loss, regret - but they aren't rendered in that self-consciously clever style I've grown so sick of over the past year. Predominantly, this is a story about obsession and sex: Adam is obsessed with exacting revenge on Born, as well as sexually obsessed with Margot, and later with another woman (whose identity I won't reveal here as it would give away a major - and very surprising - plot point).
The perspective shifts: Invisible begins as a first-person account told by Adam himself, and at first, I expected the whole story to be told this way - but this being Auster, I should have known better than to expect a straightforward, linear narrative. In Part II, we jump forward to 2007, when Jim Freeman, a former acquaintance who hasn't spoken to Adam in almost forty years, receives a letter from his old friend with a partial manuscript - the first chapter of a possible book, titled 'Spring', which formed the first part of the story. The second chapter, 'Summer', is also told by Adam, but being far more personal and painful for him to recount, it is related in second person, placing the reader at the centre of an intimate and somewhat disturbing tale. In Part III, with Adam's health deteriorating, Jim is compelled to assemble chapter three, 'Fall', from a series of brief notes, and finally, he seeks out some of the others involved in the story to satisfy his own curiosity about both Adam's honesty and the after-effects of the events he has described. I want to say this is where things really get interesting - as the resulting accounts cast doubt on the truth of both Adam's story and Jim's interpretation - but that would make it sound like the book isn't riveting from the very first page, and it really is.
I know Auster is an acquired taste - some of my Goodreads friends have given this book lukewarm reviews, and if you want a nice neat ending where everything's resolved and the truth is made clear, you won't find it here. But I am someone who generally likes the author's work, and this was by far the best of the Auster books I've read so far. I found it enormously compelling, beautifully written (it flows like a dream) and genuinely discomfiting. It lacks the obvious avant-garde tone of (for example) The New York Trilogy, but retains a certain sense of oddness that's enough to give it a sharp edge. Altogether wonderful.
Invisible addresses three seasons in the life of a young man, Adam Walker. In 1967, Adam - a university student and wannabe poet - meets a French professor, Rudolf Born, at a party. What follows is a strange series of events culminating in two main outcomes: the first is Adam's brief affair with Born's girlfriend, Margot, and the second is a random act of violence, committed by Born, which Adam is witness to. All of this takes place within the first seventy pages, with the rest of the book devoted to the effect of these events on Adam's life immediately afterwards, and their resonance in later years. All the usual themes of literary fiction are intact - memory, truth, loss, regret - but they aren't rendered in that self-consciously clever style I've grown so sick of over the past year. Predominantly, this is a story about obsession and sex: Adam is obsessed with exacting revenge on Born, as well as sexually obsessed with Margot, and later with another woman (whose identity I won't reveal here as it would give away a major - and very surprising - plot point).
The perspective shifts: Invisible begins as a first-person account told by Adam himself, and at first, I expected the whole story to be told this way - but this being Auster, I should have known better than to expect a straightforward, linear narrative. In Part II, we jump forward to 2007, when Jim Freeman, a former acquaintance who hasn't spoken to Adam in almost forty years, receives a letter from his old friend with a partial manuscript - the first chapter of a possible book, titled 'Spring', which formed the first part of the story. The second chapter, 'Summer', is also told by Adam, but being far more personal and painful for him to recount, it is related in second person, placing the reader at the centre of an intimate and somewhat disturbing tale. In Part III, with Adam's health deteriorating, Jim is compelled to assemble chapter three, 'Fall', from a series of brief notes, and finally, he seeks out some of the others involved in the story to satisfy his own curiosity about both Adam's honesty and the after-effects of the events he has described. I want to say this is where things really get interesting - as the resulting accounts cast doubt on the truth of both Adam's story and Jim's interpretation - but that would make it sound like the book isn't riveting from the very first page, and it really is.
I know Auster is an acquired taste - some of my Goodreads friends have given this book lukewarm reviews, and if you want a nice neat ending where everything's resolved and the truth is made clear, you won't find it here. But I am someone who generally likes the author's work, and this was by far the best of the Auster books I've read so far. I found it enormously compelling, beautifully written (it flows like a dream) and genuinely discomfiting. It lacks the obvious avant-garde tone of (for example) The New York Trilogy, but retains a certain sense of oddness that's enough to give it a sharp edge. Altogether wonderful.
August 29, 2017
100 out of 5 stars!! One of my favourite books by Paul Auster <3
April 23, 2020
أهم ما يميز كتابات بول أستر هو أسلوب السرد
انسيابية أسلوبه واضحة حتى مع تفاوت أفكار وحبكة رواياته
الرواية هنا متعددة الرواة ينتقل أوستر بين شخصياتها على مدى سنوات طويلة
يحكي عن آدم ووكر الشاب الرافض للحرب والحالم بعالم الشعر والكتابة
وتفاصيل الأحداث والعلاقات التي غيرت مسار حياته حتى نهايتها
بمرور الزمن تتعدد الرؤى وتنظر كل شخصية للماضي بنظرة مختلفة
وتبدو حياة ووكر بعد موته مشتتة بين الوهم والحقيقة
انسيابية أسلوبه واضحة حتى مع تفاوت أفكار وحبكة رواياته
الرواية هنا متعددة الرواة ينتقل أوستر بين شخصياتها على مدى سنوات طويلة
يحكي عن آدم ووكر الشاب الرافض للحرب والحالم بعالم الشعر والكتابة
وتفاصيل الأحداث والعلاقات التي غيرت مسار حياته حتى نهايتها
بمرور الزمن تتعدد الرؤى وتنظر كل شخصية للماضي بنظرة مختلفة
وتبدو حياة ووكر بعد موته مشتتة بين الوهم والحقيقة
December 26, 2017
Η έκπληξη της χρονιάς. Η απόδειξη (για μένα) ότι δεν πρέπει ποτέ να αποκλείουμε τίποτα και να έχουμε ανοιχτό το μυαλό μας.
Είχα διαβάσει πριν χρόνια την τριλογία της Νέας Υόρκης και το θεώρησα χαμένο χρόνο. Ήταν σκέτη απογοήτευση, παρά τις διθυραμβικές κριτικές που διάβασα. Ωστόσο είπα να δώσω μια δεύτερη ευκαιρία και συνάντησα έναν άλλον συγγραφέα, κάτι εκ διαμέτρου διαφορετικό.
Ήταν ένα συγκλονιστικό βιβλίο. Μια συγκινητική ιστορία γεμάτη αναπάντεχες εκπλήξεις που έθιξε πολλά θέματα όπως το θάνατο, τις αναμνήσεις που επηρεάζουν ολόκληρη τη ζωή κτλ. Πρόκειται για ένα ψυχογράφημα, για το οποίο τολμώ να πω πως ο Auster είναι ένας σύγχρονος Ντοστογιέφσκι και ένας από τους πιο σπουδαίους εν ζωή συγγραφείς. Αναθεώρησα λοιπόν 100%.
