Paul Auster TRAVELS IN THE SCRIPTORIUM
I just finished this novella, dedicated to the father of Siri, Paul Auster's wife. I loved its title, especially as I was taking the course in Medieval palentology at Stanford last term...and was reminded that a Scriptorium was where the Medieval monks did their work, the copying and creation of manuscripts.
The book is a kind of parable. I was so reminded of the Albanian who captured the Nobel Prize the year the EU invited me to teach a seminar on Ismail Kadare's work in Kosovo. Then, I was to find that his English translator (from the french) was on the faculty at Princeton University, and I would have an interview with him, when I returned. I read nearly all of Ismail Kadare's books, and this book has the flavor of a similar imagination... I wonder if Paul Auster had read his books!
This book is tender, lyrical, poetical, about memory, about frailty, about loss, about how tenusous is our hold on reality, and how vulnerable we can be. I loved it. I don't think it was an enormously popular book, as I found it remaindered in a first edition, hardback.
Anyway, it is a metaphor for a writer anywhere caught in his story that he is writing and determining the strategies and possible outcomes...and being either imprisoned or liberated by the experience, on one level. On the other level, it has a Kafkaesque quality. It is about a man in a room, who has essentially lost his memory, except for tiny fragments which return to him. It made me think of some family member who has Alzheimers. In a severe case.
It is a tale by a master tale spinner. The introduction reads: AWAKENING IN A ROOM WITH NO MEMORY OF WHO HE IS OR HOW HE GOT THERE. A MAN PIECES TOGETHER CLUES TO HIS PAST - AND THE IDENTITY OF HIS CAPTORS - IN THIS FANTASTIC LABRYTHINE NOVEL.
Having heard the Norweigan sensation with his saga tale I recall that he said his dream is to write the perfect novella. He should look to Paul Auster for craft.
I could not put this book down once I started it. Its publication date is 2006. I also love the cover!!!!
The book is a kind of parable. I was so reminded of the Albanian who captured the Nobel Prize the year the EU invited me to teach a seminar on Ismail Kadare's work in Kosovo. Then, I was to find that his English translator (from the french) was on the faculty at Princeton University, and I would have an interview with him, when I returned. I read nearly all of Ismail Kadare's books, and this book has the flavor of a similar imagination... I wonder if Paul Auster had read his books!
This book is tender, lyrical, poetical, about memory, about frailty, about loss, about how tenusous is our hold on reality, and how vulnerable we can be. I loved it. I don't think it was an enormously popular book, as I found it remaindered in a first edition, hardback.
Anyway, it is a metaphor for a writer anywhere caught in his story that he is writing and determining the strategies and possible outcomes...and being either imprisoned or liberated by the experience, on one level. On the other level, it has a Kafkaesque quality. It is about a man in a room, who has essentially lost his memory, except for tiny fragments which return to him. It made me think of some family member who has Alzheimers. In a severe case.
It is a tale by a master tale spinner. The introduction reads: AWAKENING IN A ROOM WITH NO MEMORY OF WHO HE IS OR HOW HE GOT THERE. A MAN PIECES TOGETHER CLUES TO HIS PAST - AND THE IDENTITY OF HIS CAPTORS - IN THIS FANTASTIC LABRYTHINE NOVEL.
Having heard the Norweigan sensation with his saga tale I recall that he said his dream is to write the perfect novella. He should look to Paul Auster for craft.
I could not put this book down once I started it. Its publication date is 2006. I also love the cover!!!!
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