Paul Auster

The other day a colleague and I talked about taking pictures and both of us came to think of Harvey Keitel’s character in the movie Smoke, who took a picture of a street corner every morning at 8. This led me to recommend to him the books of Paul Auster (who wrote the screenplay for the movie).

I hadn’t read Paul Auster when I first saw the movie, but a lot of people had recommended his New York Trilogy. I can’t remember exactly when I read it, but I remember that I was sick, and that I read most of the first of the three novels while lying for hours in a hot bath, trying to get rid of my cold, or whatever.

The New York Trilogy is my absolute favorite, but all books I’ve read by him are very good: The Music of Chance, Leviathan, and The Red Notebook and Other Writings.

I am expecially fond of The Red Notebook, which was published in Sweden by the very nice publisher Umbra Solis. It is extremely nicely bound, with red cloth, and the book is very short, containing only a few very short stories, but you can read them over and over again.

When looking up these books at Amazon, I found The Invention of Solitude, which seems appropriate to read now that I’ve become a father. Anyway, if you haven’t read anything by Auster, I recommend to give him a try. Start with the New York Trilogy!