Υ.Γ. Μου άρεσαν πολύ οι αναφορές σε ποιητές και γενικά λογοτέχνες, οι οποίες φυσικά μου άνοιξαν την όρεξη!
Είχα διαβάσει πριν χρόνια την τριλογία της Νέας Υόρκης και το θεώρησα χαμένο χρόνο. Ήταν σκέτη απογοήτευση, παρά τις διθυραμβικές κριτικές που διάβασα. Ωστόσο είπα να δώσω μια δεύτερη ευκαιρία και συνάντησα έναν άλλον συγγραφέα, κάτι εκ διαμέτρου διαφορετικό.
Ήταν ένα συγκλονιστικό βιβλίο. Μια συγκινητική ιστορία γεμάτη αναπάντεχες εκπλήξεις που έθιξε πολλά θέματα όπως το θάνατο, τις αναμνήσεις που επηρεάζουν ολόκληρη τη ζωή κτλ. Πρόκειται για ένα ψυχογράφημα, για το οποίο τολμώ να πω πως ο Auster είναι ένας σύγχρονος Ντοστογιέφσκι και ένας από τους πιο σπουδαίους εν ζωή συγγραφείς. Αναθεώρησα λοιπόν 100%.
Υ.Γ. Μου άρεσαν πολύ οι αναφορές σε ποιητές και γενικά λογοτέχνες, οι οποίες φυσικά μου άνοιξαν την όρεξη!
November 3, 2024
ناپیدا کتابی ایست از پل آستر ، نویسنده سرشناس آمریکا��ی . داستان او چهار بخش دارد که هر یک از دیدگاه متفاوت روایت شده و به تدریج پازل داستان آستر را کامل میکند. نویسنده تلاش کرده تا با خلق ساختاری نسبتا پیچیده، فضایی پر ابهام برای خواننده ایجاد کند و این گونه او را جذب داستان خود کند .
شخصیت اصلی داستان ، آدام واکر، نویسنده ای پیر و رو به زوالی است که تلاش می کند با گذشته پر فراز و نشیبش روبرو شود . واکر در تعامل با شخصیت های دیگر ، داستان را به پیش می برند .
اما دنیایی که واکر آفریده ، چندان پیچیده و یا ناپیدا نیست ، لایه های پنهانی چندانی هم ندارد . ناپیدا کتابی ایست که لطف هنر و قدرت داستان گویی آستر ، آن را به اثری سطحی اما سرگرم کننده تبدیل کرده است .
شخصیت اصلی داستان ، آدام واکر، نویسنده ای پیر و رو به زوالی است که تلاش می کند با گذشته پر فراز و نشیبش روبرو شود . واکر در تعامل با شخصیت های دیگر ، داستان را به پیش می برند .
اما دنیایی که واکر آفریده ، چندان پیچیده و یا ناپیدا نیست ، لایه های پنهانی چندانی هم ندارد . ناپیدا کتابی ایست که لطف هنر و قدرت داستان گویی آستر ، آن را به اثری سطحی اما سرگرم کننده تبدیل کرده است .
August 11, 2021
Magnífico! Um livro que agarra e surpreende do início ao fim!
Uma das melhores leituras deste ano. Mas porque é que estava há tanto tempo na minha estante para ser lido??? Recomendo vivamente!! Um autor que quero ler mais :D
Uma das melhores leituras deste ano. Mas porque é que estava há tanto tempo na minha estante para ser lido??? Recomendo vivamente!! Um autor que quero ler mais :D
August 16, 2017
My favorite Paul Auster novel so far. But if you've read "Oracle Night", "New York Trilogy", "Book of Illusions", then you've totally read "Invisible." The brand is unique*, but the plotless-ness can become quite disconcerting. I THOROUGHLY dug this one, reading it all in a day.
* "Timbuktu" is the only one of his that's not "meta." Just really really sad.
* "Timbuktu" is the only one of his that's not "meta." Just really really sad.
April 28, 2019
أوستر، على ما يبدو، هو أجمل من يلعب بالأصوات السردية.
September 22, 2019
4.5 με όλη μου την αγάπη και το σεβασμό προς τον πολύ αγαπημένο Paul.. Από τα καλύτερα του που έχω διαβάσει..
July 24, 2023
3 stars
(slightly spoilery review, but only in the meta analysis. No plot details.)
The title of this novel is "Invisible" - why? Nothing is overtly hidden, nothing is kept secret that isn't revealed at some point. All I can think of is one exception: the author.
Who is really narrating the novel? That's the question. Not who the characters are or who can be believed or what anybody did. Who is really pulling the strings? Whose eyes are we ultimately looking though?
Auster mirrors, denies and duplicates, making the novel feel like a Kafkaesque labyrinth of memory, deception vs honesty, and purpose. Why though? What's the fictional author's (not Auster's) game. Revenge? Maybe. Honesty? Could be. Profit? Possibly. But in the end, what's really going on, who is really behind it and why is anybody's guess.
That might provide for a couple of fascinating round of theorising if the novel wasn't bogged down with tedious, boring details that go on for pages, making parts a real slog to get through. None of it seems, or is, relevant. (Is what everyone is eating and wearing relevant to the plot? I'm sceptical.)
The novel also felt strangely lifeless to me, esp the first half. Phoned in, might be a better way to put it. Auster being Auster to fill pages and fulfill contract obligations. Or perhaps the artifice is a little too apparent there.
The second half becomes more gripping, perhaps because most of the tedious detail drops away, but it's still not enough to make it overly interesting.
Is this a good novel? Yes. Is it a great novel? No. Auster is an accomplished novelist, but this is no more than his standard level of ability and quality. Not a bad read, but not on the highly recommended list either.
(slightly spoilery review, but only in the meta analysis. No plot details.)
The title of this novel is "Invisible" - why? Nothing is overtly hidden, nothing is kept secret that isn't revealed at some point. All I can think of is one exception: the author.
Who is really narrating the novel? That's the question. Not who the characters are or who can be believed or what anybody did. Who is really pulling the strings? Whose eyes are we ultimately looking though?
Auster mirrors, denies and duplicates, making the novel feel like a Kafkaesque labyrinth of memory, deception vs honesty, and purpose. Why though? What's the fictional author's (not Auster's) game. Revenge? Maybe. Honesty? Could be. Profit? Possibly. But in the end, what's really going on, who is really behind it and why is anybody's guess.
