Report from the Interior
by Paul Auster | Audiobooks | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 1427233349 Global Overview for this book
ISBN: 1427233349 Global Overview for this book
1 journaler for this copy...
Unabridged on 6 CDs; read by the author
-------------------------------------------
Paul Auster's most intimate autobiographical work to date
In the beginning, everything was alive. The smallest objects were endowed with beating hearts . . .
Having recalled his life through the story of his physical self in Winter Journal, internationally acclaimed novelist Paul Auster now remembers the experience of his development from within through the encounters of his interior self with the outer world in Report from the Interior.
From his baby's-eye view of the man in the moon, to his childhood worship of the movie cowboy Buster Crabbe, to the composition of his first poem at the age of nine, to his dawning awareness of the injustices of American life, Report from the Interior charts Auster's moral, political, and intellectual journey as he inches his way toward adulthood through the postwar 1950s and into the turbulent 1960s.
Auster evokes the sounds, smells, and tactile sensations that marked his early life—and the many images that came at him, including moving images (he adored cartoons, he was in love with films), until, at its unique climax, the book breaks away from prose into pure imagery: The final section of Report from the Interior recapitulates the first three parts, told in an album of pictures. At once a story of the times—which makes it everyone's story—and the story of the emerging consciousness of a renowned literary artist, this four-part work answers the challenge of autobiography in ways rarely, if ever, seen before.
A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2013
-------------------------------------------
Paul Auster's most intimate autobiographical work to date
In the beginning, everything was alive. The smallest objects were endowed with beating hearts . . .
Having recalled his life through the story of his physical self in Winter Journal, internationally acclaimed novelist Paul Auster now remembers the experience of his development from within through the encounters of his interior self with the outer world in Report from the Interior.
From his baby's-eye view of the man in the moon, to his childhood worship of the movie cowboy Buster Crabbe, to the composition of his first poem at the age of nine, to his dawning awareness of the injustices of American life, Report from the Interior charts Auster's moral, political, and intellectual journey as he inches his way toward adulthood through the postwar 1950s and into the turbulent 1960s.
Auster evokes the sounds, smells, and tactile sensations that marked his early life—and the many images that came at him, including moving images (he adored cartoons, he was in love with films), until, at its unique climax, the book breaks away from prose into pure imagery: The final section of Report from the Interior recapitulates the first three parts, told in an album of pictures. At once a story of the times—which makes it everyone's story—and the story of the emerging consciousness of a renowned literary artist, this four-part work answers the challenge of autobiography in ways rarely, if ever, seen before.
A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2013
When did Paul Auster become one of my most-read authors? His strange style appeals to me at an emotional level. This memoir of sorts had the same effect. These essays are disjointed, confusing, a mix of emotions and stories in only roughly chronological order. There's no real effort here to do anything other than remember what feelings he had at different times in his life. This shouldn't make for interesting reading. Yet, somehow, I found this compelling. The author reads his own book for the audiobook, and that makes a difference. There's real honesty and vulnerability here, and hearing that read aloud is endearing and strangely compelling.
Go read The New York Trilogy instead if you haven't yet. If you have, and liked it, find out more about the author by reading this one. But listen to him read it aloud if you can.
Go read The New York Trilogy instead if you haven't yet. If you have, and liked it, find out more about the author by reading this one. But listen to him read it aloud if you can.