Beyond the Red Notebook: Essays on Paul Auster (Penn Studies in Contemporary American Fiction) [Hardcover]

Dennis Barone (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1995 | Series: Penn Studies in Contemporary American Fiction

The novels of Paul Auster—finely wrought, self-reflexive, filled with doublings, coincidences, and mysteries—have captured the imagination of readers and the admiration of many critics of contemporary literature. In Beyond the Red Notebook, the first book devoted to the works of Auster, Dennis Barone has assembled an international group of scholars who present twelve essays that provide a rich and insightful examination of Auster's writings.

The authors explore connections between Auster's poetry and fiction, the philosophical underpinnings of his writing, its relation to detective fiction, and its unique embodiment of the postmodern sublime. Their essays provide the fullest analysis available of Auster's themes of solitude, chance, and paternity found in works such as The Invention of Solitude, City of Glass, Ghosts, The Locked Room, In the Country of Last Things, Moon Palace, The Music of Chance, and Leviathan.

This volume includes contributions from Pascal Bruckner, Marc Chenetier, Norman Finkelstein, Derek Rubin, Madeleine Sorapure, Stephen Bernstein, Tim Woods, Steven Weisenburger, Arthur Saltzman, Eric Wirth, and Motoyuki Shibata. The extensive bibliography, prepared by William Drenttel, will greatly benefit both scholars and general readers.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is the first book on Auster and is sure to be the foundation of most Auster criticism to follow."—Review of Contemporary Fiction

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Dennis Barone is Professor of English and American Studies at Saint Joseph College. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Univ of Pennsylvania Pr; First edition. edition (October 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812233174
• ISBN-13: 978-0812233179
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,887,884 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stroyteller? Absolutely!, April 4, 2000

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Argo Riistan - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beyond the Red Notebook: Essays on Paul Auster (Penn Studies in Contemporary American Fiction) (Paperback)

Paul Auster? Well known author, a novelist. No, it's better if we inspect this writer without any restrictions. Because he is unmeasureable. Essays and fiction. Beyond the Red Notebook: Essays on Paul Auster, this is one of the best essaycollections i've ever read. Although it is not a fiction, you can still notice that he is discussing about the same problems as he does in he's novels. All these essays are each one involved with a self-seeking. Like Auster is trying to prove that his standpoints in novels are true. I would compare Auster with Susan Sontag. Sontag's style is similar to Auster's one. So this book is a good one in two aspects: composition and the essays itself. So, why I put only 4 stars. Well, it always seems to me in every book that there could be something more. But this is a great book, no doubt about that.