That might provide for a couple of fascinating round of theorising if the novel wasn't bogged down with tedious, boring details that go on for pages, making parts a real slog to get through. None of it seems, or is, relevant. (Is what everyone is eating and wearing relevant to the plot? I'm sceptical.)
The novel also felt strangely lifeless to me, esp the first half. Phoned in, might be a better way to put it. Auster being Auster to fill pages and fulfill contract obligations. Or perhaps the artifice is a little too apparent there.
The second half becomes more gripping, perhaps because most of the tedious detail drops away, but it's still not enough to make it overly interesting.
Is this a good novel? Yes. Is it a great novel? No. Auster is an accomplished novelist, but this is no more than his standard level of ability and quality. Not a bad read, but not on the highly recommended list either.
March 12, 2012
This is by far the worst book I've read in 2010. I couldnt even finish it; the thought of having to read another 100 pages of drivel led me to thumb through the last pages, only to realize I wasn't missing anything.
How an author that wrote great novels such as The Book of Illusions or Man in The Dark can produce a book that contains no believable characters, no real story and only superficial and empty phrases is a mystery to me. The main character is a spineless loser, whose greatest accomplishment is 3 weeks of sex with a lacklustre French woman that just got dumped. His moral compass is stuck on 'thou shall not kill', and because he's got no imagination or anything else to show for, his biggest accomplishment is deciding to ruin the killer's life by convincing the killer's fiancee that the killer is a bad man. What an awful revenge. I don't care if he succeeded - if he did, it would be utterly unbelievable.
To add insult to injury, we also have a former classmate, who never saw our spineless zero in 40 years, but suddenly becomes fantastically interested in him - so much that he even considers his sexual exploits with his sister perfectly normal. This classmate is famous for his literary work, however in this book he decides to write like a first grader writing love letters to Lady Gaga. If Auster tried to shock me, he failed. If he tried to bore me, he succeeded. Man, that second part of the book was like a 24hr B&B marathon.
This book was so bad I even threw it away - I couldn't stand the thought of spoiling anyone else's brain with such useless writing.
How an author that wrote great novels such as The Book of Illusions or Man in The Dark can produce a book that contains no believable characters, no real story and only superficial and empty phrases is a mystery to me. The main character is a spineless loser, whose greatest accomplishment is 3 weeks of sex with a lacklustre French woman that just got dumped. His moral compass is stuck on 'thou shall not kill', and because he's got no imagination or anything else to show for, his biggest accomplishment is deciding to ruin the killer's life by convincing the killer's fiancee that the killer is a bad man. What an awful revenge. I don't care if he succeeded - if he did, it would be utterly unbelievable.
To add insult to injury, we also have a former classmate, who never saw our spineless zero in 40 years, but suddenly becomes fantastically interested in him - so much that he even considers his sexual exploits with his sister perfectly normal. This classmate is famous for his literary work, however in this book he decides to write like a first grader writing love letters to Lady Gaga. If Auster tried to shock me, he failed. If he tried to bore me, he succeeded. Man, that second part of the book was like a 24hr B&B marathon.
This book was so bad I even threw it away - I couldn't stand the thought of spoiling anyone else's brain with such useless writing.
July 6, 2025
“Invisível” é um Paul Auster sem tirar nem pôr, com as coincidências e a metaliteratura que o definem, mas depois de vários momentos bons, deixou-me insatisfeita pela composição das personagens e pela interacção entre elas. Há na génese de “Invisível” algo do universo dos super-heróis em que o vilão é mesmo muito pérfido, enquanto o herói é menos poderoso e, apesar de um forte sentido de justiça, faz algumas escolhas duvidosas.
Numa festa, Walker, estudante universitário e aspirante a poeta, conhece a personagem dúbia que é Born, um professor universitário francês disposto a investir no seu talento literário. Aquilo que poderia ser o início de uma bela amizade termina abruptamente durante um assalto e Walker cai numa crise existencial.
Sim, tu és impossível, e perguntas-te como é que foste acabar neste beco sem saída em que só encontras desespero e um arreigado desprezo por ti mesmo. Será Born o único responsável pelo que te aconteceu? Será possível que uma momentânea falta de coragem tenha minado a tua confiança em ti mesmo tão profundamente, ao ponto de não acreditares no teu futuro? Há apenas alguns meses, ias incendiar o mundo com o teu fulgor, e agora achas-te estúpido e inepto, uma máquina de masturbação perfeitamente acéfala.
Depois de uma viagem a Paris para estudar e também acertar contas com o seu arqui-inimigo, Walker acaba por fazer uma viragem abrupta.
Três anos de Direito. A ideia era fazer alguma coisa de bom pelos outros, trabalhar com os pobres, os oprimidos, envolver-me com os humilhados e os invisíveis e tentar defendê-los contra as crueldades e a indiferença da sociedade americana. (...) Da poesia para a justiça, então. Justiça poética, se quiseres.
Quer na Nova Iorque de 1967, em plena Guerra do Vietname, quer na cidade de Paris do Maio de 68, Born, por detrás da sua bonomia, representa as forças retrógradas e as actividades insidiosas dos poderosos. Apesar de serem mais semelhantes do que se julgam, capazes de grandes mentiras e com tendências para a perversão sexual, no final, vence o mal na sua mais pura expressão, obviamente, porque o mal vence sempre, nem que seja através da reinvenção.
Cinquenta ou sessenta homens e mulheres negros agachados naquele terreno, com martelos e escopros nas suas mãos, malhando nas pedras enquanto o sol malhava nos seus corpos, sem sombra nenhuma em sítio nenhum, o suor brilhando em todos os rostos.
Numa festa, Walker, estudante universitário e aspirante a poeta, conhece a personagem dúbia que é Born, um professor universitário francês disposto a investir no seu talento literário. Aquilo que poderia ser o início de uma bela amizade termina abruptamente durante um assalto e Walker cai numa crise existencial.
Sim, tu és impossível, e perguntas-te como é que foste acabar neste beco sem saída em que só encontras desespero e um arreigado desprezo por ti mesmo. Será Born o único responsável pelo que te aconteceu? Será possível que uma momentânea falta de coragem tenha minado a tua confiança em ti mesmo tão profundamente, ao ponto de não acreditares no teu futuro? Há apenas alguns meses, ias incendiar o mundo com o teu fulgor, e agora achas-te estúpido e inepto, uma máquina de masturbação perfeitamente acéfala.
Depois de uma viagem a Paris para estudar e também acertar contas com o seu arqui-inimigo, Walker acaba por fazer uma viragem abrupta.
