- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (Oct 27 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0805090800
- ISBN-13: 978-0805090802
- Product Dimensions: 20.8 x 15 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 544 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #133,435 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"As soon as you finish Paul Auster's Invisible, you want to read it again. . . . It is the finest novel Paul Auster has ever written."--Clancy Martin, The New York Times Book Review
"Auster has never been better."--The Seattle Times (Best Books of 2009)
"Riveting . . . That combination of scrupulous style, psychological depth, story value, and parable-like undertones is masterly"--The Sunday Times (London)
"Occasionally, a novel is so masterful it leaves you breathless. Paul Auster's Invisible is such a novel."--The Boston Globe
"Occasionally, a novel is so masterful it leaves you breathless. Paul Auster's Invisible is such a novel."--The Boston Globe
"Magnificent . . . The results are revelatory."--Houston Chronicle
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Book Description
“One of America’s greatest novelists” dazzlingly reinvents the coming-of-age story in his most passionate and surprising book to date
Sinuously constructed in four interlocking parts, Paul Auster’s fifteenth novel opens in New York City in the spring of 1967, when twenty-year-old Adam Walker, an aspiring poet and student at Columbia University, meets the enigmatic Frenchman Rudolf Born and his silent and seductive girfriend, Margot. Before long, Walker finds himself caught in a perverse triangle that leads to a sudden, shocking act of violence that will alter the course of his life.
Three different narrators tell the story of Invisible, a novel that travels in time from 1967 to 2007 and moves from Morningside Heights, to the Left Bank of Paris, to a remote island in the Caribbean. It is a book of youthful rage, unbridled sexual hunger, and a relentless quest for justice. With uncompromising insight, Auster takes us into the shadowy borderland between truth and memory, between authorship and identity, to produce a work of unforgettable power that confirms his reputation as “one of America’s most spectacularly inventive writers.”
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Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another good Auster outing,
By
This review is from: Invisible (Hardcover)
I'm about to say something here I never thought that I'd sever say or even write. I just finished Paul Auster's latest novel - Invisible - and I'm not a huge fan of it.Oh sure the novel contains all of the elements that make his novels so enjoyable for me. Stories within stories. Protagonists who are authors. Protagonists who are, in some way, flawed and looking for a way to fix the flaw, usually through writing. And of course the settings of the story make it seem all the more real. What's the story about? In short Adam Walker, a writer and student at Columbia University, meets gentleman named Rudolf Born hottie girlfriend Margot. From there, Adam gets himself involved in a complicated plot that leads to the unraveling of his life. Or at least as far as he perceives it. So if the book contains all of the elements that I like about Paul Auster novels, why didn't I like this one? Quite simply the sex. The book contained copious amounts of sexual scenes. And, although I am no prude, I just wasn't quite wanting to read a sexual novel. So I was a little bit put off by it all. Having said all that though, I still liked this book. It won't be the first Auster novel that I recommend to friends or family (that honour belongs to the New York Trilogy or The Brooklyn Follies) but I'm certainly not regretting having spent the past couple of days reading it.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
MASTERFUL, INVENTIVE, ORIGINAL,
By
This review is from: Invisible (Hardcover)
For this reader Paul Auster is one of the most brilliant writers working today. He is a total original who pens intriguing, beguiling prose of great depth and intensity. There are some books that one may scan and pretty much capture the author's narrative. Not so with Auster, his work requires concentration, thoughtfulness as one plumbs his intentions. His novels are complex yet totally satisfying. Auster's narrative voice is so rich, so distinctive that you can almost hear it. Such is the case with his fifteenth novel INVISIBLE.Relating his story in four parts we are introduced to Adam Walker in 1967 when he is 20, a second year student at Columbia, a self-described "know-nothing boy with an appetite for books and a belief (or delusion) that one day I would become good enough to call myself a poet...." He was at a party where he met Rudolf Born, an enigmatic man who would change the course of Adam's life. With Born was Margot, a French woman dressed all in black who was more than attractive to a young student. As the relationship between the three deepens Born offers Adam a large sum of money, $25,000, to start a literary magazine. What a piece of luck for a cash poor student! Then one evening as the two are strolling to dinner along Riverside Drive they are suddenly mugged. Born defends them by pulling a switchblade knife from an inside pocket and stabbing the assailant. Adam runs for help but returns to find the body gone. Shortly thereafter a body is found in a park with multiple stab wounds, and Born has gone to France. Part 1 has ended on a tense note as do each of the succeeding sections which take us from that time in 1967 through 2007. Three different narrators relate periods in Adam's life. What is truth? How fallible is memory? What are the forces that drive us or destroy us? Reading INVISIBLE is an unforgettable experience, both exhilarating and unsettling. It is classic Paul Auster, which is to say it is the finest today's literature can offer. - Gail Cooke
5.0 out of 5 stars
Difficile à décrire,
By
This review is from: INVISIBLE (Paperback)
Invisible est le récit d'un étudiant en littérature américain confronté aux actions douteuses d'un professeur français. Le roman est divisé en quatre parties, chacune rédigée en un style différent et narrée par un personnage différent.Le récit lui-même est très intéressant et captivant. Cependant, c'est dans l'analyse des traits humains des personnages (ou plutôt la vision que les personnages ont d'eux-mêmes et des autres personnages) que l'auteur excelle vraiment. En effet, l'auteur réussit bien à communiquer les perceptions et sentiments des personnages. Il aborde habilement le questionnement identitaire. À lire!
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