Sad to see him go.
Picking up his books again as an adult only took away the magic in some of his weaker works.
Mostly, the magic remained.
The guys learning to play Bach and building a wall, the delirant anon in NYC chasing paper trails, the adolescent boy learning to levitate... the evil man offering glasses in a post-apocalyptic city:
so many memories remain, I don't know much about Paul Auster but I can say he was an influence on my life. Because of randomness (a relative picking Mr Vertigo as a present for me, probably because of book-store recommendations)
Paul Auster's characters always appear as somewhat mythical, living through a personal transformation.
Many of his characters have an aura of NYC artist/cultural authority stick around then, but it does not bother me at all.
Like many of my favorite authors, he injects much of his own personality into the main characters, even with multiple books using a novelist/writer as the main character.
Edit: "Moon palace" is similar in a way. I think those two left the biggest impression in me. They both are probably not the critique's favorites, but perfect as an intro I think.
"Mr Vertigo" was my intro and I think it was a good one as well.
"In the Country of Last Things" is also great, but a bit short for the story arc iirc.
I read the New York trilogy relatively late but these are arguably his most well-received books and I enjoyed them a lot as well.
The other books I mentioned he wrote later, if I'm not misremembering.
I was captivated after reading Leviathan and could not stop till I read his entire pantheon.
RIP Paul Auster.
A life worth living. Rest in peace, he will continue living while he's read.
Paul Auster: How I Became a Writer (2014) [video] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40221327
I have no idea how it made the booker shortlist in 2017 :|
Mr Vertigo was a nice little book that punched above its weight and would def recommend reading it
Anyway it's sad to see him go. Rest in peace.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_History_of_the_World_in_10%C...
The book you're thinking of is likely "In the Country of Last Things" by Paul Auster. While not a collection of short stories, this novel often gets mentioned in relation to discussions about Auster's work involving themes of dystopia and allegorical narratives. The reference to Noah's Ark might be metaphorical, reflecting the themes of catastrophe and survival that are common in Auster's work. If you specifically remember a collection of short stories involving Noah's Ark, it could be another author or a less known work of Auster, as his major works don't typically revolve around this theme directly in the form of short stories.
I’m not confident this is correct!
I enjoyed City of Glass, but Ghost and The Locked Room I found dull. Leviathan was good, it made me curious if he was the Unabomber.