Três anos de Direito. A ideia era fazer alguma coisa de bom pelos outros, trabalhar com os pobres, os oprimidos, envolver-me com os humilhados e os invisíveis e tentar defendê-los contra as crueldades e a indiferença da sociedade americana. (...) Da poesia para a justiça, então. Justiça poética, se quiseres.
Quer na Nova Iorque de 1967, em plena Guerra do Vietname, quer na cidade de Paris do Maio de 68, Born, por detrás da sua bonomia, representa as forças retrógradas e as actividades insidiosas dos poderosos. Apesar de serem mais semelhantes do que se julgam, capazes de grandes mentiras e com tendências para a perversão sexual, no final, vence o mal na sua mais pura expressão, obviamente, porque o mal vence sempre, nem que seja através da reinvenção.
Cinquenta ou sessenta homens e mulheres negros agachados naquele terreno, com martelos e escopros nas suas mãos, malhando nas pedras enquanto o sol malhava nos seus corpos, sem sombra nenhuma em sítio nenhum, o suor brilhando em todos os rostos.
August 26, 2018
پل استر حسابی خواننده ش رو بازی می ده. با خوندن آخرین صفحه ی کتاب اصلا مطمئن نیستم که هیچ کدوم از حرفهای راوی در تمام طول کتاب واقعی بوده باشه.
بسیار تجربه ی لذت بخشی بود.
معما و سوال با تموم شدن کتاب هنوز ادامه داره و این هست که کتاب رو برام خاطره انگیز می کنه.
بسیار تجربه ی لذت بخشی بود.
معما و سوال با تموم شدن کتاب هنوز ادامه داره و این هست که کتاب رو برام خاطره انگیز می کنه.
May 6, 2017
Ένα εξαιρετικά γραμμένο βιβλίο, με τους ήρωες άψογα ψυχογραφημένους. Η γραφή του ήταν μαεστρικά δομημένη, με τους αφηγητές να αλλάζουν διαρκώς και να χρησιμοποιούνται διάφορα μέσα και τρόποι αφήγησης: πρώτο πρόσωπο, τρίτο πρόσωπο, ξανά πρώτο και τέλος πάλι τρίτο. Οι αφηγητές εναλλάσσονταν, κι εμείς διαβάζαμε προσωπικές διηγήσεις, σημειώσεις, ημερολόγια, εντυπώσεις, ενώ ταξιδεύαμε διαρκώς από το 1967 στο 2007 και αντίστροφα.
Δεν με ενθουσίασε γιατί δεν δέθηκα με κανέναν ήρωα. Δεν τους αντιπάθησα, δεν τους συμπάθησα, γενικά η ιστορία τους μου φάνηκε αδιάφορη. Περισσότερο θαύμασα την τεχνική του συγγραφέα, παρά την ιστορία του. Πάντως, η ιστορία έρεε γρήγορα και ευχάριστα, οπότε πέρασα καλά διαβάζοντάς το.
Έχω ξαναδιαβάσει Auster (το Σάνσετ Παρκ) και μου άρεσε περισσότερο. Θα ξαναδιαβάσω σίγουρα, αν έχει κάποιος να προτείνει το αγαπημένο του, καλοδεχούμενη η πρόταση!
ΥΓ. Μετά την "Κρυφή Ιστορία" που διάβασα πρόσφατα και από αυτό το βιβλίο, νομίζω ότι οι σπουδαστές λογοτεχνίας και λοιπών φιλολογικών, ενίοτε και πολιτικών επιστημών είναι ολίγων επικίνδυνοι όταν αποφασίζουν να εμπνευστούν από όσα μελετούν. Ως μικρή Αννούλα δηλώνω σαφώς και κατηγορηματικώς ότι προτιμώ τα αγοράκια που παίζουν με υλικά αντικείμενα που κρατάνε στα χέρια τους, κι ας είναι τσιπάκια, κονσόλες και λοιπά γκάτζετ, ακόμα και φωτόσπαθα των τζεντάι... Στην τελική είναι πιο ασφαλείς για την ψυχική και σωματική ακεραιότητα των γύρω τους.... Στην τελική μπορεί να σε πάνε και ταξίδι στην Ε3!!
Δεν με ενθουσίασε γιατί δεν δέθηκα με κανέναν ήρωα. Δεν τους αντιπάθησα, δεν τους συμπάθησα, γενικά η ιστορία τους μου φάνηκε αδιάφορη. Περισσότερο θαύμασα την τεχνική του συγγραφέα, παρά την ιστορία του. Πάντως, η ιστορία έρεε γρήγορα και ευχάριστα, οπότε πέρασα καλά διαβάζοντάς το.
Έχω ξαναδιαβάσει Auster (το Σάνσετ Παρκ) και μου άρεσε περισσότερο. Θα ξαναδιαβάσω σίγουρα, αν έχει κάποιος να προτείνει το αγαπημένο του, καλοδεχούμενη η πρόταση!
ΥΓ. Μετά την "Κρυφή Ιστορία" που διάβασα πρόσφατα και από αυτό το βιβλίο, νομίζω ότι οι σπουδαστές λογοτεχνίας και λοιπών φιλολογικών, ενίοτε και πολιτικών επιστημών είναι ολίγων επικίνδυνοι όταν αποφασίζουν να εμπνευστούν από όσα μελετούν. Ως μικρή Αννούλα δηλώνω σαφώς και κατηγορηματικώς ότι προτιμώ τα αγοράκια που παίζουν με υλικά αντικείμενα που κρατάνε στα χέρια τους, κι ας είναι τσιπάκια, κονσόλες και λοιπά γκάτζετ, ακόμα και φωτόσπαθα των τζεντάι... Στην τελική είναι πιο ασφαλείς για την ψυχική και σωματική ακεραιότητα των γύρω τους.... Στην τελική μπορεί να σε πάνε και ταξίδι στην Ε3!!
June 16, 2023
CRITIQUE:
First Person Invisibility
This is the first Auster novel I've read since I finished "Man in the Dark", which left me vaguely disappointed.
In contrast, this novel excited me from the first page to the last.
"Man in the Dark" was a stylistic experiment in the juxtaposition of two stories. From a structural point of view, "Invisible" is more concerned with the perspective, style and stages of story-telling:
* Part I is an apparently non-fictional memoir about various events in 1967 surrounding Rudolf Born related by the principal protagonist (Adam Walker) in the first person singular.
* Part II purports to be a rewrite by Walker of text that he had originally written in the first person, but felt didn't work. His college friend, James (Jim) Freeman, now, in 2007, a successful writer, suggests that he change the perspective of the narrator, and it solves his writer's block, even though Walker uses the second person, rather than the third person perspective. Walker's text is framed by text purportedly written by Jim from his own point of view.
