Customer Reviews

Inner Life of Martin Frost

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Fans of Paul Auster know what they are getting: a powerful voice that carries you through a beautiful read. All of his books do that, and this one is no exception. I think most of us are writers or would-be writers. But sometimes Auster's world is just too small. The Brooklyn Follies promised a chronicle of a man's failures. Perhaps the voice would do a bit of self-searching. But the protagonist quickly abandoned that project, apparently becoming involved in others instead. That should have been a good thing. But again, by the end of the book what we have had is another long dose of Auster's voice. Martin Frost is the extreme case. There are only two characters in the book. The "love interest" is a production of the writer Frost's mind, and the other character is a caricature of a writer that does not come off as funny at all. The book comes off as solipsistic. Too much Paul. To get Mr. Auster and his voice at its best, just go back to Oracle Night, Hand to Mouth, The Music of Chance, and City of Glass.

Popular sophisticated author Paul Auster has joined with graphic designer Glenn Thomas to produce a 'project' (that seems to be the best term for this experiment). On many levels it works, and on some levels it is competitive for the readers attention span.

The story is brief: David Zimmer discovers and becomes consumed by a silent film by one Hector Mann entitled 'The Secret Life of Martin Frost' and the author explores the effects of this obsession. Glenn Thomas divides the story into various fragments and page layouts that require fold outs and changing columns and placements on the page while inserting ink block like graphics to intensify the tale. He has elected to print the text in sans serif, all caps format and the reader's eyes must adjust to this at times distracting presentation in order to follow the story.

At times the fragmentation of the story is enhanced by the simultaneous fragmentation of the presentation. But in the end the story is not of sufficient interest to stand alone, and that is when the graphics and design fill the gap in deciding as to whether follow it to the end. The book concept is strong but will have a limited audience. Not Paul Auster's greatest work here! Grady Harp, February 09

Pictorially and artistically this is an interesting book. But there are problems. The text is from The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster. Effectively speaking it is a short story about a couple watching a 41-minute black and white film from the forties in which two people are thrown together in the empty house of mutual friends. The woman, Claire is there to study philosophy, the man, Martin to write a story. The text is set in a gray all caps non-serif font (Futura) so that the words run across the page or at angles down the page like ghostly words from a teletype. The text is broken up in such a way that the reader is not sure at once where the eyes should go next. Sometimes the text is hidden within an artfully folded page so that the reader must open that page instead of reading what appears to be the direct continuation of the text on top of the folded page. Sometimes the text is broken up seemingly for no apparent reason.

I thought the story itself was brilliant in the way Paul Auster was able to use media within media and point of view piled upon point of view to demonstrate levels of human consciousness. The text flows through the intricacies of plot and theme effortlessly as can only come from the skill of a masterful story-teller.

The artwork by Glenn Thomas is tantalizing in that some of the exclusively black and white drawings seem to promise a hint of something recognizable, but then do not entirely fulfill the promise. Occasionally there is a deliberately recognizable image set among the whirling lines and hints and allegations of images so that the viewer's mind is intrigued. Too often however (at least to this intrigued viewer's mind) the images tail off to something unclear. Perhaps my eye is not as well trained as it might be. Some of the images are on translucent paper, and some are like some of the text, folded under a page. Some of the drawings are of an optical, illusionary quality. The overall effect somehow complements a story about a black and white film about a man writing words on paper that he burns, or of a young woman studying philosophy that may or may not apply to her life, so that we have layers of consciousness and layers of experience somehow not fully grasped by the human mind or senses. There is also a light and graceful air to both the story and the artwork with a mildly comic undertone. The topography itself is the message, as Marshall McLuhan might have said.

I say "there are problems," but the problems, like all artistic problems may exist simultaneously in the minds of both artist and the consumer of art or in one or the other. In this case I am sure there will be those who say that this book is a good short story spoiled by a distracting presentation. On the other hand there will be others who find the story itself to be extraneous to the creativity of Glenn Thomas. For myself I think the collaboration of writer and illustrator does achieve its aim, which is to use two art forms side by side and literally on top of one another to exponentially augment an effect, an experience or an understanding.

The Inner Life of Martin Frost (From the Book of Illusions) by Paul Auster & Illustrated by Glenn Thomas This is a strangely beautiful work of art, with each page created as a separate work of art in itself. The type is arranged into different patterns on each page and tells a continuous and fascinating little story, while the bold drawings on each page cause pause for study. They are interesting and beautiful designs that baffled me. It is a book and a story to be perused over and again, a most unusual art piece in and of itself