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Title: Hand to Mouth: A Chronicle of Early Failure by Paul Auster ISBN: 0-312-42232-6 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 01 August, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.23 (26 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Paul Auster's Hand to Mouth: Treading over old ground
Comment: Paul Auster's latest book disappointingly contains no significant work of new fiction. Although Auster gives an intriguing insight into his early years as a struggling writer in and around New York and Paris, it seems to be more about bringing an era to an end, rather than the new beginning I'd hoped for. One would have thought that after "Smoke" and "Blue in the Face" Auster would be ready to try something new. But for someone familiar with "Squeeze Play" Auster's latest book contains little in the way of new material - and could almost be regarded as an appendix to "The Red Notebook". Ultimately I was very disappointed that Auster should breeze back into the literary frame with such a low-key piece of work. It's been a long while (too long) since "MR Vertio"; and although the films "Smoke" and "Blue In the Face" gave us something new, I'd like to see one of America's most prominent literary writers taking more chances if he is to maintain his current high profile. This is unfortunately not a significant return to fiction and more a book for dedicated followers.
Rating: 4
Summary: Gems and junk strung on a binding.
Comment: How much you enjoy Paul Auster's 'Hand to Mouth: A Chronicle of Early Failure' depends on why you read it in the first place. His premise for this memoir is laid out simply in the subtitle, where 'chronicle' refers to a straightforward narrative combined with the actual texts of his first publishing efforts, one of which is a card game. It sounds like a breathtaking rollercoaster, but the thrills end up happening on a kiddie scale.
The problem with 'Hand to Mouth' is that there's too much failure and not enough chronicle. Auster's path to publication includes several waystations: a merchant ship, stints in France, a Catskills resort. At one point, just before describing the outcome of his assignment to help a film bigshot's wife write a vanity book in Mexico, he begins, "Without rehashing the whole thing..." Well, what else are memoirs for, you might ask? Several instances Auster mentions thoroughout his story--the birth of his child and breakup of his marriage, for example, which get no more than a sentence or two--merit all the rehashing this talented writer can muster. Instead, the space saved by Auster's restraint goes to three plays, a card game, and a mystery novella from his early days. Of these, the mystery is really the only thing that stands on its own; maybe that's why it's the only item he was able to sell before going on to write acclaimed novels such as 'Mr. Vertigo' and 'The Music of Chance.'
This brings us back to why you might choose to buy Auster's book. Those looking for personal details or a finely honed true-life adventure story should look elsewhere; but any aspiring writer can find encouragement in Auster's trials and tribulations. Despite the excess of economy in what he tells, Auster makes even a sketch of his past an enveloping read. And if it leaves you hankering for more, is that such a crime? At $25 for the hardcover, well, *almost*.
Rating: 4
Summary: When Am I Gonna Make A Living?
Comment: Paul Auster's autobiographical account spanning about 12 years or so after he finished college, is an excellent exposition of a young writer's search for meaning, and then the translation of that meaning into money, to provide for further existence, to allow the writer to keep producing work, representative of his desires, but also able to be sold for money to continue the quest.
The appeal to almost all people is hidden in the fact, that at anytime, any person, can be living a "hand to mouth" existence. This feeling of abject poverty and financial ruin is not uncommon today, in an economy that has lost over 2 million jobs, and forced hundreds of thousands to start their own businesses because work was not available. Those in America who have had to do this, can relate directly to Auster's feelings, especially the salient concept of when will I ever get to the point when I am making a living again, even a somewhat less luxurious one than before, just any living.
As usual, Auster uses his incredible incisiveness and truly exceptional clarity in his construction of this book. It is of special interest to Auster readers, as it gives the reader some very interesting information about the author's early days when he was still struggling to become known. But Auster's story is one that every actor, every writer, every lawyer, every doctor, or most of them anyway, have to go through at the beginning, including every new entrepreneur. Becoming established is very hard work. And more people fail, than succeed. This high failure rate is generated by the need to be able to sustain high levels of suffering in bad times, to get to the good times. Most of us are just not up to the task.
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Title: The Red Notebook: True Stories by Paul Auster ISBN: 0811214982 Publisher: New Directions Publishing Pub. Date: June, 2002 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: Invention of Solitude by Paul Auster ISBN: 0140106286 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: May, 1988 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Oracle Night : A Novel by Paul Auster ISBN: 0805073205 Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Inc. Pub. Date: 02 December, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
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Title: Leviathan (Contemporary American Fiction) by Paul Auster ISBN: 0140178139 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: September, 1993 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Book of Illusions: A Novel by Paul Auster ISBN: 0312421818 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 01 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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