* Part III is again framed by text written by Jim, but contains incomplete notes written by Walker before his death. Jim tells us that, in the final version, he fleshed out Walker's notes.
* Part IV is also framed by Jim's perspective, but contains diary entries by a relatively minor, but Lolita-like, character, Cecile, which describe her interaction in 2007 with Rudolf Born after her mother, Helene's, death (when he reveals the real reason he had wanted to marry Helene and become Cecile's step-father).
Walker's identity has been segmented, and then reconstituted from different perspectives. Thus, it seems that identity is not just the product of the one protagonist or narrator, but an amalgam of the points of view of different characters/ narrators.
In Part II, Jim explains his own experience of a writer's block, which he overcame by a change of narrative perspective:
Identity is a composite, which benefits from a little separation and distance. Too much first person proximity leads to the invisibility of the title.
A Monstrous, Nabokovian Transgression
Not only does this approach to narrative reflect Nabokov's interest in identity and narrative structure, but much of the subject matter recalls Nabokov's "Lolita" and "Ada".
Part II describes a sexual relationship, of a type that is widely regarded as transgressive ("rather brutal stuff, I'm afraid. Ugly things I haven't had the heart or the will to look at in years..."). It commences as a "grand experiment", an "adolescent frolic" on a one off basis in 1961, when the participants are fifteen (the female, Gwyn) and fourteen (the male, Adam).
Despite the mutual compact between them, the participants indulge in the same activity (an "incestuous rampage", an "unholy matrimony") over a period of 34 days in 1967 before Walker flies out to Paris. They're "trapped in the throes of constant, overpowering lust - sex beasts, lovers, best friends: the last two people left in the universe."
Gwyn is on the pill, so it's assumed that she can't fall pregnant.
They're both aware that society defines their relationship as a "monumental transgression, a dark and iniquitous thing according to the laws of man and God."
Yet, they justify the relationship as "real love":
"Pure Make-Believe"
When, 40 years later, Gwyn is shown a copy of Part II of the book, she responds that the relationship was a fantasy of Adam's, "a [salacious] dream of what he wished had happened but never did".
Even if they might both have wished for it to occur, Gwtn says it never eventuated:
Fantasy and/or Reality
This raises a question about the relationship between fact and fiction in literary fiction.
If 75% of a novel is written in a realistic, non-fictional style (which we assume to be "true") and 25% is written in the style of fiction or fantasy, is it tempting to assume that the other 25% is also true?
Is this the premise upon which both Nabokov and Auster play their narratological games with us readers?
SOUNDTRACK:
First Person Invisibility
This is the first Auster novel I've read since I finished "Man in the Dark", which left me vaguely disappointed.
In contrast, this novel excited me from the first page to the last.
"Man in the Dark" was a stylistic experiment in the juxtaposition of two stories. From a structural point of view, "Invisible" is more concerned with the perspective, style and stages of story-telling:
* Part I is an apparently non-fictional memoir about various events in 1967 surrounding Rudolf Born related by the principal protagonist (Adam Walker) in the first person singular.
* Part II purports to be a rewrite by Walker of text that he had originally written in the first person, but felt didn't work. His college friend, James (Jim) Freeman, now, in 2007, a successful writer, suggests that he change the perspective of the narrator, and it solves his writer's block, even though Walker uses the second person, rather than the third person perspective. Walker's text is framed by text purportedly written by Jim from his own point of view.
* Part III is again framed by text written by Jim, but contains incomplete notes written by Walker before his death. Jim tells us that, in the final version, he fleshed out Walker's notes.
* Part IV is also framed by Jim's perspective, but contains diary entries by a relatively minor, but Lolita-like, character, Cecile, which describe her interaction in 2007 with Rudolf Born after her mother, Helene's, death (when he reveals the real reason he had wanted to marry Helene and become Cecile's step-father).
Walker's identity has been segmented, and then reconstituted from different perspectives. Thus, it seems that identity is not just the product of the one protagonist or narrator, but an amalgam of the points of view of different characters/ narrators.
In Part II, Jim explains his own experience of a writer's block, which he overcame by a change of narrative perspective:
"My approach had been wrong, I realised. By writing about myself in the first person, I had smothered myself and made myself invisible, had made it impossible for me to find the thing I was looking for. I needed to separate myself from myself, to step back and carve out some space between myself and my subject (which was myself), and therefore I returned to the beginning...and began writing it in the third person."
Identity is a composite, which benefits from a little separation and distance. Too much first person proximity leads to the invisibility of the title.
A Monstrous, Nabokovian Transgression
Not only does this approach to narrative reflect Nabokov's interest in identity and narrative structure, but much of the subject matter recalls Nabokov's "Lolita" and "Ada".
Part II describes a sexual relationship, of a type that is widely regarded as transgressive ("rather brutal stuff, I'm afraid. Ugly things I haven't had the heart or the will to look at in years..."). It commences as a "grand experiment", an "adolescent frolic" on a one off basis in 1961, when the participants are fifteen (the female, Gwyn) and fourteen (the male, Adam).
Despite the mutual compact between them, the participants indulge in the same activity (an "incestuous rampage", an "unholy matrimony") over a period of 34 days in 1967 before Walker flies out to Paris. They're "trapped in the throes of constant, overpowering lust - sex beasts, lovers, best friends: the last two people left in the universe."
Gwyn is on the pill, so it's assumed that she can't fall pregnant.
They're both aware that society defines their relationship as a "monumental transgression, a dark and iniquitous thing according to the laws of man and God."
Yet, they justify the relationship as "real love":
"You tell yourself that love is not a moral issue, desire is not a moral issue, and as long as you cause no harm to each other or anyone else, you will not be breaking your vow [to live your life as an ethical human being]."
"Pure Make-Believe"
When, 40 years later, Gwyn is shown a copy of Part II of the book, she responds that the relationship was a fantasy of Adam's, "a [salacious] dream of what he wished had happened but never did".
Even if they might both have wished for it to occur, Gwtn says it never eventuated:
"What Adam wrote was pure make-believe."
Fantasy and/or Reality
This raises a question about the relationship between fact and fiction in literary fiction.
If 75% of a novel is written in a realistic, non-fictional style (which we assume to be "true") and 25% is written in the style of fiction or fantasy, is it tempting to assume that the other 25% is also true?
Is this the premise upon which both Nabokov and Auster play their narratological games with us readers?
