The Invention of Solitude
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Average rating3.8
From Paul Auster, author of the forthcoming 4 3 2 1: A Novel – his very first book, a moving and personal meditation on fatherhood This debut work by New York Times-bestselling author Paul Auster (The New York Trilogy), a memoir, established Auster’s reputation as a major new voice in American writing. His moving and personal meditation on fatherhood is split into two stylistically separate sections. In the first, Auster reflects on the memories of his father who was a distant, undemonstrative, and cold man who died an untimely death. As he sifts through his Father’s things, Auster uncovers a sixty-year-old murder mystery that sheds light on his father’s elusive character. In the second section, the perspective shifts and Auster begins to reflect on his own identity as a father by adopting the voice of a narrator, “A.” Through a mosaic of images, coincidences, and associations “A,” contemplates his separation from his son, his dying grandfather, turning the story into a self-conscious reflection on the process of writing.
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La première partie ‘Portrait d' un homme invisible' est touchante et intriguante, pouvant se relier à plusieurs personnes croisées ça et là, rappelant en certains points L'étranger de Camus, le tout rattaché à un univers familial particulier pouvant expliquer beaucoup de choses. La seconde, L'invention de la solitude, m'a parue plus décousue, et si les thèmes abordés sont très intéressants et que plusieurs phrases poussent à l'introspection et à la réflexion, elle est plus difficile à aborder et à comprendre, rendant cette seconde partie plus difficile à appréhender. En filigrane de l'oeuvre se trouve une belle réflexion sur la paternité et les changements qu'elle apporte, mais aussi sur notre place en ce monde et notre volonté d'y rechercher un sens qui nous échappe. Un volume intéressant, mais assez ardu en somme.
uneven between halves. you can tell auster is extremely intelligent - neuroticism excels in assailing the concrete but less the abstract
Gostei muito da primeira parte, autobiográfica. Menos do Book of memory, embora tenha citações memoráveis.
