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Book Review WINTER JOURNAL by PAUL AUSTER @HenryHolt

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Book Description

Publication Date: August 21, 2012
From the bestselling novelist and author of The Invention of Solitude, a moving and highly personal meditation on the body, time, and language itself
“That is where the story begins, in your body, and everything will end in the body as well.
Facing his sixty-third winter, internationally acclaimed novelist Paul Auster sits down to write a history of his body and its sensations—both pleasurable and painful.
Thirty years after the publication of The Invention of Solitude, in which he wrote so movingly about fatherhood, Auster gives us a second unconventional memoir in which he writes about his mother’s life and death. Winter Journal is a highly personal meditation on the body, time, and memory, by one of our most intellectually elegant writers.

About the Author

Paul Auster is the bestselling author of Sunset Park, Invisible, Man in the Dark, The Book of Illusions, and The New York Trilogy, among many other works. His books have been translated into forty-three languages. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Details

  • Hardcover: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (August 21, 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0805095535
  • ISBN-13: 978-0805095531


SOURCE: PUBLISHER

MY THOUGHTS
LOVED IT

The recounting of one’s life is a difficult thing to attempt, so Paul Auster uses the second person YOU in almost every sentence, which at first thought, seems like a horrible idea.  The writing is so fluid and remarkable that it won’t bother you and you will wonder why no one else writes this way.  You will not want to put this book down once you start.  You will find that recounting ages and street addresses to catalogue memories is the best thing in the world.  

So, I got a little bit carried away there, but I was in awe of the stories Auster recounts, those little bits of details that almost everyone remembers like your first dog, childhood traumas, your first love and apartments.  I think I related to this book because of my age. I wonder how younger readers will react to remembrances that are universal to anyone over fifty. The book is more details linked together by age rather than a complete story of his life.  

Perhaps the most truthful and touching story in the book is his recounting of an auto accident that almost took his wife’s life.  He builds up to this part by explaining what a perfect driver he is, but then lets you in on a little secret.  He has been having panic attacks and is now on medication, which in part, may be to blame for his risky driving where he turns in front of a van.  You can see his grief and hurt as his daughter and dog are safe but his wife may be gravely injured.  I really enjoyed this one and all of the touching moments he retells.  




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