SOUNDTRACK:
September 5, 2024
Antes de ter lido “Invisível” de Paul Auster apenas tinha lido “A Trilogia de Nova Iorque”, devia eu ter uns dezanove anos, e lembro-me de ter considerado o seu estilo como muito característico, muito complexo e muito sombrio, mesmo sem ter nenhuma outra referência que suportasse tal reflexão; apenas aquelas três histórias de mistério centradas no submundo de Nova Iorque: “Cidade de Vidro”, “Fantasmas” e “O Quarto Fechado à Chave”. De facto, apreciei muito o que li e nunca mais me esqueci daquele livro, mesmo tendo abandonado durante tanto tempo o mundo literário deste escritor.
Chego a “Invisível”, livro com uma trama muito complexa, mas, contudo, muito elegante, se é que posso utilizar este termo, e consegui verificar as minhas cogitações anteriores acerca do estilo de Auster.
Acompanhei a história de Adam Walker de forma dedicada; não tive sequer a ousadia de achar que o desenrolar da trama deveria ser desta ou daquela maneira, limitando-me a ser uma mera testemunha da evolução da complexidade das personagens e das suas interações.
Com esta obra, embora fictícia, tive a oportunidade única de explorar a natureza humana na sua forma mais sombria. As quatro partes fascinaram-me em igual medida e nem sequer o final me desencantou.
Paul Auster deixou-nos, sem dúvida, um legado único.
Chego a “Invisível”, livro com uma trama muito complexa, mas, contudo, muito elegante, se é que posso utilizar este termo, e consegui verificar as minhas cogitações anteriores acerca do estilo de Auster.
Acompanhei a história de Adam Walker de forma dedicada; não tive sequer a ousadia de achar que o desenrolar da trama deveria ser desta ou daquela maneira, limitando-me a ser uma mera testemunha da evolução da complexidade das personagens e das suas interações.
Com esta obra, embora fictícia, tive a oportunidade única de explorar a natureza humana na sua forma mais sombria. As quatro partes fascinaram-me em igual medida e nem sequer o final me desencantou.
Paul Auster deixou-nos, sem dúvida, um legado único.
September 15, 2019
What happened to the Auster of old? The one that nods towards Beckett and Kafka? The one that made him stand out from the crowd. Whilst Invisible was full of the typical Auster tropes, one being the oddly detached roaming male narrator from the novel's first third, I think not only has Auster got more sentimental with age, but far more mainstream as well. This novel could have been written by so many other American novelists. It started out really well though, and I didn't have a problem with the multiple narrators, nor the fact the novel has stories within the main story, and it was, earlier on, a real intriguing page-turner, as a three-way relationship developed, but it just fell away for me in the last third, like he didn't know what direction to go in, plus it contains a sloppy ending. What's strange, is that only a year later in 2010 he would write 'Sunset Park', a novel I personally think is his best since 1992's 'Leviathan'.
February 22, 2021
I’m not sure I can concisely describe what I just read. But it was good writing and the way the book was structured—4 parts with 3 people separately responsible for the narration—maintained by attention throughout. I looked at my records and the only book I read by Paul Auster was a memoir of his, The Invention of Solitude. I read it way back in 1998 so I am sure if I read it again it will be like I never read it. I guess that is a blessing rather than a curse—not remembering books read after a certain amount of time has elapsed. Although I worry…I read Jamaica Inn twice within one year, the second time not aware of reading it before although I guessed the ending (no duh Jim, you just read it five months ago!!!). 😐 Now how did I get off on that tangent?
Anyhoo, any recommendations on what I read next by Paul Auster will be welcome. 🙃
I can’t tell who was spinning a false narrative in this novel, so I will be anxious to read reviews. (thirty minutes later: After reading some reviews, I still don’t know.)
Book starts out in 1967 in New York City (Vietnam War era). Adam Walker, a graduate student, remembers He didn’t seem like the sort to lie.
Cecile Juin, daughter of Helene, A Frenchwoman who Rudolph Born was supposed to marry (i.e., Helene), kept a diary and relates an episode in her life when she went to a Caribbean island where Born was living and She does not believe Born. At this point near the end of the novel I don’t know who or what to believe.
The third person who had a voice in this story is Jim Freeman, the person who is Adam’s friend from way back in 1967 and is a successful author and who has been entrusted by Adam to publish the chapters of the book sent him by Adam if he thinks it is publishable.
And the book ends abruptly and I don’t know what to make of that either. I’m still clueless as to what this novel was all about, although the book liner tells us it is supposed to be about…
• "Youthful rage, unbridled sexual hunger, ad a relentless quest for justice. With uncompromising insight, Auster takes us into the shadowy borderland between truth and memory, between authorship and identity….”
Reviews
• https://www.theguardian.com/books/200...
• https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/bo... (the reviewer, Clancy Martin, calls it the finest novel Paul Auster has ever written and at that time he had written 15)
• https://themillions.com/2010/08/old-t...
Note:
I read this book in about 3 hours. It was a fast read, it was easy to read, and it was a pleasant read. Although I can’t tell you about the novel…what it all meant, even in a spoiler alert, because I don’t know what it all meant, I have to say this reviewer’s assessment below is exactly the way I felt and why I am giving it 3.5 (rounded up to 4) stars:
• As soon as you finish Paul Auster’s “Invisible” you want to read it again. And not because, as sometimes with his novels — as with the novels of Georges Perec, one of a handful of other real authors mentioned in the book — you suddenly suspect, at the very end, that you haven’t properly understood a word of what has gone before. You want to reread “Invisible” because it moves quickly, easily, somehow sinuously, and you worry that there were good parts that you read right past, insights that you missed. The prose is contemporary American writing at its best: crisp, elegant, brisk. It has the illusion of effortlessness that comes only with fierce discipline. As often happens when you are in the hands of a master, you read the next sentence almost before you are finished with the previous one. The novel could be read shallowly, because it is such a pleasure to read.
Anyhoo, any recommendations on what I read next by Paul Auster will be welcome. 🙃
I can’t tell who was spinning a false narrative in this novel, so I will be anxious to read reviews. (thirty minutes later: After reading some reviews, I still don’t know.)
Book starts out in 1967 in New York City (Vietnam War era). Adam Walker, a graduate student, remembers He didn’t seem like the sort to lie.
Cecile Juin, daughter of Helene, A Frenchwoman who Rudolph Born was supposed to marry (i.e., Helene), kept a diary and relates an episode in her life when she went to a Caribbean island where Born was living and She does not believe Born. At this point near the end of the novel I don’t know who or what to believe.
The third person who had a voice in this story is Jim Freeman, the person who is Adam’s friend from way back in 1967 and is a successful author and who has been entrusted by Adam to publish the chapters of the book sent him by Adam if he thinks it is publishable.
