Customer Reviews

An Art of Desire.Reading Paul Auster.(Postmodern Studies 21)

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This, the first book-length study of Auster's works, proves to be a both demanding and rewarding affair. Make no mistake, this is definitely scholarship at the highest level and not a book for high-school kids doing a paper on The New York Trilogy.

Even for readers well-versed in contemporary literary theory and literature there is work to be done, and if you have a problem with a theoretical approach to literature then stay miles away from this book - unless you really are an avid Auster-fan: then you should feel obliged to at least give it a go.

But if you are interested in witnessing how theory, in this case of the post-structuralist vein (in particular Lacan and Derrida), and literature - four of Auster's core works (City of Glass, In the Country of Last Things, The Music of Chance and Moon Palace) may cross-fertilize each other - this is definitely a book to read.

For students (post-graduates in particular, I guess) and scholars working with Auster this book is indispensable. The chapters on the genre-affiliations preceding every close reading are for the most part interesting, in particular in connection with Moon Palace which is seen as a novel written in the picaresque mode. The close readings following these generic definitions are very thorough and eye-opening, and the Lacanian approach often leads to stunningly original interpretations, forcing the reader read Auster in a new light. I thoroughly recommend this study - the effort is rewarded with insight and inspiration.