Customer Reviews

True Tales of American Life

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I picked up this book in London, looking for something to read on a square for a sunny afternoon. It turned out to be one of the most poignant reads of this year. Auster is a brilliant author, but he really shines as editer of this collection. He arranges the book into chapters by subjects like "Objects", "Animals", "War", "Death", and "Love". At first, I was skeptical, as the "Animals" stories were a bit silly. He soon draws you into the styles of everyday Americans, and by the 50th page you're reading some of the most piercing truths that you could ever imagine. Not only are the stories facsinating and unique, but they resonate with the themes of universality. I laughed and cried my way through this book---and by the time it ended, I was rationing myself on only one story per day, because I wanted them to last forever. I read them aloud to my boyfriend in bed, and to my friends on the phone, the way that you would read a story to a child at night. Great read for all ages and walks of life.

. . This book offers brief slices of life, with glimpses between them into the larger "back yards" of everyday experience.
For any screenwriter looking for character insights, background color, or just the you-can't-make-it-up quirkiness of real life, this book is worth devouring. Great short reads make this book rewarding to pick up and put down.
I'd give it five stars, but for two reasons:
1) Every story begins on a new page, often leaving TONS of white space after it ends, often at the top of a page. Closing up would have meant a shorter, handier book and saved oodles of trees.
2) Auster states that these stories offer "some elegant and sophisticated writing ... also much that is crude and awkward." But he has quietly pared away the crude and the awkward, adding canny turns of phrase and making single words dynamic in a way that only a practiced wordsmith can do.

Enlightening and heartfelt read. Couldn't put it down.

this book is a great traveling companion, and thanks also to NPR