And the book ends abruptly and I don’t know what to make of that either. I’m still clueless as to what this novel was all about, although the book liner tells us it is supposed to be about…
• "Youthful rage, unbridled sexual hunger, ad a relentless quest for justice. With uncompromising insight, Auster takes us into the shadowy borderland between truth and memory, between authorship and identity….”
Reviews
• https://www.theguardian.com/books/200...
• https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/bo... (the reviewer, Clancy Martin, calls it the finest novel Paul Auster has ever written and at that time he had written 15)
• https://themillions.com/2010/08/old-t...
Note:
I read this book in about 3 hours. It was a fast read, it was easy to read, and it was a pleasant read. Although I can’t tell you about the novel…what it all meant, even in a spoiler alert, because I don’t know what it all meant, I have to say this reviewer’s assessment below is exactly the way I felt and why I am giving it 3.5 (rounded up to 4) stars:
• As soon as you finish Paul Auster’s “Invisible” you want to read it again. And not because, as sometimes with his novels — as with the novels of Georges Perec, one of a handful of other real authors mentioned in the book — you suddenly suspect, at the very end, that you haven’t properly understood a word of what has gone before. You want to reread “Invisible” because it moves quickly, easily, somehow sinuously, and you worry that there were good parts that you read right past, insights that you missed. The prose is contemporary American writing at its best: crisp, elegant, brisk. It has the illusion of effortlessness that comes only with fierce discipline. As often happens when you are in the hands of a master, you read the next sentence almost before you are finished with the previous one. The novel could be read shallowly, because it is such a pleasure to read.
October 21, 2017
Paul Auster (n. 1947) - Ilustração de André Carrilho
5 Estrelas Invisíveis
O escritor norte-americano Paul Auster (n. 1947) publica ”Invisível em 2009, o seu décimo quinto romance, o meu nono reencontro com um dos escritores mais originais e emblemáticos da literatura contemporânea.
”Invisível” está subdividido em quatro capítulos e três narradores, numa história fragmentada, na primeira, segunda e terceira pessoa.
”Invisível é um livro admirável, com múltiplos narradores, “histórias” dentro da “história”, com personagens extravagantes e sofisticadas, manipuladoras e depravadas, com brilhantes divagações literárias e cinematográficas, num texto fragmentado, no espaço e no tempo, com revelações contraditórias e incertas sobre o passado, sobre a culpa e a fúria, num desejo de vingança, em que a raiva se sobrepõe à razão.
A qualidade da escrita de Paul Auster é adorável e a estrutura do romance fazem de ”Invisível” um verdadeiro “page-turner”, um thriller (?), sobre a violência e o prazer sexual, onde o leitor se torna cúmplice, num jogo de sedução, engano, obsessão e traição num verdadeiro labirinto narrativo.
O título ”Invisível” não é mais do que uma metáfora… (a palavra “invisível” só aparece no texto quatro vezes).
Imagem da ilustração de Gustave Doré, do século XIX, referente ao Canto XXVIII de "A Divina Comédia". Nesta imagem Bertran de Born é condenado a ter a cabeça separada do corpo para sempre, por ter causado a separação de pai e filho.
"… um homem que se arrastava ao longo dos últimos versos do vigésimo oitavo canto do Inferno. Bertran de Born, o poeta provençal do século XII, que leva numa mão a sua cabeça decepada, pegando nela pelos cabelos, e a faz balouçar como se fora uma lanterna… "(Pág. 7)
"O medo é uma coisa boa… é o medo que nos leva a correr riscos e a ultrapassar os nossos limites normais…" (Pág. 71)
May 6, 2019
Ovo je prava literatura. Napisana jednostavno, ne komplikujući u stilu, i kao takva lagano se čita. Ni ne znajući objasniti zašto, shvataš da držiš u rukama nešto uzbudljivo i da strana stranu stiže.
Ali, daleko od toga da je ovo jednostavan roman. Glavna tema su sećanje i istina, a pošto imamo posla ne sa jednim, već sa (barem) dva nepouzdana naratora, pogled na istinu je toliko komplikovaniji.
Ukoliko bih krenuo da prepričavam narativ, verovatno bi priča zvučala opasno prosečno. Ali, valjda je to majstorstvo pripovednog zanata - nije toliko bitan sadržaj priče, već način kako je ispričana. Oster počinje u prvom, nastavlja u drugom (!) i završava u trećem licu. Tu je i forma dnevnika, knjiga-u-knjizi, a interesantno je da shvataš da je pred nama priča koju piše čitalac a čita pisac. Originalno, ali ne zbog originalnosti same, već primećuješ da te akrobacije imaju svoju ulogu.
Odlično. Upravo ubeđujem suprugu koja obožava Murakamija, da proba i Ostera. Imaju njih dvojica nešto zajedničko.
Ali, daleko od toga da je ovo jednostavan roman. Glavna tema su sećanje i istina, a pošto imamo posla ne sa jednim, već sa (barem) dva nepouzdana naratora, pogled na istinu je toliko komplikovaniji.
Ukoliko bih krenuo da prepričavam narativ, verovatno bi priča zvučala opasno prosečno. Ali, valjda je to majstorstvo pripovednog zanata - nije toliko bitan sadržaj priče, već način kako je ispričana. Oster počinje u prvom, nastavlja u drugom (!) i završava u trećem licu. Tu je i forma dnevnika, knjiga-u-knjizi, a interesantno je da shvataš da je pred nama priča koju piše čitalac a čita pisac. Originalno, ali ne zbog originalnosti same, već primećuješ da te akrobacije imaju svoju ulogu.
Odlično. Upravo ubeđujem suprugu koja obožava Murakamija, da proba i Ostera. Imaju njih dvojica nešto zajedničko.
January 24, 2012
To say I liked this book, or even enjoyed it, would be saying too much. But I thought it was good, which is why I'm giving it four stars. It was good, even though I found nothing and no one within the pages likable or sympathetic. Actually, a lot of it was disturbing. Thinking a book is good while at the same time disliking it is not an experience I've had often, if ever. I have no desire ever to revisit this book.
September 18, 2013
1967 was a pivotal year for Adam Walker, for it was then, when he was a twenty-year-old student in New York, that he met the enigmatic Rudolph Bern and his then partner Margot at a party. Following the party he is witness to a murder and the consequences of that ripple throughout the novel. Combined with incest and intrigue these events keep you gripped to the very end. Nothing is quite as it seems and, even now, I am not entirely sure of the exact truth.
With regard to style, there are, effectively, three narrators, part II is in the second person and inverted commas are not used (something which usually annoys me). The characters felt extremely life-like and were well drawn. Although I have not met anyone like these people (and, frankly in some cases, I sincerely hope I never do) they were eminently believable. His writing is superb - just enough description to imagine yourself there - and the book is very tightly plotted indeed.
