Rating: 
Summary: The Invention of Self
Review: Is there any sub-genre of confessional or autobiographical writing more troubling and problematic for both reader and writer alike than the story of the life and death of the writer's parent? What are we poor readers to make of these tales of grief and guilt and painful confessions and embarrassing revelations in light of the fact that they were actually published, for all the world to see and to make money just like the writers' other works? And what is the poor writer to do, unable to deal with the event or make sense of it except through writing, but bring the powers and tricks of the novelist or poet to bear on this tale the same as any other that was simply imagined or invented?"Portrait of an Invisible Man," the first piece of "The Invention of Solitude," is Auster's literary attempt to come to terms with his father's death through writing about his father's life. In doing so, he discovers how little he knows not only about his father's childhood and early married years, but about his father's mental life as well. Along the way Auster stumbles on the story of a family tragedy so full of coincidences that it begins to resemble his fiction. The writing is never anything but splendid here. But is it seemly that we enjoy it as much as other writing by the same author that is clearly labeled fiction? I have no answer to that. Auster's "Invisible Man," written in 1979, has its literary antecedent in Peter Handke's "A Sorrow Beyond Dreams," written in 1972 and translated into English in 1974. Handke's story of his mother's life, written immediately after her suicide, is, like Auster's piece, full of extraordinary writing, and equally devastating. The length and techniques of both works are similar, down to the ever-shorter sections toward the end and the numerous comments on the writing itself. Handke's book ends with the following: "Someday I shall write about all this in greater detail." On one of the last pages of Auster's piece we find this: "It occurs to me that I began writing this story a long time ago, long before my father died." Handke and Auster are writers; writing is what they do. One tip: To preserve the mental taste of Auster's "Invisible Man," the reader should pause for a decent interval before taking on "The Book of Memory," the second piece in Auster's book (or skip it altogether). "The Book of Memory" is a more difficult work and quite possibly a bit more than many readers will want to tackle so soon after finishing "Invisible Man."
Rating:
Summary: An astonishing, mesmerizing, disturbing book
Review: It's hard for to say which is Auster's greater achievement: "The New York Trilogy" or this, but I think I side with this book. Has anyone taken as strikingly original and also successfully realized approach to the memoir? I just know that when I came to the dramatic revelation of the first half of this book, I was so shocked I dropped the book. I am a little suspicious of Auster's artistry--he is such an absorbing, fascinating, mesmerizing writer that I wonder what tricks he may be playing on me. But with each of his books, and this one in particular, there is always a sensation having been taken out of the world, slightly disturbed, and then placed back into it. For a while, you see things differently, and any writer who can shake us up that effectively deserves our praise and attention.
Rating:
Summary: An astonishing, mesmerizing, disturbing book
Review: It's hard for to say which is Auster's greater achievement: "The New York Trilogy" or this, but I think I side with this book. Has anyone taken as strikingly original and also successfully realized approach to the memoir? I just know that when I came to the dramatic revelation of the first half of this book, I was so shocked I dropped the book. I am a little suspicious of Auster's artistry--he is such an absorbing, fascinating, mesmerizing writer that I wonder what tricks he may be playing on me. But with each of his books, and this one in particular, there is always a sensation having been taken out of the world, slightly disturbed, and then placed back into it. For a while, you see things differently, and any writer who can shake us up that effectively deserves our praise and attention.
Rating: 
Summary: Stunning Memoir
Review: The first half of this slender book, "Portrait of an Invisible Man", is Auster's memoir of his cold golem of a father on the occasion of his death. Auster writes in chillingly clear prose about a loved and hated parent in a way that reminded me of Milan Kundera's cooly anguished meditations on history and family. Plus, Auster finds what so many of us don't--a possible explanation for his tortured past. He discovers the old, half-buried tale of how his grandmother murdered his grandfather. There are a couple of haunting photographs in the book: the one on the cover is Auster's young father, multiplied by trick photography. The other is an old picture of the grandparent's family that contains a secret not unlike that of the photo at the end of Roman Polanski's film "Repulsion." I have not been a fan of Auster's fiction--I find it mechanical--but this fine work has me wanting to read his other essays and memoirs.
Rating:
Summary: Stunning Memoir
Review: The first half of this slender book, "Portrait of an Invisible Man", is Auster's memoir of his cold golem of a father on the occasion of his death. Auster writes in chillingly clear prose about a loved and hated parent in a way that reminded me of Milan Kundera's cooly anguished meditations on history and family. Plus, Auster finds what so many of us don't--a possible explanation for his tortured past. He discovers the old, half-buried tale of how his grandmother murdered his grandfather. There are a couple of haunting photographs in the book: the one on the cover is Auster's young father, multiplied by trick photography. The other is an old picture of the grandparent's family that contains a secret not unlike that of the photo at the end of Roman Polanski's film "Repulsion." I have not been a fan of Auster's fiction--I find it mechanical--but this fine work has me wanting to read his other essays and memoirs.
Rating:
Summary: Honest memoir serves as a blue-print for author's works.
Review: The missing father, the poignant chance events, the lonely writer, the meaningless world that seems far too fraught with meaning: these are the themes that wind themselves through Paul Auster's novels, surfacing and echoing one another in the lives of his diverse characters. With Invention of Solitude Auster has stepped out of fiction for a moment and examines his own life. And here the same themes are reflected. In the unsearchable life of his distant father presented in Memoir of an Invisible Man; in the stories of chance and fate that haunt his alter-ego, A, through the Book of Memory; in the life that eventually adds up to Paul Auster. The book is particularly recommended for writers or potential writers, for its unglancing depiction of solitude. Not only the physical separation, but the spiritual and mental as well. To end with this.
Rating:
Summary: Half and Half
Review: This memoir is broken up into two sections -- 1) Portrait of an Invisible Man and 2) The Book of Memory. The first is organic, enticing, moving, brilliant in almost every way. The second is rather forced, somewhat muddled, and just generally not very interesting. This may be because the first section is a straightforward exposition of Auster's family history while the second is a quasi-artsy autobiography of sorts. If you read through the other reviews here, there are many who loved the whole book, so my reaction is probably in the minority, so don't be afraid to pick this up. And let me just say that I don't regret reading this book at all -- the Portrait of an Invisible Man is so damn good that it makes the entire work worthwhile.
Rating:
Summary: Half and Half
Review: This memoir is broken up into two sections -- 1) Portrait of an Invisible Man and 2) The Book of Memory. The first is organic, enticing, moving, brilliant in almost every way. The second is rather forced, somewhat muddled, and just generally not very interesting. This may be because the first section is a straightforward exposition of Auster's family history while the second is a quasi-artsy autobiography of sorts. If you read through the other reviews here, there are many who loved the whole book, so my reaction is probably in the minority, so don't be afraid to pick this up. And let me just say that I don't regret reading this book at all -- the Portrait of an Invisible Man is so damn good that it makes the entire work worthwhile.
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