The Invention of Solitude

ISBN: 0143112228

Author: Auster, Paul

Condition: New

"A beautifully poetic work" -- Joyce Carol OatesIn his debut memoir, renowned author Paul Auster shares heartfelt and personal meditations on fatherhood that integrates heart and intellect, sensation and speculation . . . as it relentlessly tries to make sense of the shocks of living (Newsday)Moving, delicately perceived portraits of lives and relationships.-The New York Times Book ReviewOne day there is life. . . . And then, suddenly, it happens there is death.The Invention of Solitude, split into two stylistically separate sections, established Paul Austers reputation as a major voice in American literature. The first section, Portrait of an Invisible Man, explores Austers memories and feelings after the death of his father, a distant, undemonstrative, almost cold man. As he attends to his fathers business affairs and sifts through his effects, Auster uncovers a sixty-year-old family murder mystery that sheds light on his fathers elusive character. In The Book of Memory, the perspective shifts from Austers identity as a son to his role as a father. Through a mosaic of images, coincidences, and associations, the narrator, A, contemplates his separation from his son, his dying grandfather, and the solitary nature of storytelling and writing.