This was my first foray into Auster's work. It will by no means be my last. Recommended.
With regard to style, there are, effectively, three narrators, part II is in the second person and inverted commas are not used (something which usually annoys me). The characters felt extremely life-like and were well drawn. Although I have not met anyone like these people (and, frankly in some cases, I sincerely hope I never do) they were eminently believable. His writing is superb - just enough description to imagine yourself there - and the book is very tightly plotted indeed.
This was my first foray into Auster's work. It will by no means be my last. Recommended.
June 20, 2009
I think a lot of people have given up on Auster, after his series of novels in the 21st Century. But "Invisible," his new one is a winner. He's a guy who keeps on working, no matter what, so you have to appreciate his work habits - but to me as a reader and once fan, well.. his novels became a boring horror show.
And just as I was about to heap him to junk history, his new novel arrives and it's an incredible narrative ride. I think Auster's technique or secret is that he is very much a page-turner type of author. Almost summer reading on the beach or airplane/terminal type of writer - but smarter and more ambitious. Two, he writes in a very intimate manner. Almost like pulling you away from a l loud party gathering and telling you a secret or some really great gossip. And with that, Auster is back on what he does best, entertains. Very sexy, intimate, and interesting characters are in this book. It also deals with what one thinks of the romantic life of a writer or being a writer. And while reading this novel, I was thinking 'wow, I missed him."
So yeah a really good novel by Auster that matches up with his earlier work from the 80's. I think he got his inspiration or muse or whatever one calls it back, and it shows in "Invisible."
And just as I was about to heap him to junk history, his new novel arrives and it's an incredible narrative ride. I think Auster's technique or secret is that he is very much a page-turner type of author. Almost summer reading on the beach or airplane/terminal type of writer - but smarter and more ambitious. Two, he writes in a very intimate manner. Almost like pulling you away from a l loud party gathering and telling you a secret or some really great gossip. And with that, Auster is back on what he does best, entertains. Very sexy, intimate, and interesting characters are in this book. It also deals with what one thinks of the romantic life of a writer or being a writer. And while reading this novel, I was thinking 'wow, I missed him."
So yeah a really good novel by Auster that matches up with his earlier work from the 80's. I think he got his inspiration or muse or whatever one calls it back, and it shows in "Invisible."
July 2, 2019
Ωραιότατος Οστερ! Συγκινητικός, συναισθηματικός, κάνει βαθειά βουτιά στην ψυχολογία του κεντρικού του ήρωα και στο σερβίρει άκοπα.
Οχι δεν ειναι Book of Illusions αλλά είναι ένα πολύ όμορφο μυθιστόρημα που σε κάνει να συμπάσχεις με τον ήρωα.
Ευχαριστήθηκα κάθε μία σελίδα του!
Καλή ανάγνωση!!
Οχι δεν ειναι Book of Illusions αλλά είναι ένα πολύ όμορφο μυθιστόρημα που σε κάνει να συμπάσχεις με τον ήρωα.
Ευχαριστήθηκα κάθε μία σελίδα του!
Καλή ανάγνωση!!
March 29, 2018
Ένας ανεπανάληπτος Auster, είναι παντού ορατός μέσα στο μυθιστόρημα. Η εναλλαγή πρωτοπρόσωπης και τριτοπρόσωπης αφήγησης με πολλαπλή εστίαση, δίνει μια μοναδική ζωντάνια στον ήδη παλλόμενο λόγο του συγγραφέα. Με ένα τέλος που δεν ικανοποιεί, σε θυμώνει που δεν συνεχίζει το μυθιστόρημα ενώ το μυαλό την ίδια στιγμή είναι σε πλήρη διέγερση για να φανταστεί πολλαπλές ιστορίες που ακολουθούν. Είναι ένα σύγχρονο και ταυτόχρονα κλασικό ανάγνωσμα που θα συγκινήσει, θα θυμώσει και θα αηδιάσει σε πολλά σημεία τον αναγνώστη, αλλά δεν θα κρυφτεί και δεν θα πει ψέματα. Θα ξεράσει την αλήθεια στα μούτρα του αναγνώστη και μετά η ζωή και οι άνθρωποι θα έχουν πλέον άλλη διάσταση...Διαβάστε το!
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August 19, 2019من منتصف الرواية تقريبا، قد أيقنت أن هذا ليس بول أوستر الذي أعرفه
أو ربما - نظراً لكثرة الخيبات الأخيرة معه - إنني أنا التي لم أعرفه جيداً
فربما بعد إعجابي الشديد بـ بلاد الأشياء الأخيرة، لم ترتق أي رواية قرأتها له إلي درجة الإعجاب نفسها
صدقت المقدمة حين نوهت للقارئ أنه ربما يقرأ الغلاف أكثر من مرة ليتأكد حقا أن الرواية لأوستر
ولا يعني هذا أن الرواية سيئة، لا، ولكنها لم تناسبني، ولم تناسب توقعاتي لأوستر، لذلك لن أقيمها، أو لن أظلمها بالتقييم، فبها الكثير من المجهود، والحوار، وتشابك الأحداث .. وربما يندمج معها القارئ حقا لبعض الوقت، إلا أنني لا انكر كثرة الملل، والاستطراد الزائد، وتشعب الأفكار دون هدف واضح
أو ربما أنا من لم أصبر وأنتظر لأري هذا الهدف
!!
أتمني حقا أن يكون موعدي القادم مع أوستر أفضل
...
أو ربما - نظراً لكثرة الخيبات الأخيرة معه - إنني أنا التي لم أعرفه جيداً
فربما بعد إعجابي الشديد بـ بلاد الأشياء الأخيرة، لم ترتق أي رواية قرأتها له إلي درجة الإعجاب نفسها
صدقت المقدمة حين نوهت للقارئ أنه ربما يقرأ الغلاف أكثر من مرة ليتأكد حقا أن الرواية لأوستر
ولا يعني هذا أن الرواية سيئة، لا، ولكنها لم تناسبني، ولم تناسب توقعاتي لأوستر، لذلك لن أقيمها، أو لن أظلمها بالتقييم، فبها الكثير من المجهود، والحوار، وتشابك الأحداث .. وربما يندمج معها القارئ حقا لبعض الوقت، إلا أنني لا انكر كثرة الملل، والاستطراد الزائد، وتشعب الأفكار دون هدف واضح
أو ربما أنا من لم أصبر وأنتظر لأري هذا الهدف
!!
أتمني حقا أن يكون موعدي القادم مع أوستر أفضل
...
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